Painting Retreat at Clos Mirabel, French Pyrenees
LEAF PAINTING RETREAT in the beautiful Pyrenees with Úrsula Romero
September 26th - October 3rd 2026
€ 450/student for 25 hours of teaching (or £375) includes paper
Partners & family may join the trip as non-participating guests without the teaching fee.
Medium: Watercolour
Level: All Levels
Language: English
In order to attend this workshop, you must book directly with Clos Mirabel
Set in private parkland, amidst the gentle rolling hills of Jurançon, overlooking vineyards and the entire chain of the Pyrénées Atlantiques, the 18th Century Manor House of Clos Mirabel is a stunning place to learn to paint or to brush up on your pre-exisiting skills. There is something very magical about the changing light in this region which makes it perfect for painting retreats.
All of the tutoring will take place either inside the specially designed Creative Studio or outside in their beautiful gardens and estate. The studio is available for use everyday during your stay, so you can pop in even on our day off. You will be wined and dined in spectacular fashion. All the meals are locally sourced, if not cooked from ingredients grown in the garden and there is a selection of their own delicious wines for tasting. The exquisite dining experience at Clos Mirabel is something not to be missed..
.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0.13%25,w:99.74%25,h:99.74%25/rs=w:370,cg:true,m)
Painting Retreat at Clos Mirabel, France
This is a rare opportunity to learn to paint leaves with Úrsula Romero in a beautiful estate of rolling hills and clean mountaneous air. On this course, you will discover more about painting realistic leaves in watercolours.
Focusing on leaves, this workshop will explore the drama that can be created through thoughtful lighting and clever glazing. You will have the exciting opportunity to learn how to enlarge your paintings and how to build your compositions, all the while surrounded by the spectacular countryside and gardens.
During this course we will learn how to mix those difficult greens and browns so that they look natural. You will learn more about capturing light in watercolour paint – how to make things look really three dimensional and how tackle trickier things, such as the translucency and hairs.
Úrsula will be on hand, teaching one-to-one so you get the most from the experience. She will also be giving live demonstrations for you to watch so you leave feeling full of expert knowledge and will bring her portfolio, so you get to see her original works up close, unframed.
This course is suitable for all levels.
Your Teacher
Úrsula Romero (formally known as Jessica Shepherd or Inky Leaves) is an internationally recognized master flower painter, artist and teacher.
Úrsula trained in botanical taxonomy at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh before committing herself fully to painting so that she would understand the processes of plants more comprehensively. Equipped with this scientific knowledge, Úrsula is now testing new approaches to her artwork to push the capacity for botanical art to bring greater awareness of plants and our interaction with them. In 2014, she was featured on the BBC4 documentary “In Search of Rory McEwen” where she demonstrated how to paint on vellum. She currently has works touring the USA for the Rory McEwen retrospective.
In 2017, Úrsula held her first solo exhibition in London, published her first book titled ‘Leafscape’ and produced the Leafscape soundtrack. She started Inky Leaves Publishing in the same year. In 2018, Úrsula launched a cross-disciplinary botanical art publication called INK Quarterly which ran for three years, and embarked on her next project Blue Flower. She has exhibited internationally and her works have been included in exhibitions at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, The National Botanic Garden, Dublin and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. She has 7 pieces in the Shirley Sherwood Collection.
Now, can be found quietly working on her latest flower painting project whilst restoring a historic property in Andalucía.
Úrsula is a great teacher who is not shy of teaching her 'secret tips' so we can achieve amazing results. So much knowledge is packed during her workshops and she is open to questions at all times." - Claudia
The Atelier is really well equipped, the bedrooms are lovely, the food (cooked with love by Rachel) and the whole welcome was excellent! - L Gough
