Chateau d'Orquevaux Art Residency Review and Daily Audio Diary

 

In November of 2023 I spent a month at the Chateau d’Orquevaux artists and writers residency.

I had applied the year before in hope that the second time was the charm and that I’d get the chance to visit the worlds most beautiful artist residency. Getting in was the biggest delight and saving up the money for it was my driving force for the 18 months leading up to it. Now that I’m home and recovered from the jetlag, I wanted to share with you my personal audio diary I kept while at the Chateau.

This diary is from a few days before leaving, every day at the residency, and a few days after getting back home. I go into detail about what I experienced each day, talk about things I was learning, share tips for people wanting to come to the residency, and more.

Below I’ll summarize some things from my experience, but for the full review, listen to the episode!

Tips for artists going to Chateau d’Orquevaux:

Art supply tips:

  • Don’t depend on the local art store for anything, they have very limited supply and the quality isn’t always artist grade.

  • Bring paint brush cleaner!

  • Send art supplies ahead: Don’t depend on the local art stores or the art supply cave to have what you need. You can buy canvas from Beulah that’s unstretched, but that’s the only thing that there is plenty of. Order things and have them sent to the Chateau early, giving at least 3 weeks shipping times.

  • Shipping things home will be expensive. Either plan to have things in your suitcase or be prepared to spend $$$ on shipping things back.

  • Bring headphones: The walls are thin and hearing other peoples music is annoying. Bring and use your headphones.

General Packing tips:

  • Bring an activity to share. I brought tarot cards and friendship bracelet making materials and it encouraged relationship building. Quickened the process of getting to know people by A LOT.

  • Bring a thermos to keep your caffeine hot. If your residency is in the fall/winter, your drinks will get cold fast.

  • Bring your own tea! Or buy some in Paris before the residency. Especially if you like black teas. Also, tiny towns in France don’t believe in good Chai apparently, it’s very sad. Again, bring your own tea.

  • Bring house shoes. You wont want to wear your street shoes all day every day. I brought two pairs of shoes, one for mud and one for the house.

    • The stairs in the Chateau are slippery, be careful going around in your socks. (I fell down the stairs once, as did two other people in my cohort)

  • Bring something fancy to wear. There will be at least one dinner event during the residency: a holiday, birthday, just because event.

  • Pack your own body soap. Or buy some in Paris before, they don’t have any at the Chateau.

  • POWER ADAPTERES SAVE LIVES: I brought one for my bedroom and one for the studio and it was the best idea.

  • If you want to send postcards, you can buy international stamps from Beulah. They don’t currently sell postcards but they might in the future, get those in Paris.

Chateau tips:

  • Sit somewhere new every time you have a meal. Literally in a different seat. This will keep you meeting new people and deepening relationships.

  • Food: The food will be delicious BUT NOT VEGAN. It’s basically impossible to be vegan. Vegetarian options are there. Dairy free food is far and few between.

  • You can’t really cook for yourself at the Chateau in it’s current state. There are places for you to store snacks and an artists fridge, but the kitchen is packed with staff during meal times and you best stay out. In the future there might be better opportunities for this. If you aren’t staying in the Chateau proper, you might have a kitchen in your apartment.

  • Don’t expand the circle. If there isn’t space in a small group for you to sit, start a new area. Big groups of people have less quality conversations- it’s nearly inevitable for there to be one or two dominate speakers and quiet people will get silenced. My rule of thumb: If there are less than two seats left at a table or in a circle at the salon, start a new area. You’ll have better conversations and no one will feel left out.

  • Download the Trainline app, be prepared for train changes. My cohort had many train mishaps, but we got there in the end.

  • There are NO SHOPS at all in the little town the Chateau is in. You’ll have an opportunity to go shopping for snacks and such once every 2 weeks of the residency at a nearby town. That said, bring ANYTHING you might need as there are no guarantees.

  • The Chateau is being renovated consistently. Nothing is ‘finished’ and it probably wont be for many years to come. Be prepared to hear construction sounds off and on throughout your stay.

  • Go to the workshops: Even if they aren’t in your field, you’ll learn something about creativity that you didn’t have before.

  • Be critical during progress studio: This half way point during the residency is extremally helpful, but only if everyone sets out to help each other. Don’t just leave nice notes, leave constructive criticism with actionable steps.

Mindsets:

  • Meet with people before the residency starts: Follow everyone on instagram, sign up for their mailing lists, and if you happen to be in Paris before the residency starts- get a dinner organized. This will help with a sense of comraderie.

  • Go for the longest length of time you can: Sometimes a 2 week residency is the only option, but I found that my cohort were just starting to become friends around that time. If I could have gone for 2 months, I would have.

  • Keep your studio door open. People will come in and out of your studio and socialize with you, this way you’ll never be lonely.

  • Take planned breaks: Have a day off from creating every week, and time each day where you plan to something other than making art. Taking a walk, journaling, playing games, resting. Meals don’t count.

  • Have a purpose for your visit. Are you there to work on a specific project? To network? To recover your creativity? Choosing something will make your time at the residency better.

  • Make a schedule. This was mine:

    • 7am wake up, dress, write in journal

    • 9am breakfast - or fasting

    • 9:30-12 paint

    • 12-1pm lunch

    • 1-2pm daily walk

    • 2pm- write

    • 4-7pm paint

    • 7pm dinner

    • 8pm socialize

    • 10pm bed!

  • Leave your family and friends at home: It’s easy to be missing your family and friends back home, but preparing them for distance ahead of time is crucial. Let them know you won’t be checking in every day, that the distance is good for your creativity. That you will be excited to tell them all about it when you get back. Placing a boundary like this will keep you in the moment at your residency.

  • Frontload your art business work: Use a scheduler and automate your IG posts and emails before your trip. Close down your shop, tell people you are away. Doing any admin work that needs to be done while you are gone before the trip will remove stress while you were away.

    • I spent the two months before my residency making podcast episodes and extra content creating so I wouldn’t have to do much during my month away. It made my time at the residency super relaxing.

  • Time moves quickly, keep a journal: Time at the residency moves slow and all at once. I found that keeping a journal (audio or written) helped me cement what was happening every day in detail, to do a lot of reflection, and keep my thoughts moving forward.

Host and artist Stephanie Scott breaks down the practicality of the art career with topics including: sustainable creative practices, social media skills, and the mindsets that keep it all together. New episodes every Tuesday!

Need some art supplies? Check out Blick!

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Music by @winepot https://www.instagram.com/thewinepot/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@stephaniescottart

Podcast Cover photo by Maryna Blumqvist https://instagram.com/picturemaryna

 
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