Drawing Workshop Retreats

Do you love to draw and paint? Have you ever wanted to spend a day making drawings of plants, trees, leaves, flowers, seed pods and other wonderful parts of the environment? Then these workshops are for you! Each time we will spend a day in my studio making drawings from life and exploring drawing techniques to capture the likeness of them including observational, gestural and blind-drawing, using line, tone, shape, negative space, as well as expressive gestural mark-making. It is a time to be adventurous with your drawing and to enjoy learning new things.

I will provide the materials that will make drawing so enjoyable - a range of hot-pressed, cold-pressed and weighted card, as well as some of my favourite materials and pigments. Along the way I’ll share some of the things I’ve found most helpful and enjoyable when drawing things from the natural world and will demonstrate a few of these.

By the end of the workshop you will have become knee-deep in drawings, conversations, and drawing encounters, and have experimented with a range of materials and techniques. You’ll leave with at least one gorgeous-frameable developed drawing to remember your time here by.

Each workshop is limited to 4 people and I hope to create a retreat-style environment with lovely surroundings, good bites to eat, and a generous place to draw and connect with others. I hope that you will find it to be a fun and meaningful time. These workshops are aimed to cater to adults [I hope to offer workshops for children sometime soon!]

2025 Workshops

Saturday 26th April, 10am-3pm

Saturday 31st May, 10am-3pm

Saturday 28th May, 10am-3pm

Saturday 28th June, 10am-3pm

Saturday 26th July, 10am-3pm

2026 Workshops

Saturday 28th February, 10am-3pm

Saturday 28th March, 10am-3pm

Saturday 25th April, 10am-3pm

Cost: $310 per person [Includes all materials and a light lunch]

Location: Amanda Watson’s studio in Raglan

Please email using the contact form to register your interest

*If there is not a full class then it’s possible that the workshops may be postponed

Previous workshops

Saturday 25th January 2025, 10am-4pm [beginner] - FULL

Saturday 22nd February 2025, 10am-4pm [advanced] - FULL