Creative Retreat & Painting Holiday
Our Welsh holiday is designed for younger, intrepid participants, who have a sleeping bag and know how to use it and who are happy sharing dormitory accommodation—in exchange for a highly affordable week of serious creativity, companionship, and adventure.
The backbone of the holiday is painting, both from life and from the imagination. Alongside sustained studio time, the week will be shaped by the surrounding landscape and its deep seams of history and myth.
The Location
Llwyn Celyn sits in the Llanthony Valley, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park. It is a place of strikingly quiet, steep-sided hills, and weather that changes the colour and character of the valley from hour to hour.
This is an ancient landscape—myth and history experienced as something present in the stones and trees. We will respond to this directly as we craft images, ideas, and stories.
The Setting
Llwyn Celyn is widely regarded as one of the most remarkable surviving late-medieval houses in Wales. Built in 1420—just a few years after Owain Glyndŵr’s revolt against the Kingdom of England—it offers a rare sense of continuity with the past.
The adjacent bunkhouse and its threshing barn will be our home for the week.
Studio & Working Spaces
As well as the beautiful landscape surrounding the house, we have access to a barn that will function as our studio: a place where we can congregate, work, paint, talk, and experiment.
Expect a mixture of:
- Focused painting time
- Working from observation (interiors, objects, landscape, weather)
- Imaginative work informed by geography, history, and mythology
- Informal group discussion and shared critique
Tuition & Guidance
The holiday will be led by Purdey Williams, a young emerging artist exploring painting and performance.
Purdey will direct participants’ attention to the landscape, geography, and mythology of the valley, and will support each artist in developing work that is both responsive and personal.
Guidance typically includes:
- A supportive, non-competitive working environment.
- Daily prompts and practical exercises
- Demonstrations where useful
- Individual feedback and encouragement
Food
Food will be simple, copious, and nutritious.
As with all Dulwich Art Group holidays, we eat together. Shared meals are a key part of the week: a rhythm of gathering, talking, and restoring energy for work. Aspects of food preparation will be shared.
Accommodation
Sleeping will be communal, bunkhouse-style. This is part of the ethos of the trip: affordable, sociable, and collective. Bring a sleeping bag. Literally.
If you are seeking hotel-style privacy, this is unlikely to be the right holiday. If you enjoy the camaraderie of shared living, and you want to spend your time making and talking about art, you will feel at home.
What’s Included
- Basic materials for shared use (e.g. charcoal, paper, drawing boards)
- Shared bunkhouse accommodation for the duration of the retreat
- All meals: simple, nutritious food prepared and eaten communally
- Daily painting activity, both from life and from the imagination
- Tuition, guidance, and structured prompts from the lead artist
- Use of the threshing barn as a dedicated studio space
- Access to the surrounding landscape for outdoor working and exploration
- All group activities, discussions, and informal critiques
Who This Holiday Is For
This holiday is likely to suit you if you:
- Are comfortable with shared dormitory accommodation
- Want a budget-friendly creative week with strong artistic focus
- Enjoy working intensively and informally as part of a group
- Respond to landscape, weather, history, and myth
Getting There
There are public transport options via trains and buses from Gloucester, Newport, and Bristol. We will provide clear travel guidance and can help coordinate shared lifts where helpful.
Registering Interest
To register your interest or to be notified when tutors and dates are confirmed, please contact:
info@dulwichartgroup.co.uk
We look forward to introducing this exceptional Welsh setting part of the Landmark Trust into our programme of painting holidays.
