Sketching Workshops
We offer a variety of sketching courses in Ireland and elsewhere, using pens and watercolour. Please see below for details of the latest courses for adults and children. We also host sketching workshops in beautiful destinations in Europe, including accommodation, entertainment and fine dining.
Click on a course below for full details and itinerary.
Vignettes of the Pyrenees - July 2026
Vignettes of the Pyrenees
Urban Sketching in Ink and Watercolour
Atelier Clos Mirabel, Pau, France
25/07/26 – 01/08/26
Join me in France this summer for a week that really will be unforgettable. From 25th July to 1st August 2026, I will teach a one-week course in ink and watercolour sketching in a French manor house near the city of Pau in the far south of the country, about an hour from the border with Spain.
Atelier Clos Mirabel is an elegant property overlooking the misty mountains of the Pyrenees, the sight of which takes your breath away afresh every morning. A classic 19th-century French country house, Clos Mirabel is set in magnificent grounds with its own potager that provides fresh produce for the home-cooked meals every day. If the day gets a little warm, there is a pool for you to cool off, or you can take a wander amongst the giant horse chestnut, oak and sweet gum trees that line the avenue, or take your book to a bench in their shade.
Every evening you’ll enjoy an aperitif on the terrace with your fellow students, followed by an evening meal prepared by the gifted in-house chefs. Fresh baking in the morning, salads of colour and richness and the best of French home cooking are more than enough reason on their own for a stay in this tranquil French oasis.
You can choose your accommodation from a room in the main house, in which you’ll think you’re in a French romance novel, or one of the self-contained and beautifully appointed apartments in the Winery, a converted ancillary building next to the main house. It’s up to you, but do bear in
mind that if you want to get your choice of room, you will need to be fast.
But you’re there to learn: what will I offer you as your sketching teacher?
There will be five days of tuition, with one day off for you to explore the region. Each morning we will get together in the large classroom and work until lunchtime. That’s followed by an afternoon session. The classroom is open to the students from first thing in the morning to last thing at
night. In my course, which emphasises sketching on location, we will be taken on trips to the surrounding villages, to find pretty or quirky details of French architecture: we’ll meet the friendly locals and enjoy some café life. We will sketch in the markets of Pau and Jurançon – you won’t believe how the vendors love to be sketched! It’s a real taste of a hidden France, and
if you’re like me, you’ll feel a sense of privilege for your intimate experience of it.
Everything is taken care of. You don’t need to drive, cook, clean or do anything at all for a full week, from the Saturday you arrive to the Saturday you depart, apart from concentrating on your own artistic development. (You may arrive on an earlier or later date according to your travel plans, as the management is flexible.)
My style of teaching is extremely accessible. I break everything down to its simplest steps. Never opened a box of watercolour before? I’ll talk you through the colours, and how to use them. Struggle with perspective? I make it easy and fun. Nervous of sketching people? You’ll be addicted by the end of a week with me. But above all, you will go away with a beautiful little
resource in your back pocket: the ability to sketch wherever you are, and never be bored again. You will be an inductee to the amazing, creative world of urban sketching.
I even supply everything you need for the week in terms of art materials. Everything. Paints, sketchbook, brushes, pens, ink and everything else. You can even buy your very own sketchPocket and I will bring it with me, or send it to you in advance, as you prefer.
Cost: My tuition fee is €500 for the week, and the rate you pay Atelier Clos Mirabel will depend on the accommodation option you choose. Prices start at €1,895 per person.
Last year was my first time in Atelier Clos Mirabel, but when I was asked to put on a course in July 2026 I leapt at the chance. I lost count of the number of students who told me the week had exceeded their expectations. I hope you can join us this year…I would love to meet you and share a special week together.
Hi Roisin!
Are you running a children’s comics summer camp this year?
Hi Aoife, not this year, or not so far. Make sure to follow me on all the socials and you’ll hear if there is a camp!
Hello Roisin,
I run a small art school just north of Boston and I am a regular participant in USKBoston. I also organize free weekly sketching trips near my studio. I am planning to offer a guided sketching trip to Ennis and Galway for my students in June 2022. I would love to include you as a local guide and sketching instructor for at least one of the days of our trip.
I plan to visit western Ireland to scout sketching locations and area attractions from Sat. Oct 23rd – Fri. Oct 29th this fall. Would you be willing to meet with me during that trip to discuss the possibility of collaborating on the longer trip in June? Please take a look at my website: http://www.slowriverstudio.com and I look forward to hearing form you.
Many thanks, Jess Yurwitz
PS. Your Sketching Galway book arrived by post yesterday and I love it!
Hi Jess, I can’t remember whether I replied to your message. You can email me at sketchwithroisin@gmail.com and I hope your trip went well.
Hi Roisin I’ve just discovered you and have become a big fan. I was wondering would you be planning any workshops in Ireland for 2022?
All the best
Paula
Hi Paula, nice to meet you! There will be workshops in ireland and Europe throughout 2022. The next available workshop is Dublin, 24th-27th March 2022. After that there are going to be a few options, in Spain and France, and possibly elsewhere. Best wishes, Róisín
Hi Roisin
Where is an actual list of your workshops as the top of the page shows NO EVENTS. And I know you said you had a Galway one in August. Am I looking on the wrong page or is it in your Facebook or Instagram?
Also I’m not just looking for Ireland if you have any other locations set at the moment that would be great to see as well.
Thanks
Hi Paula, I don’t have any workshops listed on my website as you have discovered! There is one in France in June but I am not organising it. The others are in Galway in August. Send me an email to the usual email address we use for class for further info.
Hi Roisin:
I’ve been talking to you on Instagram about your August workshop in Galway. I really want to come I’m just trying to justify the three days since I am coming from the U.S. I was wondering do you know any other sketchers in Dublin or maybe the U.K. as I’ll probably go visit family while I there that might be doing workshops around the same time and maybe I can do both. If not maybe I’ll look into some short tours to do after if I decide I would be coming.
Thanks, see you Saturday in your Zoom workshop.
Take care
Paula
Hi Paula, can you send me a mail using the usual email address? I am mobbed by spam on this website and can’t seem to stop it coming in! So I miss a lot of comments in the melee. Thanks!
Hi,
Where can I find details about your August workshop in Galway ? I ‘d love to do it but need some details and can’t find anything about it as I am a
Computer Neanderthal could you send me a link I can click on
Many thanls Maeve
Hi Maeve, so sorry – didn’t see this one! There are two workshops in Galway this August – second is sold out but there are still two and possibly three places left in the earlier one, 19th-21st August inclusive, with a meet-n-greet on 18th. Let me know if that works for you. Very small group, not my usual number. You should always use the sketchwithroisin@gmail.com address for all contact!
Hi Amanda, I still have a couple of spots open in my earlier workshop in Galway in August, 19th-21st August, with a meet-and-greet on 18th. Let me know if you like the sound of that. There’s also one in Dublin later on in September. Contact me via email – sketchwithroisin@gmail.com and we’ll take it from there.