Overview

It has been three full days since we have been home, and we have unpacked our many purchased educational books, CDs and DVDs, downloaded and printed photos, and revisited our many pieces of artwork. We are still on ‘Cloud-9’ after spending four days in Florence and two weeks painting many of the medieval towns of Umbria. Over a course of almost three weeks, we have visited and seen numerous Etruscan and Roman ruins, beautiful elaborate Duomos (churches), medieval hill towns, historically significant artworks from the medieval to the Renaissance, and painted magnificent views. We drew our inspiration from this incredible journey and each of us created 30 – 40 pieces of artwork. Our travels started in Florence and then brought us to Terni, Valle San Martino, Orvieto, Carsulae, Todi, Massa Martana, San Gemini, Assisi, Montefalco, Spoleto, Cascata delle Marmore, Piedluco Lake, and Perugia.

The New Directions in Watermedia workshop not only provided us the opportunity to paint on location in some of the most beautiful medieval towns of Umbria, but in the evenings we learned various art techniques, which included: pouring watercolor, making and painting with tempera (with real egg yolk), gold leafing (imitation gold), exploring with Caran d’Ache and watercolor pencils, and working with conte. Also, don’t forget, we had the opportunity to make marbleized paper in Florence.

We have so much we want to share with our students, which will include lessons on:
A. Plein-air Painting
· History of plein-air painting
· Watercolor techniques
· Elements of a landscape
· Using a view finder
· Aerial perspective
· Linear perspective
· Packing a plein-air backpack
· Keeping a small sketchbook
· Field trip to paint on location
B. Italian Painting from Medieval to Renaissance
· Giotto, Benozzo Gozzoli, Filippo Lippi, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Luca Signorelli, Michelangelo, Raphael
C. Descriptive Writing Based from a Painting
· Describing a landscape, Telling a story
D. History/Architecture
· Estrucan Ruins, Roman Ruins, Medieval, Gothic, Renaissance
E. Science of Art
· How to make tempera paint, and painting frescoes
· Conservation of a fresco
· Gold leafing
· The process of making marbleized paper