Our painting workshops; a time for reevaluation in Europe?

Painting workshops Tuscany Provence 2018

Friendship, discussions

We now have this urge to travel. More travelers are looking for meaningful travels. Increasingly, we are aiming for journeys that allow us to learn something new, to deepen our culture, to enhance our lives.  After COVID-19, purpose, inspiration, and self-discovery are now vital elements in our traveling choices.  Probably, this is why our quality painting workshops offered since 1997 have become more and more popular.

One of our former participants wrote to us about the “totality of the experience embracing rigor.” It is true because Studio Italia, as all our painting workshops such as Atelier Provence and Studio Colombia (ART & EAT), offers an exciting and tight schedule that allows you to return home with the deep and rewarding feeling of having accomplished something.  “In-depth learning about art, art history, and art theory,” wrote another participant. Also true because we are aware that everything can now be found readily on the Web (read our post); therefore, we cannot simply rehash first-hand information. Yes, we do help everyone to reach their desired colors and shapes, but through other much more meaningful ways.

At Walk the Arts, we aim to surpass easily-found knowledge on YouTube, such as how “to mix your greens”, even “how to paint an Italian landscape,”; and if you can learn the latter in a video, why attending a painting workshop in Tuscany?  This reality has encouraged us to become a conduit of art knowledge, not a mere repeater of it.  The money you spend during an art workshop has to be equivalent (if not more) to the received service: “under-priced,” wrote someone else. We want you to return home with a sense of well-being.

The building of catwalks between general art ideas is extremely important to us. These relationships are being constructed through “interaction,” “philosophical views,” “harmony,” great conversation over candlelit dinners,” “gourmet meals,” as written by some of our emerging artists. We even wrote a book on our recipes.

Yes, indeed Studio Italia, Atelier Provence, and Studio Colombia are great art summer camps for adults since you will find:  in-depth art instruction and knowledge, daily expeditions (not on rivers, but in museums and historical cities), campfires (but around the fireplace with red wine), marshmallow roasting (in reality wine and cheese tastings), physical activity (painting in front of your easel, walking in beautiful cities, climbing in the van and the Uffizi staircases in Florence, etc.), and great huge meals (not with pizza and Kool-Aid but with gourmet cuisine and wine) …and more important, new lifelong friendships and many paintings worthy of being hung on prominent walls of your house.

We aim to offer our participants a fulfilling art experience for the two following reasons: first, we believe that creativity is a transformative force that can work wonders in our lives. Second, we believe that the democratization of art can lead to the betterment of our societies. This is our mission!

 

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Who are we?

We all make art! It is part of culture. It is deeply rooted in human nature as a way of communicating with others. We all need to tell our stories because it is stories that link us all. We are all one, one creative mind! Though, all unique and equipped with unique ways of expressing ourselves. We live in constant search of that unique liberating voice. At Walk the Arts we aim to facilitate our art makers to explore new territories. Our painting classes and art history trips on three continents are meant to be rounded art experiences among small groups of like-minded adults. We offer an environment that fosters creativity. As we always say, art as religion is just a matter of faith. This blog is about living fully the experience of art, about finding our single artistic path, about the joy of art-making. We believe that making art accessible to all will lead to a betterment of our society.

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Gray a Philosophical “Color”

 

“Over the past 40 years, I’ve seen students in the process of transitioning from saturated colors to grayed ones, a sign of serious questioning about painting. As a beginner, we shy away from mixing colors, and the more we progress in our creative practice, the more daring we become. That’s life! When we’re children, we only see saturated colors, and as we get older, gray takes over. Adults realize that gray is everywhere. “The color of truth is gray” wrote the French author André Gide.”

We can face Artificial Intelligence

 

How many times were we tempted to fall into the trap of mainly teaching painting techniques now all available on the Net? Just type “How to paint an Italian Landscape” and … two million plus videos jump onto your computer screen.

A First History of NFTs

 

“I think the reason […] I’ve chosen the career that I have is because artists are always the seers or the truth tellers. They show us the way forward”. Nora Burnett Abrams, The Story of NFTs, Artists, Technology, and Democracy. P. 53

The World of NFTs!

 

I had to know if NFT art is and will be a fad or not. In Canada’s national capital (Ottawa) art world, I kept hearing that it is not going to last, it’s all smoke and mirrors, ya-ya-ya, etc. So, I entered the Palazzo Strozzi with an open mind. I saw the works, I read everything on the walls, and I came out of the exhibition thinking “It is here to stay.” From that moment, on la Via de’ Tomabuoni, I felt compelled as an art historian and art educator to embrace this new reality. Didn’t we do it for Pop Art and Conceptual Art in the late ’50s and ‘60s?

My painting workshop in Tuscany

 

Already a month since my return from a fun-filled art-learning experience in Tuscany, Italy! The workshop went far beyond what I even imagined, or hoped it would be. The roughly eight hours per day for most days of art instruction gave me a new perspective on my art: where I was and where I wanted to be, the past and the future. But, together as a group, we were living in the present.

“Perseverance” is the key to all successful artists

 

Perseverance is the key to all successful artists.

I always ask my painting students to memorize … “Until then, we will not rest or falter. Hand in hand with others thirsting for a better life, no matter how long it takes, regardless of support or persecution, we will joyfully respond to a savage need for liberation”.

Studio Italia, a painting vacation with…

 

If our art workshops focused mostly on painting techniques, then why traveling to Italy and spending money when you could stay at home and learn everything you need through the Internet for free?

Art and Neurosciences

 

When a subject becomes familiar, the brain activity shuts down like when viewing a lovely chickadee painting…

Can we talk about the neuroscience of art? This is the question that French neurobiologist Jean-Pierre Changeux addresses in his beautiful book The Beauty in the Brain or La Beauté dans le Cerveau (Odile Jacob, 2016). Prof. Changeux describes how the human brain behaves when making or contemplating a work of art. To make a long story short, he argues that the neural bases of aesthetic pleasure are the product of the link between cognitive and emotional brain functions, in other words, the harmony between reason and emotion. Moreover, he gives some tips on how artists can maximize the impact of their works on their audience.

Evolving in art is just a matter of faith; only believe!

 

We refrain from teaching painting techniques easily found on the Net. We prefer taking the necessary time (36 hours) to fully involve the participant in reflecting on her or his art — including all levels, all media […]
Rest assured that having attended one of our online classes, you will be more confident in taming the landscape in your own way while on a plein-air painting workshop.

Let Go! The Artist’s Way of Cooking


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Ten years ago, here in Tuscany, we decided to write a recipe book but with so many good cookbooks in the market, we needed to propose a new idea. We had to find a modus operandi close to who we are and what we do as visual artists. The answer was in front of us and painting gave it to us: art and color!

Travelling with meaning : a painting workshop in Italy

 

More and more travellers from the developed world are looking for meaningful travels. We are aiming for journeys that allow us to learn something new, to deepen our culture, to enhance our lives. Purpose, inspiration and self-discovery are now vital elements in our traveling choices. Probably, this is why our quality painting workshops offered since 1997, have become more and more popular.

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