In this two week workshop, painter Richard Hart will explore with participants the creation of collaged works that employ a variety of techniques on canvas, linen and other textiles, including figurative painted elements drawn from the natural beauty of Monte Castello di Vibio and surrounds; the use of fabric dyes and water based paints; the use of cyanotype printing and photosensitive inks; as well as the incorporation of off-the-shelf printed textiles.
We will embrace chance and experimentation as we follow curiosity and intuition into unknown creative territory. Once each participant has created a small inventory of textiles and painted elements, we will begin sewing pieces together to create at least one 60 cm x 80 cm collage, which will then be critiqued and hung for exhibit at the end of the session.
This workshop will encourage participants to experiment and move beyond their creative comfort zones. We will actively pursue joy in new modes of mark-making, unexpected color combinations and happy accidents. And once our raw material has been made, we will combine elements with great care (or reckless abandon!) paying attention to considerations including composition, balance, color relationships, scale and juxtaposition.
All this while absorbing the incredible environment and landscape of Monte Castello di Vibio and Umbria, whose eternal richness continues to inspire artists, writers and thinkers worldwide. The workshop will include two Friday trips where we will view millennia of artistic expression in the forms of painting, drawing and architecture (not to mention, fashion).
For more information, contact us.
Amy Weiskopf and Xico Greenwald will co-teach a two-week summer still life painting workshop open to artists of all levels, from beginner to advanced. Instruction will be tailored to individual students within the group. Participants will be able to work from classroom still life arrangements put together by the instructors and also have the option of assembling their own still life arrangements in a private studio space. Still life objects can be obtained during trips to local Umbrian produce stands. This session will include evening art lectures, group discussions, and day-trips to visit Museo Morandi and nearby early renaissance masterworks by Piero della Francesca. Students can also take advantage of unstructured time to explore the Umbrian countryside.
For more information, contact us.
Throughout its history, printmaking has been used to tell stories, whether in partnership with a written text or through images that stand alone. In this course you will draw inspiration from narrative traditions in Italian art and from a personally significant myth, poem, or story. Printmakers and graphic storytellers Ursula West Minervini and Jonathan Poliszuk will guide you in creating of a series of prints that explore a text of your choosing. Friday trips to Rome and to the Fabriano Museum of Paper and Watermark will inspire us and deepen our understanding of illustrative imagery and printmaking in the history of Italian art.
We will study two printmaking techniques in which bright marks are pulled from a dark ground: Reductive Monotype and Woodcut. You will work in monotype to explore broadly and develop your ideas, choose one or more images to develop more purposefully in woodcut, and then combine the techniques to create expressive, colorful images.
Monotypes are unique prints. In reductive monotype a plate is coated with a layer of printing ink and light tones are scraped, dabbed, or brushed away to create a luminous, gestural image, which is printed by hand or with a press. The process is superficially similar to drawing or painting, but the image undergoes a transformation in the transfer of ink from a prepared plate onto printing paper. Working in monotype invites exploration, risk-taking, and an openness to surprise and discovery.
Woodcut is perhaps the oldest form of printmaking, and is inextricably linked with the history of books and illustration. The surface of a woodblock is inked and printed after carving away all but the intended design. The carving process is meditative and purposeful, and many identical or varying impressions can be produced from a single carved block. The technique lends itself to bold, graphic expression, but is also capable of producing subtle textures and intricate detail.
In our first week, you will begin by working rapidly through a series of reductive monotypes, boldly exploring multiple aspects of your chosen text. Through this exploration, you will arrive at themes and compositions that you wish to work with more purposefully, and undertake the design and carving of one or more woodcuts.
In the second week Ursula and Jonathon will guide you through the nuances of the printing process. You will create editions, explore layered color printing, and combine techniques in prints that meld the graphic impact of woodcut with the expressive fluidity of monotype. The class will culminate in a group show in which students will present their new body of work.
For more information, contact us.
Lead by Jerry Pellegrino, the chef/owner of Schola Cooking School in Baltimore, Maryland. The pleasures of wine fascinates Chef Pellegrino, as it is always paired beautifully with his cuisine. He will lead a lucky few on an intensive exploration of Umbrian wine, visiting 13 vineyards throughout the region.
He is currently the co-owner of Schola, a private cooking school, located in the heart of Baltimore’s historic Mt. Vernon district. He and his partner, Chef Amy von Lange, teach hands-on classes to a variety of students covering a vast curriculum. For 15 years, Chef Pellegrino has served as the Vice Chancellor Culinaire of the Baltimore Bailliage of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers and often featured in cooking segments on local television. He is the co-host of the long running radio show on NPR 88.1FM, WYPR’s “Radio Kitchen”. He has been nominated various years as Chef of the Year, awarded by Baltimore’s Academy of Travel, Tourism and Hospitality and was named One of Maryland’s 50 Most Influential People in 2017. For a full list of awards and honors, head to www.scholacooks.com or download his full bio.
For the full itinerary, click here. For more information, contact us.
Master Printer Ian Jackson leads a 2-week intaglio workshop at the International Center for the Arts.
Intaglio (from the Italian tagliare, meaning to carve or cut), is the term encompassing the multitude of printmaking techniques where a mark incised in a plate holds ink while the surface is wiped clean before printing.
Drawing directly into copper plates by raising a metal burr with sharp implements, participants will learn the exquisite craft of drypoint and produce hand-wiped prints of original drawings.
Drypoint is uniquely prized among artists and collectors for its velvety-rich line quality and sfumato-like tonality, achievable only through careful scraping and polishing.
Within the walls of the medieval village of Monte Castello di Vibio high above the countryside, artists will find no shortage of inspiration. One wakes up in the morning, takes a step from their doorway, and is immediately overcome by the impulse to draw everything within sight: hillsides dotted in olive groves smeared in dazzling Umbrian sunlight; thick stone architecture casting long shadows; a tranquil studio filled with diffuse natural light, waiting to be occupied.
Over the course of the 2-week workshop, participants will learn every step of the drypoint printing process while refining their own drawings through the frequent repetition of proofing, critiquing, and editing, culminating in the production of their own edition and a group show.
For more information, contact us.
Where we live, visit, and create can be a great source of inspiration. In this workshop we will view our surroundings with visitor’s eyes and make note of the details that appeal to us and draw us in. We will translate those details, from mundane to exceptional, (a window, archway, flower, fruit, bottle, hat, etc.) into simple repeatable images using stencils, block prints, and image transfers. You will learn surface design techniques including printing, stitching, mending, embroidery, collage, and dyeing and painting with local earth pigments, etc. Our richly layered papers and fabric will be made into books, scrolls, wall pieces, vessels, bags, and objects. Jody will teach students a number of bookmaking and paper structure techniques as well as how to construct items out of fabric including books, bags, pockets, vessels and other objects. By the end of the workshop each of us will have a different but cohesive collection of richly layered items communicating a sense of place that will be arranged into personal installations.
Field trips will serve as source material and inspiration gathering expeditions as well as personal enrichment. Trips will include visits to Florence and Rome.
For more information, contact us.
Working on heavy grade watercolor paper, using ink and watercolor, students will employ geometry, line, shape and form to create 2 non-objective paintings.
We will research designs and interpret them for our various individual projects during the second week. Please feel free to bring your design ideas and other inspirational materials to adapt as well.
As inspiration, we will be looking at historic designs found in art and architecture during our trips to both Florence and Rome.
We will be using a variety of techniques gained from studies in both European and Indian processes (including; color filling, line and design work, burnishing, washing, sanding and waxing),
Students will aim to create a harmonious balance from a mix of structure and improvisation by daily:
Meditation— finding thoughtless awareness through the use of affirmations, self awareness and inner peace.
Yoga— basic Hatha yoga practice allowing the student to slow down, tune into oneself and ones breathing and let the body guide you through simple movements such as Surya Namaskar.
Mindful observation 1— sit in silence drawing an object for three minutes, at the end of this time restart, drawing the same object again. 30 minutes.
Mindful observation 2— using the senses to raise awareness and explore imagination through the use of taste, touch and sound.
The course will be run with the help of Danish artist and assistant Emma Holm.
For more information, contact us.
The International Center for the Arts is proud to announce a Masterclass with renowned wood-sculptor Bruno Walpoth. Known for the uncanny presence of an internal presence, his lifelike sculptures have been regarded as possessing an almost metaphysical presence: “Bruno Walpoth’s work proves how strong the spell is; his statues are not objects, rather almost animate creations with souls, their feelings bare for the viewer to see.”
The two-week intensive requires experience in working from the human figure on a life-sized scale, as well as at least two years of experience in working with wood. Those interested in admission should provide a C.V. and Artists Statement, as well as 10-20 images of work demonstrating a degree of proficiency in these areas. Participation in the Masterclass is limited to 8.
Participants will be provided with a select log of walnut and worksurface, but must provide their own chisels, rasps, and mallet – although these tools will also be available in our art supply store. The group will be provided with a model and working intensely each participant will produce a life -sized bust. As part of the class, the group will make an excursion to Florence in order to study wooden sculpture in various collections. An optional trip to the National Gallery of Umbria, in Perugia will be available as well.
For more information, contact us.
Chance Morgan is the founder and owner of the Native Meat Company. An accomplished chef, he began producing his artisanal meats because of an interest in utilizing regionally raised animals and exploring traditional preparations in curing and smoking meats. A renowned craftsman in this practice, his production has been compared to the finest European cured meats. On the other hand, his knowledge of American traditions, such as boudin and andouille sausage making, is equally acknowledged. These factors make Chance the ideal guide with whom to explore the world of Italian – and Umbrian - Salumi, in its extraordinary diversity and sophistication. Participants in the course will make a variety of whole-meat, as well as chopped meat types and methods, beginning with butchering the whole animal (both wild boar and domestic pigs) to curing and preserving and aging the meats. The group will travel along with the Food and Wine Tour to Florence and to Norcia in order to experience Tuscan traditions as well as the “Mecca” of cured meats from which Italian “norcini” (butchers) get their name.
August 15–29, 2021
We present a unique opportunity to master the two different ways of pursuing street photography. We shall call them “Fishing” and “Hunting”, and they depend on one’s self and the circumstances you face when trying to photograph strangers in the street.
Fishing implies patience, effort, offering something to the other, a way of seduction, a slow pace approach to people that interest you, convincing them to voluntarily and even happily allow you to shoot their image.
Dominique will teach you how to overcome the fear of approaching strangers asking for a photo, how to empathize with them, how to connect with your subjects, creating a friendly atmosphere and avoiding negative reactions. As a result, you will not only get better portraits but also have fun and make new friends.
Hunting means jumping at the occasion to get a candid photo as a testimony of reality, capturing the image without being seen, stealing them in a way, seeing without being seen.
Ximena will teach you how to navigate a hectic world where we look but often don’t see, to immerse yourself in a quasi-meditative-contemplative state to sharpen your gaze to discover and portray details that escape us. How to use photography as a way to slow down one’s mind, connect with the landscape, others and yours, anticipating events through conscious observation, allowing you to capture the decisive moment. As a result, you capture unforgettable images but also better understand yourself in the process.
The end result of this workshop is to help each participant master the different tools that allow you to find or perfect your own photographic style; and to improve and develop your street photography by adapting it to different contexts.
At the end of this workshop, the best images of the participants will be printed and exhibited in ICA’s gallery with a gallery opening.
For more information, contact us.
Focusing on the accurate portrayal of anatomy, posture and gesture, we will investigate the communication of complex emotion and narrative context through building a full human figure. Details of hands, feet, hair, facial expression and fabric folds will be emphasized during this two week workshop. Kevin Rohde will lead participants through the process of constructing full figures 24” tall using a unique armature process and solid building method. Once the armatures are removed, the pieces will be hollowed out and completed, covering the ceramic slip and cold finishing process.
We will also be going on two day-trips to either Florence or Rome and either Siena or Perugia, exploring those great cities’ rich sculptural heritage. For more information, contact us.
Drawn to Color and Light is a unique opportunity to discover or improve your drawing skills through the lens of some of the great artists of the New York school. Surrounded by the color and light of Umbria, we will focus particularly on ideas about color and space emphasized in the teaching of Hans Hofmann, as well as his student, Mercedes Matter, with whom I studied in New York. It can be hard to slow down and actually look at things, especially when travelling. Sight-seeing doesn’t always include really seeing in the ways that Hofmann and Matter passionately taught. This week-long workshop on drawing and color provides participants with the time to stop, look and draw.
Over the course of this workshop, you will practice drawing exercises developed to help you to see in new ways. You will focus on the basic elements of drawing as stressed by Hofmann and his school – line, shape, value, space, form, texture—and especially color! In order to facilitate this, we will begin with a pastel-making workshop in order to provide information on that medium as well as to expand the repertoire of your drawing media.
Each day will include a morning session that shares practical information about materials and methods and introduces exercises using a specific drawing element and one of the color contrasts. Classes will continue in the afternoon either outdoors in the walled town, or in the studio. Before dinner, we’ll gather to look at and discuss the day’s work. There will be a field trip on Friday to Assisi, with the opportunity to draw from Giotto’s famous frescos (Hofmann would be thrilled!).
The workshop is appropriate for beginning artists as well as those who wish to refresh and improve their skills.
For more information, contact us.
September 30–October 9, 2021
Blake Morgan will be offering landscape painting and drawing workshops June 20–July 11, 2021.
All levels of painting and drawing will be offered for undergraduate credit through the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
For more information, contact us.
World Thought is an examination of representative thought and expression of a number of world civilizations from the Second Century, C.E. through the Seventeenth Century, C.E. The course focuses on significant achievements in architecture, art, theatre arts, literature, music, philosophy, religion, and science. This unit will focus on Dante and the Quattrocento, covering issues in literature of 14thc Italy - in context of the particular influence of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The house will examine contemporaneous works in visual art and architecture, especially those reflecting the Divine Comedy. Excursions will include Florence and Orvieto. 3 hours.
All levels of painting and drawing will be offered for undergraduate credit through the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
For more information, contact us.
Paper is an amazing, surprising material with the potential to be structurally strong or flexible and soft, opaque or translucent, an artwork in itself, a base for drawings and paintings, a sculptural form, or bound into books for writing and illustrations. In this session we will explore the potential of paper as a basic material and as a medium for artistic pursuits. Four internationally known instructors, Amanda Degener, co-founder of Cave Paper; Carol Barton of Popular Kinetics; Helen Hiebert of Helen Hiebert Studio; and Denise Carbone from the University of the Arts will lead workshops in various aspects of the paper arts.
Students will be signing up for the complete session, with sixteen hours of instruction in each area: hand papermaking, creating paper-based objects, sewn bookbindings and designing pop-ups. The session will also include field trips to the Fabriano Paper Mill and to the city of Florence, along with several other excursion stops. In addition, Amanda will be offering optional morning Tai Chi sessions to be held near the fountain in our lovely public garden overlooking the surrounding mountains.
This is an ideal session for teachers, graphic designers, creative artists, and anyone who likes to play with paper or is interested in the rudiments of how books are put together. No prior experience is necessary; all skill levels are welcome.
For more information, contact us.
During this two-week workshop we will explore the creative process of digital photography. Monte Castello di Vibio offers us a wealth of extraordinary landscape vistas and the people of this historic 12th century hill town will be some of the most interesting portrait subjects an image-maker could ever hope to shoot. These subjects include traditional stonecutters, vineyard workers, truffle hunters, butchers and olive grove workers, just to name a few. We will be experimenting with many facets of photography including color, black and white, creative compositions, lens choice, street photography techniques, digital post-production and printing, which will culminate with an exhibition at the Arts Center. We will also be going on two, day trips to Rome and either Siena or Perugia, exploring those great cities offering new vistas to photograph.
Participants will need their own laptop and digital camera (capable of changing lenses for more creative opportunity). It is also recommended (but not necessary if you use other image editing software) that you have Photoshop already installed on you laptop before arriving. Photoshop tends to be the industry standard and we can use it to give our images the polish and vision we are looking to create.
For more information, contact us.
Overall, the workshop will focus on studying the details of both wall and panel preparation as well as classic fresco and sgraffito techniques. In addition, students will further their understanding of the perspective, value range principals, and the verdaccio under painting and its consequent effect on the painting process.
In the course of the two-week workshop, students will create one small-scale work, individually exploring the sgraffito technique and one group “fresco bodega” project, an eight by four foot, wall fresco in the buon fresco technique, which will be adorned with classic sgraffito elements. Students will explore classic techniques of buon fresco, sgraffito, preparatory stages and final wall painting stage.
For more information, contact us.
Menrva, the Etruscan goddess of creativity, was also known as the ‘Goddess of a Thousand Works” – an aspirational goal for writers and academics if there ever was one! What better place, therefore, to channel the spirit of Menrva and focus on your writing than in Umbria, the heart of Etruria, the land of the Etruscans!
The Menrva Writing Retreat at the International Center for the Arts in Monte Castello di Vibio provides up to two weeks of glorious time and space to write, while also enjoying the beauty of Umbria, the hospitality of an Italian hill town, great conversation, and delicious food and wine!
Led by Dana Zartner, Professor in the International Studies Department at the University of San Francisco, the retreat is geared towards academic writers, but open to all. The Menrva retreat will offer the opportunity to engage with your work in a supportive community with other writers in a beautiful Italian setting. Communal and individual writing spaces will be available to participants. Days are unstructured, save for the delicious meals, and opportunities for group discussion and presentation of your work are available for those who wish to do so.
There will also be the opportunity to explore the region through field trips and events (additional costs apply), including trips to Assisi, Perugia, or Lago Trasimeno, and wine, cheese, and olive oil tastings. Participants will have the opportunity to indicate their interests when registering for the retreat.
Join Pastry Chef Travis Marley as we explore Italian food and culture, then venture back into the kitchen to create classic Italian desserts.
For more information, contact us.
July 10–24, 2022
Learn to create mosaics—the most enduring form of pictorial art. In this hands-on, two-week course, Rick Shelley will demonstrate the methods of mosaic production. Students will learn to shape stone, glass, and ceramic into tesserae to be used in three mosaic projects. Roman mosaics, medieval mosaics, and contemporary mosaics will be studied for inspiration. The course combines intensive instruction with weekend excursions to the mosaic treasures in Florence and Ravenna. Students are encouraged to work in the studio outside of class, as studios are open 24 hours. The goal is to enjoy and create beautiful mosaics.
For the full itinerary, click here. For more information, contact us.
Lead by Jerry Pellegrino, the chef/owner of Schola Cooking School in Baltimore, Maryland. The interplay between food and wine fascinates Chef Pellegrino, with his understanding of the two at the molecular level a direct result of his Doctoral work in molecular biology at Johns Hopkins University. His cuisine is simple and surprising, pairing unexpected ingredients that worked together with wine lists at all his restaurants; where diners could be swept up in Chef Pellegrino's passion for food and wine and discover the distinctiveness of ingredients and the way they work together. He is currently the co-owner of Schola, a private cooking school, located in the heart of Baltimore’s historic Mt. Vernon district. He and his partner, Chef Amy von Lange, teach hands-on classes to a variety of students covering a vast curriculum. For 15 years, Chef Pellegrino has served as the Vice Chancellor Culinaire of the Baltimore Bailliage of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers and often featured in cooking segments on local television. He is the co-host of the long running radio show on NPR 88.1FM, WYPR’s “Radio Kitchen”. He has been nominated various years as Chef of the Year, awarded by Baltimore’s Academy of Travel, Tourism and Hospitality and was named One of Maryland’s 50 Most Influential People in 2017. For a full list of awards and honors, head to www.scholacooks.com.
For more information, contact us.
June 28 – July 05, 2020
May 2–26, 2021
August 4 – August 18
August 4 – August 18
Renowned American painter, Stanley Lewis, will lead a 3-week landscape painting workshop, culminating in an exhibition. Participants will work directly in town and from the spectacular landscapes surrounding Monte Castello, in this observational painting workshop. The session will include evening lectures by Stanley and other noteworthy contemporary painters, participating in the session as Visiting Artists. The workshop will be supplemented by weekly day-trips to Rome, Florence, and Orvieto in order to incorporate discussions on some of greatest masterworks in the history of Italian Art.
For other information, contact us.
June 4 – June 14, 2020
Acclaimed Painter and Illustrator Cornel Rubino will lead a 2-week workshop at the International Center for the Arts, on the creation of monumental works of visual art.
Develop an ease in working large - explore how scale alters the way we view our world by drawing directly from life to re-translate nature and rethink the human condition.
Art, like spoken language, has a vocabulary all its own. With drawing, you will be exposed to elements of this vocabulary, which serves as the raw material for all visual information. This workshop explores and utilizes drawing to explore the figure in narrative and poetic (non-narrative) ways.
You will be drawing vertically in studio on heavy weight Rives or Fabriano paper no smaller than 7 ft. from live models, fleshy and ideal, as well as lyrical and moody objects of your choice from nature. A variety of wet and dry media will be explored and developed as well as the skills needed to tackle large scale drawings translated from your smaller sketches and ideas. You will experience drawing the figure as it empowers and informs your work, carefully raiding the mines of visual desire.
Drawing on a large scale offers a freedom that is exciting and liberating. You will have the opportunity to create and make the kind of marks that only working on a large-scale surface allows you. We will be working on heavy-duty paper so you will have the opportunity to draw wet with inks or water based paints or dry with pencils, pastels or charcoals. Or mix materials together. The sky’s the limit.
You will work on at least 3-4 large drawings depending on time constraints. We will have individual and group discussions about the work in progress and develop our skills in constructive criticism, working at understanding the significance and psychological importance of line, value, form and composition in the process of image making.
Along with trips to Siena, Florence and La Scarzuola in Montegabbione, we will draw on the history of Monte Castello as a gathering place for artists in a variety of mediums and scholars in disciplines across the humanities. Painters, sculptors, musicians and chefs will also be in residence at ICA, providing optional lectures or demonstrations and joining retreat participants for communal meals on the terrace. There is a strong opportunity for cross-pollination of ideas and unexpected inspiration for those who seek it.
For more information, contact us.
Working from a model for 4 days we will get a chance to hone in on all the details it takes to capture a likeness. Using clay packed onto a pipe armature, we’ll create a solid bust which we will cut off the armature, hollow and reassemble by the end of the 6th day.
The anatomy of the head, the determining facial muscles, neck and clavicle will be demonstrated. Students will come away with an understanding of proportions and how to create believable details of the face and expression.
All levels are welcomed.
May 24 – June 4, 2020
May 31 - June 4, 2019
June 26 – July 12, 2020
Learn the ancient art of gilding, the technique of applying thin leaves of pounded metal to a prepared surface, and its many exciting contemporary applications. This workshop is of interest to painters, book artists, woodworkers, surface designers and those interested in mixed-media applications.
In the first week, students will create a series of sample boards using a variety of techniques on prepared hardboard and paper. Beginning with the importance of ground preparation, students will discover the fundamentals of water-based mordant gilding with Dutch metal, composition gold, aluminum and copper leaf.
Traditional Renaissance surface embellishment processes are explored – such as sgrafitto (“to scratch through”); granito, a technique for creating background texture and patterns; and pastiglia, a form of low relief that creates a raised surface, antiquing and distressing – as well as non-traditional surface applications.
We will research ornamental designs and interpret them for our various individual projects during the second week. Please feel free to bring your design ideas and other inspirational materials to adapt as well.
All gilding supplies will be included in the class fee. A materials list of supplies one may bring from home will be provided.
The 2-week workshop will be rounded out with trips to Siena and Florence.
Sep 6 – Sep 15, 2019
Sep 15 – Sep 27, 2019
August 3 – August 18, 2019
Aug 4 – Aug 17, 2019
Aug 25 – Sept 6, 2019
