About
We exist for the artist who has drifted away from their practice and is is ready to come back.
The painting that gets moved to weekends. The weekends that fill up. The years that pass without a single week given wholly to the thing you love most.
No single moment of abandonment - just a gradual, quiet drift away from the part of yourself that needs time, light, and space to exist.
That drift is why Chateau Charente exists.
The Chateau
Built in the 19th century from Charentaise limestone, the chateau carries the quiet marks of its landscape. Shell-shaped imprints in the stone speak to an ancient seabed, long before this became wine country.
Emma and Rob have been restoring it for years, slowly and with care. Three floors and a cellar are joined by a spiral staircase in a tower.
Seven spacious bedrooms. Parquet oak floors, soaring ceilings, stone fireplaces, and tall windows that pull the garden inside.
It is not a hotel adapted for painting. It is a house that has been considered, carefully, for what painters need.
So positive. Calming. Comfortable. Magnifique! All week I smiled with joy! Merci Beaucoup.
This experience at the art retreat has changed me in more ways than I expected. I thank you for your hospitality, style and selection of experiences throughout the day.
A GUEST FROM THE UNITED STATES, 2026
WHAT OUR GUESTS ARE SAYING
The Teaching Changed How I See the Canvas.
The demonstrations unlocked something I had been missing in my own painting. I came away with a clearer understanding of composition, focal points and the discipline of simplifying what is in front of you. What she shared this week will stay with me long after I return to my studio.
A GUEST FROM HONG KONG, 2026
WHAT OUR GUESTS ARE SAYING
The Charente
The Charente sits between Bordeaux and the Loire - old cognac country. It has not been arranged for visitors, which is precisely why it is worth painting.
The light here is quieter in the south. The architecture is Romanesque, the market towns are still working rather than curated, and the countryside has a scale that does not overwhelm the painter's eye.
During each retreat, we discover the region - a visit to a market town, we treasure hunt in a brocante, one that the locals frequent.
This is not tourism, it is the "real France" that few travellers ever encounter.
The Rooms
Each room has its own character, outlook, and atmosphere - original fireplaces, wooden floors, soaring ceilings and oversized windows that frame the parklands, the koi pond, or the medieval steeple of the 11th-century Église Saint-Matias on the horizon.
The beds, linen, and bedding have been sourced from Parisian brands and chosen with the same care as everything else in the house.
Rooms are offered at three levels: deluxe suites with ensuites and sitting areas, suites with ensuites, and rooms with shared bathrooms, as they always have been in houses built this way.
All of them feel like the rest of the house: considered, unhurried, and entirely without the anonymity of a hotel.
View the Rooms
The Studio
The studio at Chateau Charente is configured for each retreat and the medium it centres on. It is not a room adapted for painting. It was built for it.
Every material has been chosen to match the standards of the artist leading the retreat, sourced from some of the world's most respected art supply brands. Nothing has been left to chance.
The space is yours for the week. Work in it during sessions and return to it in the quiet of the evening if you choose. There is no pressure and no rush. Just the work and the time to do it properly.
You arrive and you paint.
The Garden
Four acres of grounds that have been growing for centuries - ancient oaks, maples, fruit trees, and nut trees standing like sentinels around soft lawns that invite you to do nothing in particular.
Light filters through the canopy in the way that only old trees allow, and there are beautiful places to sit in the dappled shade at every turn.
A saltwater pool sits on a travertine terrace for those who want it. The kitchen garden is laid out in the formal parterre style - vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers grown for the table.
It is the kind of garden that takes a long time to make and longer still to understand. For one week, it is entirely yours.
Before Chateau Charente, Emma spent years in the entertainment industry, developing strategies to connect people with what they love. Across music, theatre, and the arts, she learned what separates a good event from one that you return to, again and again, in your mind.
Rob came to it from the same world, having worked as an artist, producer, and promoter. He has always created and always understood what it means to help someone else do the same. He came to painting later, here, when they began restoring this house and its four acres of ancient grounds.
Together, they spent years attending retreats around the world, working out what made the great ones great and how to make a great one better.
Chateau Charente was built to be the retreat they had been looking for.
Emma & Rob Milton
Your Hosts
“This is a passionate team that clearly cares about the guest experience. Everything is just right and they created the space we needed to rest and recharge.”
— A GUEST FROM HONG KONG, 2026
