Enjoy a weekend with your instructor, Chris Toy, the author of 6 popular cookbooks, a private chef, and has taught Asian-fusion cooking for several Maine community education programs. Learn how to prepare a variety of recipes from Asia, Europe, and the Americas incorporating traditional and local ingredients. Each meal will actively engage cooks with the tools, techniques, and stories behind the dishes being created. 

Escape to a Grand Victorian Inn, the Harbor View House in Prospect Harbor on the coast of Maine, with an intimate group of artist, cooks and creatives! All meals are included in the workshop fee plus special activities to extend your learning from the day’s workshops, including a private house concert by Grammy balloted sing-songwriter, storyteller, and author Gordon Ward. Day students are welcome. For more information about the workshop, call Mary at 207-632-2251. To book your stay at the inn call 207-963-9122 or visit https://harborviewhousellc.com/.  This is an in-person retreat.

Painting Flower Portraits in Watercolor

Paint flower portraits realistically. You will paint pictures of flowers in detail, but more painterly than a scientific illustration. We won’t count veins, but we will count petals! Painting flowers is a wonderful exercise in observation.

Learn brush stroke and value

White on white flowers

Leaves, long and short

Iris, narcissus, orchids, tulips, and other spring flowers.

 Materials list;

We will paint on smooth paper; Strathmore Series 500, one hundred percent cotton paper, either plate or vellum. This paper can be bought at Artist and Craftsman in Portland in large sheets, which we will cut up.

Bring a #2 round brush and a #6 round brush, pencil, palette, tube watercolors in the 3 primary colors and perhaps a green. Paper towels and water container. And bring a plant or flower specimen with no more than 9 petals. This is a slow and careful process and 9 petals and some leaves is enough happiness for us all.

Escape to a Grand Victorian Inn, the Harbor View House in Prospect Harbor on the coast of Maine, with an intimate group of artist, cooks and creatives! All meals are included in the workshop fee plus special activities to extend your learning from the day’s workshops, including a private house concert by Grammy balloted singer-songwriter, storyteller, and author Gordon Ward. Day students are welcome.

For more information about the workshop, call Mary at 207-632-2251. To book your stay at the inn call 207-963-9122 or visit https://harborviewhousellc.com/.  

Journey through spectacular mountain scenery and picturesque cities as you experience three Alpine countries. Spend four nights each in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Bern and the charming Alpine city of Innsbruck. Get a taste of Switzerland when you meet a local alphorn maker & yodelers and enjoy a fondue lunch. Explore Lucerne, the "Swiss Paradise on the Lake." Visit Mozart's birthplace and the Mirabell Gardens, featured in The Sound of Music, during your time in Salzburg. The hills are alive on this enchanting journey across Switzerland, Austria and Bavaria.

Note: A deposit of $698 per person is due upon reservation. Reservations are made on a first come, first served basis. Reservations made after the seat reduction date of October 16, 2025 are based upon availability.

Final payment due by January 15, 2026.

Deposits are refundable up until October 16, 2025.

Included in Price: Round Trip Air from Logan Intl Airport, Air Taxes and Fees/Surcharges, Hotel Transfers.

Not included in price: Cancellation Waiver and Insurance of $549 per person.

For bookings made after October 16, 2025 call Shelli Voigt, Off on Vacation Travel, 207-751-0208, shelli@offonvacationtravel.com

IMPORTANT CONDITIONS: Your price is guaranteed once deposit is received and booking confirmed by Collette. Your price is not subject to increase after the deposit is received and booking confirmed, except for charges resulting from increases in government-imposed taxes or fees.(See Collette's registration form for consent.)

For more information on extensions and options for this tour visit https://gateway.gocollette.com/link/1324933

Collette Guided Travel treats you like their guest, and this is evident in their itinerary! Because it matters to you, every minute matters to them as well. This can be as a result of the fact that they are a family-run firm with a 100-year history. The advantages of using Collette will elevate your guided trip experience. With our all-inclusive excursions, you get more for your money and experience more of what makes travel unique.