Painting Holidays in the Dolomites

Here at Collett’s, our walking holidays in the Dolomites offer a variety of mountain activities for our guests to get stuck into. Day to day our team organise days out in the mountains. The main attraction is walking, but we also offer flower and war history excursions, road cycling and even watercolour painting days. The Dolomites is a perfect setting for all of these activities, not to mention many self-guided activities such as Via Ferrata, high ropes courses, horse riding and even glacier treks with the local mountain guides.

The painting days hold a special place in my heart after taking on the role of the resort artist last summer. Guests of all abilities are invited to join a relaxed day in the outdoors, surrounded by stunning vistas and no shortage of inspiration. Short walk-ins to the locations and usually close proximity to a coffee shop or rifugio make for a relaxed yet productive day whether you’re a keen painter or just looking to rest those legs after a few days of walking.

The Artists Three!

This year we have a new resort artist, Keith. He will be offering painting days five days a week and free of charge, along with informal tuition for anyone who comes along.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting the painters this season. I’m interested in how they’ll respond to the environment and their ideas that follow,” Keith told me.

As part of the role he will visit many locations all over the Dolomites, so today we took the opportunity to get the paints out and check some of them out.

Joined by another of our previous resort artists, Chris, we artists three set off to explore our favourite painting haunts. With perfect weather in the valley the bright yellow meadows and towering steely cliffs seemed to be showing their best for us. We drove through the Alta Badia visiting Armentarola and Capanna Alpina at the base of the Hidden Valley (A popular ski run in winter). Then we climbed up to the head of the Valparola Pass and settled at the Rifugio Valparola for a coffee and some painting. From here one can find impressive views to the north (towards the Austrian border) and south (for views of Col de Lana and Lagazuoi). We settled with painting the lake and receding mountains as background. As is always the way on any painting day we each had a different way of approaching the composition and enjoyed discussing our different techniques. After a time we all had a finished piece. Three completely different paintings of the same view.

As the wind picked up a little from the south we packed away and jumped back in the van. We dropped in on a few more spots on our way back to Badia, arriving at Haus Valentin happy with the day.

It may have been the biggest collection of resort artists painting in one place at the same time! I certainly enjoyed the three of us being able to paint together and share ideas.
Now the torch can be passed to Keith this summer and we are sure Keith will be a welcome and inspiring addition to our walking holidays in Europe’s most dramatic peaks!

See Painting & Walking Holidays in the Dolomites for more information.

Collett’s blogs are written by our resort diarist, photographer and walker, Beth Lloyd. If you are out on a walk with her you are sure to be included in her photographs in one of her weekly blogs.