Living Through the Arts

We can’t wait to see you again!
Monica Marquez
art retreat | Art workshops | Food | Cooking | Painting | plein air | painting workshops Italy FranceJune 7, 2021

We can’t wait to see you again!

Painting the landscape in Italy, now it is the time!

Travelling to Italy to paint and eat! This is what we want! We are optimistic about our upcoming art workshop in Tuscany, Studio Italia 2021 (October 1–10). So far, the European Union has approved the entering of vaccinated and pre-tested travelers. It is great news that all of Italy is now considered “low risk” and travel between regions is unrestricted. While face masks are still worn, life is finally returning to a sense of normalcy. On our side, Canada’s vaccination rate is not yet at the US level, but it is certainly advancing very well.

In the meantime, while getting ready for our in-person Italian fall painting workshop we keep offering our zoom live virtual art classes. Our two online art classes address “perspective drawing” and “personal artistic interpretation”, both essential for attending any painting workshop.

Also, meanwhile, we are dealing with Italy and France in turmoil concerning their tourism industry. They are trying to catch up with a whole year of lost revenues. However, despite an increase in our rental fees, we managed to keep the price of our upcoming art retreat in Tuscany at the same level as last year.  In 2022, our prices will be slightly adjusted. Anyway, Studio Italia is still one of the most affordable art workshops in Italy considering its length (9 nights) and quality (in terms of content and all items included).

Of course, we can paint anywhere, but the Italian landscape is so unique and inspiring. Here an anecdote shared by Christine, one of our returning participants from Michigan, who wrote us this: “Your workshops energize me, and I find such peace painting in Italy.  When I returned from Tuscany, the Homeland Security officer asked me what I was doing in Italy; ‘painting,’ I said. He replied, ‘but can’t you paint here?’ And I said, ‘if you ask that question, it means you’ve never been to Tuscany!”  

In a nutshell; we cannot wait to meet everyone, to see you again, to have this morning coffee together in Tuscany, to do art as a group, and to enjoy life around gourmet meals and excellent wines!

This pandemic has taught us many things, and certainly, we are more aware of the fragility of life. There is no time to waste; we need to let go of all that is holding us from being genuine and creative.

By the way, we have three places left!

 

by | Jun 7, 2021 | art retreat, Art workshops, Food | Cooking, Painting | plein air, painting workshops Italy France

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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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“Re-situating” myself

May 23, 2024

 

Alone in your studio, guided by your intuition, stop, sit down, with your notes in hand, your mindmap on the wall, to gather a feel for the next avenues. I suggest you take a few days to write down a first draft of an artistic statement. It will put some order into your thoughts so as to better clarify them. Be warned, however, that this will not be your final statement, as others will follow.
Set parameters: no more than 500 words, write a seductive title, an incipit (very first line) that hooks; write in the active form. Watch out for repetition and tautology! The more honest you are with yourself, the easier it will be to write this text. The more you hesitate to let go with your art, the harder it will be.

Gray a Philosophical “Color”

Jul 6, 2023

 

“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

Jun 10, 2023

 

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

May 12, 2023

 

“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!

Apr 11, 2023

 

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

Nov 11, 2022

 

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

Dec 11, 2021

 

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…

Nov 12, 2021

 

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

Jan 13, 2021

 

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!

Dec 11, 2020

 

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

Oct 14, 2018


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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

Sep 30, 2017

 

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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