Toscana Americana

Travel with fellow artists, family & friends!
In addition to Non-participating guest options, did you know
that other workshops are offered this same week!
Enjoy the experience together while immersed in different topics!
View calendar for details!

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Go to Living Off the Land photo Gallery

Enroll as a Group* and save!
Enroll 3 or more people for any of our 2009
workshops and save $150.00 per person!
*Group discount applies to 3 or more people enrolling together
in the same workshop program. New enrollment only.

Limited spaces remain for this workshop!
Enroll NOW to ensure your participation!

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Cortona "Island in the Sky"

Meet Gwen Diehn

Living off the Land
Stamped, Collaged and Painted
Tuscan Travel Journals
with artist/instructor
Gwen Diehn
Cortona, Italy June 20-27, 2009

Join artist and journal keeper Gwen Diehn and create a collection of unique travel journals inspired by interacting with the environment while gleaning art supplies from Cortona and the countryside and villages of Tuscany.

In this workshop you�ll develop new skills that will allow you to produce lovely little books that celebrate the Tuscan countryside. You�ll find that you can use the skills to extend and expand whatever kind of artwork you already do. You�ll also find that these skills, and especially the process of mindful observation that we�ll follow in our daily excursions in and around Cortona, will give you an entirely different and very rich travel experience. Even if you�ve never made a sketch or a stamp or a book, you�ll be amazed at the ease with which these little books seem to create themselves as a natural outgrowth of your using a travel journal to enhance your time in Italy. Then, because we�ll be making multiple copies of the books, you�ll take home a collection of unique travel journals that you and your classmates have made while gleaning your art supplies from the hills and villages of Tuscany.

You�ll start by learning to make a collection of sketches of things that typify for you the Cortona area. One person might focus on the shapes and colors of vegetables in the marketplace, someone else might seek out the tile arrangements on farmhouse roofs, another the myriad plants that grow from every crevice in the old stone walls, and yet another the rows of trees and vines that pattern the hills. Meanwhile you�ll collect beautiful papers from the bakery and the market, tickets from museums and trains, and whatever else that inspires you. You�ll also collect samples of the very soil that gave the names �sienna� and �umber� to the paints by those names. From there you�ll turn your sketches into simplified versions of themselves as you make your own rubber stamps. You�ll learn how to make watercolor paint from the soils you�ve collected, and you�ll use collage of your paper items as a base for printing and painting several copies of a small accordion book. You�ll learn how to fold the books, giving three dimensional form to your work. The excitement that builds from watching the others in the group produce their books will culminate on the last day of the workshop when everyone will give a copy of his or her book to everyone else in the class. You will take home not only your own book but one of all the others, representing multiple interpretations of the visual richness of Tuscany.

Read more about this workshop below...

The Decorated Jpournal

Simple Printmaking

Gwen at work in the studio

All-inclusive* workshop includes:
Escorted group travel
Rome to Cortona June 20, 2009****
Instruction in the classroom and on location
Seven nights three-star accommodations
in historic Cortona** (Private room & bath)
Local Etruscan Museum & Museo Diocesano
All meals*** (Italian breakfast, lunch and dinner)
Daily wine tasting opportunities
Day trips to Florence
A farewell wine tasting dinner

**Included with "Hotel" plans only. See details.
***Included with "Group Meal Plan" only. See details.
****Specific departure time only; to be announced
*All-inclusive plans are Hotel plans A, C, E, G and Hostel plans I & K only.
Air travel and ground transportation to/from Cortona is not included and is the responsibility of each participant.

Three-star Hotel Oasi Special
All-inclusive w/ private room/bath &
Group Meal Plan...$2749.00 per person!
$2649.00 per person double occupancy
w/Group Meal Plan!
Special Non-participant rates!

Go to Enrollment page

Gwen Diehn

Gwen and Annie

Hotel Oasi Neaumann
proud partner of
Toscana Americana Workshops
since 2003

Visit Hotel Oasi Neumann online

About this workshop...

Sunday - Cortona
Morning Session - Introduction to sketching, stamp making and mixed media (collage, painting, sketching, stamping) small artists� books; go out into the community of Cortona and surrounding countryside to sketch, with the intention of building a collection of around 10 images of a particular subject (doorways, vegetables, birds, patterns, roof patterns, kinds of market stalls and storefronts, churches, small shrines, etc.). Also begin collecting materials for collage and soil to make into paint. Stay together in a group for these activities.

Afternoon Session - Discuss the morning�s activities, then briefly plan locations to go for sketching and collecting in the afternoon. Go out in small groups or individually to sketch and collect. I will circulate from group to group during the afternoon. Reconvene at the end of the afternoon in full group to look at each other�s sketches and gleanings.

Monday - Cortona

Morning Session - More sketching, exploring and collecting in the morning

Afternoon Session - Session on simplifying sketches for use in stamps. Learn how to carve stamps. Begin making paint. Make small practice accordion books to use as sketchbooks in Florence. More sketching and collecting if time.

Tuesday - Florence
All day � Florence trip with site visits. Make sketches for possible use in book. Collect more collage material. Buy 3 or 4 large sheets of paper for the final copies of the books. Visit Vecchi art supply shop and San Lorenzo market, Ponte Vecchio, etc. for sketching.

Wednesday - Cortona
All day - Continue carving and printing, finish making paint. Fold paper for books. Begin putting collage elements, painted backgrounds and prints in books.

Thursday - Cortona

Make sketches in small Florence sketchbook to process the trip, collect collage materials and look for textures to do rubbings to turn into prints.

Friday - Cortona
All day - Finish printing, collaging, and painting the books.

Saturday - Cortona
Morning - Book exchange and celebration first thing in the morning followed by check-out and departure. Outdoor market day in Cortona until 1:00pm

Itinerary

(NOTE: Day trip destinations may vary from those listed below.)

Saturday � Arrival in Cortona

-Arrival and Check-in in Cortona at assigned three-star hotel or hostel.

-7:30p Welcome to Cortona wine and chocolate tasting at La Saletta.

-Evening dinner in Cortona at La Locanda nel Loggiato

Sunday - Cortona

-9:00a-1:00p Morning Session

-1:00p Lunch Hotel Oasi

-3:00-7:00p Afternoon Session

-7:30p Wine tasting

-Evening dinner in Cortona at Trattoria Toscana

Monday - Cortona

-9:00-1:00p Morning Session

-1:00p Lunch TBA

-3:00-7:00p Afternoon Session

-7:30p Wine tasting

-Evening dinner in Cortona

Tuesday - Florence

-Day trip to Florence with lunch provided and site visits TBA

-9:00p Dinner in Hotel Oasi

Wednesday - Cortona

-9:00-1:00p Morning Session

1:00p Lunch Hotel Oasi

-3:00-6:00p Afternoon Session

-Evening dinner in Cortona

Thursday - Cortona

-9:00-1:00p Morning Session

-1:00p Lunch Hotel Oasi

3:00-7:00p Afternoon Session

-Evening dinner at Hotel Oasi

Friday - Cortona

-9:00-1:00p Morning Session

-1:00p Lunch Hotel Oasi

3:00-7:00p Afternoon Session

-8:30p Farewell Wine Tasting Dinner in Cortona at Osteria del Teatro

Saturday � Cortona

-Morning breakfast session

-Vist the outdoor market in Cortona - optional

-Morning Check-out and departure from Cortona or we can help you plan an extended stay!

Note: Toscana Americana reserves the right to alter this itinerary. All times are approximate

Participant Supply List...

Sketchbook�any size you like using

Pen, pencil for sketching

Set of linocut tools (five blades and a handle)

10 Speedycut (or other brand) eraser carving material, either white kind or pink kind, around 3 x 5� each

Stamp pads�one black and at least one in another color.

Niji waterbrush or other watercolor brush, around size 6. A travel brush is good

X-acto knife and extra blades

12� metal ruler

Plastic triangle with one 45 degree angle

Bone folder

Glue stick

Note: Do not pack prohibited items in baggage intended to be taken onboard in the passenger cabin of airlines.

Go to Enrollment page

Tools and hand-made pigments

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