Painting Alpine Landscapes in Austria

Plein Air Painting with Leslie Jorgensen - September 2024

Painting Alpine Landscapes in Schruns, Austria - September 16 - 23, 2024

Join us on a trip to beautiful Schruns, Austria, and be moved by the beauty of the Montafon Valley as Travel Fever Tours partners with Leslie Jorgensen, a renowned landscape artist from Salida, Colorado. Leslie’s skill and style will inspire you to explore color theory, composition, and new techniques as you paint in the Austrian alps.

Schruns, our home base for this plein air workshop, is an historic and peaceful town that sits in a dramatic valley with step sides and breathtaking views. We will stay in the valley, giving you easy access to painting sites at the base of the mountains and access to the cable cars that will bring us to painting sites high in the mountains. We will spend each morning painting and spend the afternoons exploring the area with optional hikes and visits to surrounding villages. Plus there will be free time in the afternoon when you can choose between painting, exploring, or perhaps a siesta.

Leslie will lead daily painting demonstrations and will assist students individually. Artists of all skill levels are welcome. We will only be using acrylics & oils during this workshop.

While in Schruns, we will stay at the Hotel Auhof and eat like kings on creative four-course menus.

Other activities:
Non-painting partners and others are welcome to join our adventure to enjoy the cultural activities and additional excursions we have planned.

Inquire About This Trip

Join us on December 5 for an online Zoom presentation by Leslie Jorgensen. This is your chance to meet the instructor for this workshop. Sign Up Now to receive the Zoom link for this presentation.

The Workshop

Come with us to explore the Alps and create artwork that renders and translates the delightful sights, sounds, and tastes of our travels.

EN PLEIN AIR
After breakfast each morning, we will head out to that day’s location to observe, record, and immerse ourselves in the area. We’ll choose locations that offer diverse landscapes that embody the alpine aesthetic. Leslie will start the day with a demonstration, showcasing her unique viewpoint. During the work session, Leslie will circulate to offer individual support and guidance to each artist. As well, we’ll have group critiques aimed at problem solving and appreciation. You will be responsible for bringing the materials you need for this work.

Students in the workshop can work in any medium. Demos will be done mostly in acrylic

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE
Leslie’s goal is to help us look from a new or renewed perspective and push us to use color in unusual ways. Her work is focused on using the natural beauty of mountain landscapes and shifting the traditional to create unexpected pieces. Leslie thrives on being a part of the landscape, and the joy she gets from painting en plein air is contagious.

Join us! All levels of art experience are very welcome!

Dates: September 16 - 23, 2024 in Schruns, Austria
Cost: $3450 (see below for details)
Maximum group size: 12

More:

Learn more about your instructor, Leslie Jorgensen

Leslie grew up in Florida and when she moved to Colorado she fell in love with the mountains. She quickly came to love hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, and took every opportunity to explore new mountain adventures on the road less travelled.

Working as an abstract painter, Leslie found her new passion for nature and mountain landscapes. The mountains, the wind, and the cold became forces that demanded to be expressed through her work.

“I love what the wild places have done to me and to my art,” says Leslie. “I merged my abstract techniques with a lively, gestural painting of my experiences in the mountains. I wanted to take the kind of risks with my subject matter that I do on the slopes.”

View more information about Leslie and see her work on her website at www.lesliejorgensen.com.

Leslie was selected to create four paintings for a new corporate conference center in Denver, CO. The paintings represent the four seasons in colorado as seen through the lens of mountain adventures.

Where we’re based: Schruns

We will be based in the town of Schruns, the principal town in Austria’s Montafon Valley. Schruns, located to the very west in Austria, is a charming small town that attracts visitors throughout the year.

In winter, skiers use the Montafon Valley’s extensive bus and cable car system for easy access to the ski slopes. In the spring, summer and fall, this same public transportation network gives hikers - and in our case, painters - easy access to the mountains.

The area’s cable cars will bring you and your painting equipment easily and quickly up into the alps so that you can paint the best mountain scenes.

The valley itself is easily reached by train from the airport in Zurich. Our trips to the Montafon Valley are among our most environmentally friendly trips as we rely almost exclusively on public transportation.

Where we’ll stay: The Hotel Auhof

The standards for hospitality are quite high in Austria as you’ll find at our three-star hotel in Schruns. You’ll enjoy comfortable rooms in this family-fun hotel. The rooms have private bathrooms, naturally, and the beds are quite comfortable. Spa facilities at the hotel include sauna, steam room and Kneipp pool.

Beyond the rooms, Austrian hotels are also known for their cuisine. We will be well fed at the Hotel Auhof, starting each day with a large breakfast buffet. And for dinner we will feast on a four-course dinner each night. Vegetarians are easily accommodated.

Visit the Hotel Auhof Website

Trip Details

(Click + to expand)

September 16 - 23, 2024 (7 nights - 8 days)
Total cost of the tour: $3450

Supplement for single occupancy: $525

Deposit required to reserve a place on the tour: $350

(Places in the tour are limited to 12 and are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. We recommend that you reserve your place early!)
Payment schedule
$350 deposit. The deposit is refundable through May 1, 2024.
$1550 initial payment (Due May 1, 2024)
$1550 final payment (Due July 15, 2024)
All payments are refundable if we need to cancel the trip due to government restrictions or unsafe travel conditions.
** Earn a $300 discount when you bring or refer a friend.
- Excursions and special activities throughout the week
- Pickup and drop-off at designated airport
- 7 nights lodging
- 7 gourmet dinners and a breakfast buffet. Appropriate amounts of beer or local wine are included with dinner.
What’s not included:
- Airfare & Travel Insurance
- Lunches
- Misc. entry fees
- Painting supplies
We will stay at the Hotel Auhof, a small and charming hotel that combines traditional Austrian hospitality with modern amenities.
The Hotel Auhof’s website is at: https://www.hotel-auhof.at
A large breakfast buffet will be available at the hotel each morning. Lunch will be in the mountains, often a meal at a mountain hut.
Four-course dinners will be back at the hotel each evening.
To extend your trip, and take some time to catch up on your sleep before the tour begins, you may wish to arrive early.
You can create your own itinerary, of course, before and after the workshop. You can fly into Zurich or visit elsewhere in Europe and fly home from there.
Your deposit is non-refundable after May 1, 2024, unless of course the trip is canceled for any reason by Travel Fever Tours. Natural disasters, political instability or low enrollment would form the basis for canceling a trip. After that date, payments you make are nonrefundable.

You will be contacted once the trip reaches minimum enrollment so that you can proceed with purchase of your flights and make other travel arrangements. In all cases, review of enrollment numbers will not take place any later than the date of the First Installment payment.

**Note on Mobility: This is not a hiking trip, but we will still need to move around a reasonable amount as we walk to the bus station and cable car stations, together with our painting equipment. And once up in the mountains, you’ll want to have some flexibility in where you decide to paint. So be prepared to walk. If you are not able to walk reasonable distances, then this trip may not be a good choice for you.