Drawing and Painting, A Sense of Place
In Cortona, May 28- June 4, 2025
This fall I'm very excited about teaching a workshop in Italy. The workshop, in beautiful Cortona is offered by Toscana Americana.
We'll be working with a variety of media (watercolour, markers, pens...) including fun and loose images of landscape,village vignettes, architectural details, palettes, fonts.. on different kinds of papers. We'll curate the images into concertina books. The end result will be a book of the experience to take home.
Picture Yourself...
among the sights and sounds of beautiful and romantic Tuscany: olive groves, vineyards, centuries-old buildings, winding streets, texture and vibrant sunlight.
Feel Yourself...
in the warm ambiance of Cortona, overlooking Lake Trasimeno and the Val di Chiana, originally fortified by the Umbrians, claimed by the Etruscans, touched by the Renaissance, almost unchanged for centuries, one of Tuscany's jewels.
Experience...
the joy of sketchibg and painting in a relaxed and inspiring atmosphere with the camaraderie of a small group of enthusiastic Artists.
Enjoy...
great Italian food, delightful wines, new friends, breath-taking vistas, history and the hospitality of the people of Cortona.
Instruction on location
Seven nights accommodations
in historic Cortona (Private room & bath)
Local Etruscan Museum & Museo Diocesano
All meals
(Italian breakfast, lunch and dinner)
Daily wine tasting opportunities
Day trip to Pienza & Montepulciano
Day trip to Siena
A farewell wine tasting dinner
Escorted group travel Cortona
to Florence.
This room in Hotel San Luca is typical accomodation for participants; single or double occupancy available.
Summer teaching 2024
In person teaching:
Abstracting Landscape in Acrylic and Mixed Media- MISSA summer school for the arts, Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia, July 13/14* This workshop is now full. Go to link for waitlist.
Just Add Water—exploring watermedia—Gibsons School of the Arts, Gibsons, British Columbia, August 19-22 * this workshop is now full—go to link for waitlist
Self-directed Courses
These short fun courses were first offered as Play Dates. I have gathered the three downloadable videos and augmented with notes, to give you the chance to work through ideas and fundamentals like colour, value, surface, and composition, at your own pace.
You can find my self-directed courses ($50 CAN each) here.
Joyful Plant Abstraction
Rich Surfaces -Strong Images
I’ll be offering my 5 week online course Serious Fun—Paths to Abstraction in March/April, 2025 Be sure to subscribe (below) to hear about it as well as my free Fall Play Dates.
Here are some things students had to say about last year’s experience:
Alison’s art course was so much like her paintings - richly layered, always interesting, full of surprising gems, built on a strong foundation with clear interconnections and pathways to follow — at one’s own pace and level. Alison’s warmth, desire for all her students to succeed, and generosity with extra explanations and how-tos, have made me feel both more confident as an emerging artist, and more willing to take risks. My head is full of new knowledge and future ideas. Thank you! Cynthia C.
.. I found the course very organized and helpful in many ways, breaking the steps down into weeks made it possible to repeat exercises and deepen the muscle memory to the techniques that are not common (to me). Changing the focus from marks, to botanicals to still lifes to landscapes kept it fresh up to the final all-abstract….thank you so much Alison for a rich, fun, learningful 5 weeks. .. this concentrated progressive program was worth the lack of sleep! Jessica L.
Thank you all for the relaxed and supportive togetherness in this lovely, family like group.I enjoyed the conversation so much, getting tips, help in any way ... struggling & laughing together... all over the world! Thanks a lot - most notably to Alison, I learned so much, leaving the comfort zone, entering new territories, will see how this will engage in my further work. Edda D.
Serious Fun Course Content
Weeks:
Materials Review. Mark Making — with different tools on different types of surfaces, creating a series of collages.
Abstracting botanicals
Abstracting Still Life
Abstracting landscape
review of Composition, integration week
Pure abstraction/ collage; working in series
Each week we includes a mindset strategy and an exploration of how to connect the week’s material to your own work.
In each unit we will look at compositions, (weight, divisions of space) visual language, weight, colour, and value.
Serious Fun
Post Card Pen Pals 2023—cards exchanged between members of Artwork Artplay, to celebrate spring and a sense of place, all over the world.
Your course was absolutely outstanding. You gave so freely of yourself, you were so organized, there was so much extra helpful material, and the Facebook Group is great. I loved the videos, and that you recorded the lessons. I only ever held a paintbrush for the first time in May, but I found your lessons not only inspirational but easy for even a beginner to follow.
Sandy Ferris
You teach in an open, easy and relaxed fashion and are always 100% engaged, repeating important concepts - that sticks! :-) You can talk while you paint!! Thank you for sharing your talent and showing your students pathways to "the expansive inner landscape " … my confidence has grown. You are a fantastic teacher. Shirley Connell