The Workshop in Tuscany

As I am getting ready to teach a workshop up at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, I realize that I am behind on a post about the Tuscan workshop that I led in late June. I  brought my students to a villa owned by Raffaele Nobile. He calls his program Tuscany in the Frame and offers art and cooking holidays in Tuscany and other parts of Italy. This trip took place in Cortona. 
   

Here is Raffaele

His van.

  

                                                                              

 The villa

The studio

 


 

Table set for the first night of dinner, with Krista, Lars and Geralyn taking the picture

 I called the workshop Approaching Abstraction. Our goal was not to create finished pieces of art but more to observe and experience the landscape, color and light around us. Our travels brought us to Cortona, Arezzo, Pienza , Moltepuciano, and Assisi. There were 11 of us and we were there for eight days. We experimented with materials, toured, ate, drank, laughed, cried, had many expressos, took thousands of pictures between all of us and had an amazing experience. Here are some photos of "studio time" at the villa.

 

                                                                                 

One afternoon we had an impromptu art supply show, tell, then do party.

 

                                                                          

Geralyn, Debbie,  Erica, Mira and Kevin (l-r)

                                                                  

  

In the studio working

                                                                                 

              

                                                                                

 I am giving a color mixing lesson before jumping in the pool. Yes! it was very hot.

     

 

Tara and Geralyn decide to take a walk past the sunflowers,

while Laurie, Debbie and I paint them.

Debbie had great success "painting" on her Ipad,

and I, underneath the hat, shocked everyone by dong my own sunflowers.

                                                                  

                                                                         

Here we are in the Tuscan light. From left to right: Geralyn, me, Erica, Krista, Lars, Lee, Debbie, Tara, Mira and Doug. Where are Kevin and Laurie?

You can see many of my photos of the entire trip in my July posts. 

New workshops are in the planning stages. 
Possible destinations: Costa Rica, Sicily, Montana and the tri-state area.
Email me for details: lpart@earthlink.net

Letter to a Young Artist

 I  was spent a day with a friend  recently and we were discussing dreams, shamans, spirits and art. That night out of the blue I went to my book case and pulled out a book  called Dreamtime and Inner Space: The World of the Shaman. I hadn't looked at it probably since college.  Out dropped this letter from my former college professor and artist, Bob Watts.

 I don't remember giving him my journal but I do remember the journal being full of insecurity and doubts.  I also don't remember receiving this note from him but I love what he says:

 " I could help you realize that all or most sensitive artists struggle with the same problems, the fears, anxieties, frustrations of creating. It often takes many years to arrive at some confidence. Its a giving up of some values which have nothing to do with making or being. Our inner self knows this for a certainty. Have you read Zen and the Art of Archery? There are clues there."

It seems so right to have this letter right now for myself as an artist and a teacher.  The fact that it dropped out of this particular book is ironic. From dream time, inner space and from the after life, Bob is  still communicating.

Thanks, Doctor Bob

Robert Watts (artist) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Watts was an American artist best known for his work as a member of the international Avant-garde art movement Fluxus. Born in Burlington, Iowa June 14th 1923[2][3], he became Professor of Art at Douglass College, Rutgers University, New Jersey in 1953, a post he kept until 1984. In the 1950s, he was in close contact with other teachers at Rutgers including Allan Kaprow, Geoffrey Hendricks and Roy Lichtenstein. This has led some critics to claim that pop art and conceptual art began at Rutgers [4][5].

He organised the proto-fluxus Yam Festival, May 1963 with George Brecht, and was one of the main protagonists, along with George Maciunas, in turning SoHo, New York, into an artist's quarter. He died Friday 2nd September 1988 of lung cancer in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania.[6]

He was also known as Bob Watts or Doctor Bob.

A Visit to Lorrie Fredette's Studio

When I visited Lorrie Fredette's studio last April up in Saugerties, NY her work was done and she was getting ready to pack, deliver and install her show at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. She was gracious enough to let me poke around to see what was still "hanging" around. I plan to revisit when her next body of work  is in  progress.

The Great Silence (abbreviated)
Beeswax, tree resin, muslin, brass, steel, nylon line
6' 2" x 36' 9" x 5' 8" suspended above the floor 9' 6" (8' of the 36' shown here)
© 2011

  This is what Lorrie says about her work:

"My sculptures and drawings are inspired by medical and environmental news stories pulled from today's headlines and historical sources. Upon choosing an area of focus, such as the swine, avian and Spanish flus, or the increased incidence of poison ivy with the growth of greenhouse gases, I set upon a rigorous course of research, gathering images which I then alter, vet and reject through an elaborate system designed to completely subvert and distort any likeness to the original source" 

I think it so interesting that her work is done in this studio but once it is installed the essence of the work is revealed. The work refers to viruses yet the light, luminosity, shadows, and the odd beauty draws you in. 

You can read a review about Lorrie's current show at the Cape Cod Museum of Art at

Art Scope

and also a write up at Joanne Mattera's blog to be posted August 4th.

Lorrie contributed to some of my captions so hers are in quotes.

Come on in!

"This image shows one of my work spaces.  It is where I do most of my painting.  To the left is my drawing table and right behind the chair is a stack of my favorite books.  The piece on the wall above the empty work table is headed to the Cape Cod Museum of Art for their auction. It is titled "Bundled."

.

"Well, this is messy!  I have some boxes for teaching in the foreground, stacks of material plus another piece in progress, "Atmospheric Causes (4)".  Looks like I need to clean up some more!" 

"This is standing at my door looking straight across the studio.  Against the exterior wall (where the two small windows are) there are is a large element on a box from "A Pattern of Connections" and a wooden frame wrapped with plastic suspending "Atmospheric Causes (2)"  The boxes behind Atmospheric Causes have many other pieces and in the upper left corner is a piece in the making".

Some of Lorrie's favorite books.......Kiki, Lee and of course Eva.

 This was made by artist, Barbara Ellmann.
It is a birthday garland made from recycled candy wrappers, felt and beads. I looked at it as personalized prayer flags before Lorrie told me what it was. It is a festive string of color in her studio.

 favorite inspiring objects

Her Japanese hole puncher

which is her favorite tool,

that helps to create these wonderful works on paper.

Peeking in her files we found a torn up drawing and a
waxed fabric piece.

I laughed when I saw Lorrie's heat gun. These guns are usually covered in wax that is if you use them. Lorrie recently told me that the heat gun was packed away now.

She dips her forms in wax baths and that is how the fusing is taking place.

 

"A box filled with elements that I am testing new materials like handmade paper, shellac."

Atmospheric Causes 2 in a case

"This is the underside of a wall piece. The long, thin black lines are entomology pins that have pierced
        the unit.  The piercing was done by artist Jill Parisi in our collaborative, Field Notes." 

 "This is a box of "samples". I keep all of my tests and attempts to remind me how I made something  to show when I teach."

"One of the "Tubes" pieces"

"Up close and personal with the surface of a tube"

"Box-o-tubes.  (Not a box of tuba's)."

"Packed pods for CCMA!"

Packed and ready to be delivered to the Cape Cod Museum

The installation of the The Great Silence is up from June 11 - September 25 at the Cape Cod Museum of Art

 The Great Silence 

 Beeswax, tree resin, muslin, brass, steel, nylon line
© 2011

Some Views from Tuscany and Cinque Terre