The Spring Mentoring Program is led by two painters, Dusseldorf-based Jutta Haeckel and New York-based Kevin Wixted.  The Program runs for a six week period, and includes both cohort and individual meetings. The first four weeks are conducted online by Zoom, and consist of critique, readings and conversation. The final two weeks take place in the studios at Monte Castello di Vibio, where you meet and work with your cohort members and faculty. Here you will build a lasting community of colleagues while experiencing great Italian art and culture. The course culminates with a group exhibition. 

This painting workshop will focus on working between observation and invention to explore color and the symbolic potential of the landscape. The landscape has long offered artists a space for reflection, serving as both a physical and psychological terrain. We will use the Italian landscape as a point of departure to investigate how symbolic narratives emerge through perception and imagination. Working both outdoors and in the studio, students will move between direct observation and invention, using painting, drawing and collage to translate experience. Slide lectures will complement the class as we explore how color, space and symbols can expand our understanding of place and individual perspective.

 

Inspired by the landscape and surrounding environment of Monte Castello di Vibio, this painting workshop explores abstraction and color relationships through experimental techniques in watermedia. Exercises and structural prompts for material experimentation will allow for discovery and invention with shape, composition, color palette and mark-making. Working both in the studio and directly in the environment, sketches,color studies and observations will inform the work as participants develop their unique perspective in abstraction. Lectures and weekly field trips to Florence and Orvieto expand on and inspire the content of the workshop. 

Jason Green's artwork using sculptural tile and architectural ceramic form is informed by his past experience living and teaching in Tuscany. This two-week workshop will focus on using both traditional and experimental maiolica glazing techniques. The maiolica process involves painting metallic pigments on top of tin-glazed earthenware. Italian maiolica thrived during the Renaissance as a decorative technique for tile, pottery and sculpture. Through demonstrations, presentations and site visits, participants will learn the history of Italian maiolica and the principles of pattern design for tile and vessel forms. Along with intensive studio investigation, visits to the famed ceramic production town of Deruta, as well as day trips to Florence and Orvieto will provide information and inspiration for all levels of makers. No prior experience with ceramics is necessary. Class price includes glazes and clay, additional supplies will need to be purchased.

Through the perceptual process of figure drawing, this class explores the plastic language of the picture plane. The formal expressive power of the human figure is seen through the lens of abstraction. Daily drawing sessions, in a variety of media, take place with live models. The principles and concepts of abstracting the human form are based on the teachings of the influential artist Nicolas Carone. All model fees are included in class price.

Renowned artist and teacher Stanley Lewis will conduct plein air painting sessions in the surrounding Umbrian countryside of Monte Castello di Vibio. Daily outdoor on-site sessions and instruction are followed by critique and discussion in the studio building. Here is a chance to study with this artist/educator who has influenced generations of artists. 

Esteemed art writer and historian Karen Wilkin leads this in-depth seminar on the enduring legacy of Piero della Francesca. Through lectures and field trips to some of Piero's most important frescos and altarpieces, the class will experience the work of this  Renaissance master, and discover his influence on Modern and Contemporary painting. Trips along the "Piero Trail" include Arezzo, Sansepolcro, Monterchi, and Perugia.

This session will be focused on painting within landscape mode and structure. We will paint both outside as well as in the studio. We will explore the continuum between painting pictorially and non-pictorially. Some paintings will be painted entirely outside, some taken back inside and re-worked, some painted completely inside, some beginning inside and then taken outside etc. Drawing and structure will be central and consistently entertained regardless of differences in the appearance of the paintings. Drawings, collages, and watercolors will also be a part of the session. We will explore a range of approaches, all driven by the traditional, stacked vertical landscape structure.

Esteemed art writer and historian Karen Wilkin leads this seminar on the arts in Umbria, past and present. The class will travel to several hill towns, including Todi and Spoleto, where Karen will lead an in-depth visit to the impressive collection of legendary curator Giovanni Carandente at the Modern Art in the Palazzo Collicola, and the Spoleto Duomo to see the Filippo Lippi fresco's. Modern masters such as Alexander Calder, David Smith, Sol Lewitt, Beverly Pepper, Richard Serra, Isamu Noguchi, Anthony Caro and Alberto Burri will be discussed during the seminar.

Monotype literally means “one of a kind” and refers to printmaking techniques where an artist paints directly onto a plate, which is then printed on paper. The result is a unique print of the image, which can be manipulated but never duplicated. This class will teach students a variety of painterly techniques including additive and subtractive mark making, stenciling and masking, overprinting and various other image making techniques. Students will have access to a large etching press and other hand printing techniques. This is a class for experimentation and play within a painterly language. The class consists of demonstrations, painting and printing sessions, critiques and field trips. Solvents, etching inks and plates will be provided. Additional supplies may need to be purchased.

The objective of the class is to search for an authentic visual language through  experimentation.  This class is unconcerned with formulas, fashion, trends, or novelty, but rather focuses on discovering, deep seeing.   Although students will discuss both contemporary and historical works, mostly, they will draw, draw, and draw again.  This class is about understanding, as opposed to  copying, what has been done before as a basis for working out optical metaphors.  Working  from the nude, the Lab eschews  distinctions between representation and abstraction.  Drawing from the model  will be used to discuss topics such as design, composition, grey-scale value,  gesture, flow, negative space and other means to achieve plastic visual experiences. Instruction is provided one-on-one and in group critiques. Various  materials are explored. All levels welcome. Model fees are included in the class price.

The use of egg tempera as a painting medium is an ancient technique that crosses the cultural boundaries of east and west. In Italy, some of the finest examples of its use in western culture can be found in Roman, Gothic and art of the Italian Quattro Cento. It’s an art form of simple materials applied by very specific procedures that lend themselves to expression of well pre-planned drawing and abstract conceptual vision. Our plan for the Egg Tempera Project is to explore the basic techniques characteristic of the method in a studio atmosphere. By using limited color, focus on tonal relationships and reproductions (partial and full) of masterworks to facilitate the role of drawing in the procedure it will mainly focus on paint manipulation. The experience will be augmented by visual presentations of a range of historical and cross-cultural expressions of egg tempera painting as well as a trip to the pinacotheca at Perugia to see actual masterpieces. Our end goal is for each of the participants to complete two paintings that demonstrate a strong working knowledge of the procedure and the confidence to continue working in the medium. Prepared panels and pigments will be provided, additional materials may need to be purchased.

The workshop invites artists to engage with the ordinary - objects, gestures, spaces, routines - as a catalyst for artistic exploration. Participants will cultivate a sensitivity to the overlooked, habitual, and intimate, in order to enhance their engagement with the everyday, and create new ways forward in their practice. The four-week workshop unfolds in two parts. It will begin with a series of virtual solo and group critiques designed to introduce each artist's practice and generate critical discussion. The virtual sessions will foster community, help articulate questions, and lay the groundwork for future site-based inquiries. Following the virtual phase, artists will gather for a two-week intensive residency in the Umbrian Hill town of Monte Castello di Vibio. Immersed in place, artists will visit museums and cultural sites in Florence and Assisi to engage with and experience historic visions of the everyday while creating works that build on and reflect their practices and experiences. The residency will culminate in an exhibition. Throughout the workshop, select readings (from poetry to cultural philosophy and memoir) will serve as a thread, helping artists expand their practice and deepen their engagement with observation and the everyday. The workshop is ideal for artists working across disciplines and media who aim to enhance their practice through slowness, observation, and reflection.

 Please note: an introductory class will be held on Zoom prior to our meeting in Italy.