“The entire workshop and La Fratta experience was fantastic; your company especially - and the company of our group; the instruction, the touring, the fabulous food, the insight - it was a great and wonderful experience, indeed a privilege. Thank you both for making it so.”
“A stimulating mix of culture, art and the delights of the Tuscan countryside. I felt privileged and lucky to have been able to step out of the usual tourist role.”
Photos (left to righ and downward)
1) Painting above Castelmuzzio (icscis)
2) Husbands shopping for their wives (icscis)
3) Done! in Montepulciano (icscis)
4) Santa Marguerita in Cortona (icscis)
5) Painting at Le Celle (icscis)
6) Leonardo da Vinci, map of the Val-di-Chiana
7) La Benefinita 2009 (icscis)
8) Rafaelo Senersi, Ripe grain, oil on board, c. 1865, Florence, private collection.
9) A small poster for the Cortona art competition
Studio Italia
October 4 -14, 2010 (full)
June 18 - 28, 2011
October 3 - 13, 2011
The Painting Workshop
A real art painting workshop in Italy; ten full days entirely devoted to art in the medium of your choice; oil, watercolor, acrylic, etc. Mornings are dedicated to significant art instruction at the lodge, afternoons to lighter coaching in a village in Tuscany (Cortona, Montepulciano, etc.) or Umbria, and most evenings to serious discussion on various art issues. However, you may work on sketches for the first few days, and then proceed to more accomplished works derived from these esquisses. If for some reason, you just want to wander and explore the territory, please do so. We will spend one day in Florence visiting the Uffizi and some of its most important sites. Lectures for all, instruction for most, and personal conversations for those who wish, are the important foundations of this workshop, our most popular art course.
Meals provided at the lodge are a reflection of Tuscan cuisine: tomato sauce, Chianti wine, sage, garlic, olive oil, are the premises of one of the finest cuisine in the world (> to know more on meals).
The Location
Since 1997, Studio Italia is given near Torrita di Siena in the beautiful Tuscany. We will stay in an old medieval borgo house, with its original terra cotta tiled floors and beamed ceilings, yet with the comfort of modern conveniences. The house has many bedrooms, bathrooms, a living room with a huge fireplace and a kitchen. Meals provided at the lodge are a reflection of the Italian cuisine, one of the finest in the world. Bells will call you early in the morning to paint, or to simply wander among the vines to meditate upon your work. Needless to say, this environment will undoubtedly contribute to the re-evaluation of your pictorial themes and to the renewal of your palette. The view of the hilltop medieval villages such as Pienza (The English Patient), Castelmuzio, or Prolio will undoubtedly leave you mesmerized > see prospectus.
The price
The price of the painting workshop is CAD$ 2,725 or the equivalent in US$ at the time of full payment. The art workshop includes: 10 night accommodation, all breakfasts, 8 lunches, 9 dinners, transportation from and to Arezzo train station , transportation to our painting sites, museum entrance, and tuition. The price of July workshops is proportionally adjusted.
CALL > (800) 611-4789 or e-mail walkthearts@walkthearts.com
Leonardo's map
Here, an old map of showing part of Tuscany by Leonardo da Vinci. The round body of water is Lake Trasimeno still in existence; and the oval lake has been dried up by a clever system of canals designed by Leonardo himself. Our art workshops in Italy are attended at the bottom of this lake, today excellent for organic agriculture.
Rigomagno Art Festival
For the last two years, icscis has been working with the community of the Val di Chiana in establishing the art component of the Rigomagno Art and Jazz June Festival (Il Colle degli Ulivi). Once more, in June, all icscis painters will be showing their works during this week long happening, on top of meeting other Italian artists. Usually, at the last night, icscis and its artists participate in La Benefinita, the final party celebrating the end of the festival, with an open air supper served on the village piazza and followed by a dance
The Macchiaioli
The Macchiaioli were a group of Italian painters who met at first in the Caffè de Michelangiolo on via Larga (today via Cavour) in Florence, and worked in Tuscany during the second half of the nineteenth century > to learn more
Art competitions
We try as much to involve our workshops into the artistic context of the area such as participating in various municipal art competitions... just for the fun of it. Undoubtedly, the participant decides yes or no if she/he wants to partake in this formidable learning experience.
Left, the Cortona's Musica sacra Festival brochure with its one day art competition under the theme of "Colors, shapes, faith in Cortona".
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Nobody sees a flower - really -
it is so small it takes
time - we haven't time - and to see
takes time, like to have a friend
takes time. (Georgia O'Keefe)
updated July 27, 2010