Spend seven nights in the French countryside painting alongside Sergiu Ciochină during an intensive oil painting workshop at Château de Puy Vidal. A Paris-based Moldovan painter whose luminous, expressive landscapes have earned him a growing international following, Sergiu is known for his masterful use of color and light, energetic brushwork, and ability to transform observed places into deeply felt paintings. Returning to the château for his third year, he will lead a small group of artists through a highly focused week of plein air and studio painting, exploring his distinctive approach to light, color, composition, alla prima painting, and expressive impasto.
This is an immersive working week designed to push your practice. You’ll paint for 6–8 hours a day, resolve medium-format paintings in a single session, and build toward the challenge of completing a large-scale work over two days. Working throughout the château’s gardens, historic interiors, surrounding landscape, and nearby villages, you’ll learn to respond quickly to changing light and conditions, simplifying what you see, making stronger compositional decisions, and becoming bolder and more instinctive with paint.
Sergiu’s teaching is active, direct, and highly hands-on. Rooted in the tradition of his artistic training, he teaches not only through demonstration and critique, but by working directly on students’ canvases. As you paint, Sergiu may take your brush to demonstrate the next passage, resolve a problem, push a color relationship, or show you how he would move the painting forward before handing it back to you to continue. The goal of the week is not to leave with a collection of paintings created entirely independently, but to learn through doing, observing, experimenting, and seeing firsthand how Sergiu thinks through a painting.
And while the painting is rigorous, the rest of the week is designed to allow you to give yourself completely to it. Château de Puy Vidal is the home of Lady of the Château, a family-run creative sanctuary built around a deeply held belief in the transformative power of art, beauty, and gathering. Here, you are not simply attending a workshop. You are being welcomed into a home and an artistic world. Our family and team work in close harmony with Sergiu to create a week in which the teaching, meals, atmosphere, excursions, and rhythms of château life all feel part of one considered experience.
When the brushes are put down, you are cared for. Gather around the table for beautiful chef-prepared meals, linger over wine and conversation with fellow artists, swim in the château salt water pool, wander the gardens, play games, laugh, rest, and enjoy evenings created to bring the group together. Every detail is thoughtfully hosted so that your energy can go where it matters most: into your painting, your growth, and the relationships forming around you.
It is a week of beautiful contrasts: discipline and pleasure, intensity and restoration, solitude at the easel and connection around the table. For seven days, painting becomes the center of your world, and everything around it is designed to support you there.
€5,250- €5,950
Sergiu
Ciochinâ
Artist's Letter
Sergiu Ciochină is a Paris-based painter whose distinctive use of color, light, and movement has earned him an impressive international following. Born in Moldova in 2001 and a graduate of the College of Arts in Moldova, Sergiu has exhibited in major salons across Europe, with works created throughout France, Italy, Norway, and his native Moldova. Moving between plein air painting and the studio, his practice transforms observed and remembered places into emotionally resonant spaces shaped by light, color, atmosphere, and memory.
At the heart of Sergiu’s work is an exploration of light, not simply as something that falls upon a landscape, but as pictorial matter through which the image itself is constructed. Architecture, gardens, streets, interiors, and natural forms emerge through expressive color and visible, energetic brushwork, often hovering between structure and dissolution.
Rather than simply describing a place, his paintings reinterpret it: observation mingles with memory and imagination, and color becomes a vehicle for atmosphere and emotion. The result is a body of work that feels at once immediate and contemplative- inviting the viewer not merely to look at a landscape, but to inhabit it.
As a teacher, Sergiu brings the same intensity, discipline, and passion to his students that he brings to his own practice. He teaches with a deeply held belief in each student’s artistic potential, approaching them with the seriousness and expectation he would bring to training a professional painter.
Generous, energetic, and deeply invested in their growth, Sergiu distills the rigor of his own classical training, his instinct for color and light, and his infectious enthusiasm for painting into an intensive week of study. His aim is not simply to teach students how to make a successful painting, but to challenge them to see more keenly, work more courageously, and begin developing a stronger artistic language of their own.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
This workshop is for you if…
You’re ready to shake up your painting practice and loosen your visual language - moving beyond careful representation toward bolder, more expressive ways of working with greater freedom, instinct, movement, and confidence.
You want to push yourself to paint bigger, faster, and more decisively. Sergiu will challenge you to resolve medium-format works in a single day and take on a large-format painting in just two days - pushing you beyond overthinking and into a more immediate way of working.
You want to embrace the challenge of large-scale plein air painting. Sergiu is unusual in his ability to work at significant scale directly from life, and will share his approach to composing, simplifying, and making bold decisions as light, weather, and conditions continually shift around you.
You’re open to a highly hands-on approach to teaching. Sergiu frequently teaches by painting directly on his students’ canvases- taking your brush to demonstrate a point, solve a problem, or show you the next step before inviting you to continue. You come to the week valuing the learning process over authorship of each individual painting, and excited by the opportunity to observe his decision-making directly on your own work.
You want to deepen your relationship with light and color, exploring how Sergiu uses alla prima painting, impasto, expressive color relationships, and visible brushwork to construct light rather than simply describe it.
You want to build your painting stamina and discipline, learning to sustain focus for 6–8 painting hours a day, make confident decisions, and carry a painting through with greater energy and conviction.
You want to develop your artistic judgment as much as your technique. Learn how to assess what makes a painting compelling, strengthen your compositions, and create work with greater intention and meaning. Rather than chasing the elusive idea of “finding your style,” Sergiu encourages you to discover your style path - an artistic language that remains alive, responsive, and continually evolving.
You want to immerse yourself in a week of serious artistic growth: whether you have an established practice, are considering the path toward becoming a professional painter, or simply want to push your work further, surrounded by other committed artists painting intensively, exchanging ideas, talking about art, and challenging one another.
7-Nights
All Inclusive
Intermediate
to Advanced Painters
Intimate
Class Size
Tentative Workshop Schedule
A preliminary schedule for the week
Art supplies included
Apply now
Our workshops and retreats are thoughtfully curated to bring together like-minded creatives in a supportive, inspiring environment. Due to high demand and to ensure a balanced group dynamic, we invite you to apply below. This helps us personalize your experience and create a space where everyone can thrive.You’ll hear back within 48 hours. If accepted, you’ll receive a booking invitation—your spot is only confirmed once booked. To keep this retreat accessible, we offer flexible payment plans split into three installments, with custom options available upon request. Questions or booking issues? Email us anytime at: retreats@ladyofthechateau.com
Echoes of the Experience
FAQ
Booking & Payment
Booking & payment for any of our retreats & workshops is structured across three payments, beginning with a 35% deposit to reserve your place - followed by two additional payments, spaced evenly and completed one month prior to arrival.
All our retreats begin with a brief application, designed to ensure the experience is a good fit for both you and the group.
Submitting an application comes with no pressure or obligation to book—it’s simply a first step in entering our world at the Lady of the Chateau.
If you have any questions, or would like to explore the possibility of a custom payment plan, please contact us at retreats@ladyofthechateau.com.We'd be delighted to welcome you to the Chateau.
Can I bring a non-painting partner?
Non-Painting Partners are most welcome to our workshops- we find they round out the groups and add a wonderful energy during the evenings after a long day of painting. There is plenty for them to do on the grounds - enjoying the pool, relaxing in the gardens, reading, going on countryside bikes or walks. We have Wifi, so working remotely at the Chateau is possible. If you'd like to bring a Non-Painting Partner to share your room with you they are welcome to join you in any of our double occupancy rooms. If they'd like to explore the region during the week, a car rental is recommended.
Non-Painting Partner rate: 2,500 €
What supplies do I need to bring?
Bring your Brushes.
We provide the majority of the supplies, including painting tubes to share amongst your fellow Artists - Pochade & French Easels, Palettes, Solvents, Aprons, Shareable Oil Paint Tubes are all available for your to use in our Puy Vidal Art Studio.
Once you've booked your retreat we will send you your specific instructors Art Supplies.
How do I get there?
We offer complimentary pick-up and drop-off from our local train station of Angouleme just 18 minutes from the Chateau . If you’re driving, detailed directions will be provided upon booking. We’re easily accessible from major French cities, making your journey as smooth as possible.
Is there a pool?
Yes! Our outdoor pool is heated, perfect for a refreshing dip in summer and a comfortable swim in spring and fall.
Our large hot tub makes a perfect place to unwind alone or with some new friends after a day of creativity.
What If I Have Dietary Needs or Allergies?
Meals at the château are a cherished part of your experience — lovingly prepared four-course feasts that reflect the heart and soul of French cuisine. Our chefs create each menu with care, using locally sourced ingredients and seasonal flavors to bring you something truly special.
We’re happy to accommodate certain dietary needs, including vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free preferences. However, due to the nature of our kitchen, our chef’s traditional approach, and the foundations of French culinary style, we’re unfortunately not able to accommodate vegan diets, highly specialized dietary restrictions, or severe, life-threatening allergies.
If you have any dietary concerns at all, we kindly ask that you reach out before booking: retreats@ladyofthechateau.com.
Additionally, if you live with severe environmental allergies (such as to insects, dust, or humidity), please let us know in advance. For your safety and peace of mind, we reserve the right to decline bookings if we determine that we cannot safely meet your needs.
