By Marion Jean Hall

Marion Jean and Thomas during Studio Italia Oct. 2011

Painting workshops are easy to find on the Internet. However, thrifty artists must ask the big question: Which ones are worth the investment of time, effort and money?

Based on my recent experience at a ten-day workshop in Tuscany, I can heartily endorse Studio Italia, led by Prof. Yves M. Larocque of the Ottawa School of Art and Monica Marquez, his able partner. (See http://www.walkthearts.com/
_painting_workshops/art_courses_tuscany_intro.shtml)

At $2,790 per person, plus air fare, my husband and I initially hesitated at the price. But, given how much fun it was and how much was included: 10 nights accommodation, 10 breakfasts, 8 lunches, 9 dinners, all the ground transportation, the train ticket to Florence and the entrance to the Uffizi, to say nothing of ten days’ painting instruction and numerous art history lectures, we certainly consider it to have been excellent value.

Studio Italia is a residential workshop operating out of La Fratta, a centuries-old agricultural estate located near the town of Sinalunga in Tuscany. La Fratta’s charming facilities are rustic enough to be interesting and modern enough to be comfortable. The large main living/dining room, complete with huge fireplace, doubles as workshop and meeting space. The bedrooms all have comfortable beds plus their own private shower and toilet. These facilities are all on the upper floor of a renovated two-storey agricultural building, so they are not suitable for people who have difficulty climbing stairs. The estate itself covers over four hundred hectares, with many walking paths and a large outdoor swimming pool for those who wish to get exercise.

During the workshop, Prof. Larocque provides instruction suitable for people working at various levels and in various media. Our group included painters in watercolour, acrylic and oil, plus my dear husband, an absolute beginner who was determined to learn to draw in perspective. La Fratta itself offers plenty of interesting subject matter for painting, sketching and photography—such as lovely old brick buildings with archways and tile rooftops; and fields and furrows with Tuscan hill villages in the distance. Even so, Yves provided transportation every day to picturesque nearby locations for plein air painting—Pienza, Montepulciano, Val d’Orchia, Cortona, Castelmuzio, Lucignano… He also provided helpful feedback and interesting exercises aimed at expanding our ways of seeing and thinking.

Painting all day can be tiring, so meals are important. Monica Marquez worked miracles in the kitchen, providing plentiful, delicious meals using a wide variety of interesting local ingredients. With her characteristic cheerfulness and tact, Monica made sure that participants with allergies received appropriate and tasty food at every meal. She and Yves created a warm, friendly atmosphere at mealtime, with the help of candlelight, lots of good house wine, and their own boundless generosity and enthusiasm, which led to long, enjoyable conversations about art and the meaning of life.

Yves gave several interesting illustrated lectures on art history, emphasizing the Renaissance period, which started in this very region. He led us on tours of Assisi and Florence, with on-going commentary on the art and architecture we were seeing. As someone new to Italy, I was glad that he and Monica also translated for us as required. I appreciated the many special arrangements that they took care of for us, such as a wine-tasting in Montepulciano, and an exhibition of our works in conjunction with a charitable fund-raiser at La Fratta.

 Yves and Monica encouraged us to try everything on offer, but they did not pressure my husband when he preferred to stay at La Fratta and work on his drawings rather than accompany us to the plein air painting sites. Tom’s drawing improved dramatically during the workshop, much to his satisfaction, and he has come home with several pieces to be proud of.

During one of our art crits

This article was published at the ArtEast Newsletter January 2012 Vol. 18 No. 1

http://www.arteastottawa.com/PDF_Files/Newsletters/NL%20-%20COLOUR%20-%20JANUARY%202012.pdf

More to see during New York art trip 2012 (March 8-11)

Danh Võ, "We the People", 2011

Undoubtedly, upcoming spring in NYC will be bursting with Art! Besides the Armory Show, the Whitney Biennial and special exhibits such as Cindy Sherman at the MoMa and John Chamberlain at the Guggenheimm, the New Museum will present its 2012 Triennial entitled “The Ungovernables”.

The 2012 New Museum Triennial will feature thirty-four artists and collectives—totaling over fifty participants—born between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, many of whom have never before exhibited in the US. The theme suggests anarchic and organized resistance and self-determination. “The Ungovernables” aims to show the needs, limitations and potentials of a generation born after the revolutionary movements of the 1960s and 1970s.  Artists and collectives include  Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil), Adrián Villar Rojas (Argentina), Danh Võ (Vietnam), Julia Dault (Canada), Abigail DeVille (U.S.) and House of Natural Fiber (Indonesia).

Our annual art trip to NYC  is always great opportunity to see artists and museums that we love, and also to discover new art!

More information at:

http://www.walkthearts.com/_art_tours/art_tour_new_york.shtml

Contact info.icscis@bell.net

Julia Dault, "Untitled 17", 2011

Arepa con huevo frying; cost 1 500 pesos… 75 cents.

Our last post from Colombia.

Still in the Colombian Caribbean region and already missing some delicious typical food! Would love to go back to Canada with tons of queso campesino (fresh white cheese, great for breakfast), pan de bono (corn and cheese bread), pan de yuca (yucca and cheese bread), patacones (fried plantain slices) and all sort of arepas (cornmeal  pancakes), arepa sencilla (deep-fried, baked or grilled), arepa con queso (grilled and filled with cheese) and arepa con huevo (deep-fried cooked with a raw egg inside) as seen in the photograph. Empanadas (stuffed cornmeal pastry similar in shape to the Italian calzone) are very good too! They can be fried or baked, fillings include shredded beef, pork, chicken and cheese.  Other snacks and accompanying dishes include Carimañola (deep fried roll made from ground yucca and stuffed with meat or cheese), suero (a cross between yoghurt and sour cream) which is great as a topping for boiled yucca and of course, coconut rice! Fish and seafood are also very popular in this region and include deep-fried whole mojarra and deep-fried red snapper as well as shrimp and calamari rice.

Participants of Studio Cartagena 2013 will have the opportunity to try all the above! During our last Holidays get-together several of icscis-walkthearts friends asked us to organise a trip to the Colombian Coast. We are working on the schedule and the final dates (probably around February or March) and will announce it soon. No more than 8 participants!

In a few days, back to North America!

Monica writing this last post

The museum infrastructure in Cartagena

The museum's entrance

It must be lack of political will, maybe corruption, and worst, complacency, but since the last 11 years in Cartagena in Colombia, its Museum of Modern Art did not evolve at all. I would have expected fixed walls, a better hanging system, a humidity control environment for the protection of art; new acquisitions, contemporary art, but nada! Rien! Niente! Why? Por qué?

Cartagena de Indias, one of the more known city in Colombia (if not in the world!) with its one million inhabitants, welcomes more than two million people per year, and we do not understand I come the Cartagena’s Museum of Modern Art (MMAC) is such in poor condition. Indeed, the museum infrastructure lacks in this beautiful country, maybe less in Bogotá, but it does on the Northern Coast. There is so much to be accomplished! If walkthearts.com was on its board of directors (if there is one), we would certainly ask for discipline and transparency and we would make sure that the MMAC would have much greater visibility. How come so many visitors in this city bring no money to the museum? The entrance fee is only 5 000 pesos, the equivalent of around 2.50$, which could bring at least between 600 thousands to 1 million dollar per year, if around half the visitors wants to visit the museum; it takes only an average of 30 minutes to visit the two small floors. Cartagena could have posters, banners everywhere to underline the presence of its museum, just like we do in the G20 countries. The vacationers on cruise ships should be immediately brought toward the MMAC on San Pedro square. Why not a QR code? Maybe they have one, but we never saw it.

The political situation is much better now in Colombia since the two last presidencies. Now it is time to invest in the museum infrastructure with ONLY the entrance fee money. It is possible, only if there is a will. Complacency is not good! We are sending this post to the Tiempo.

One of the 5 rooms

The Cathedral Maria Reina

The stain glasses of the portal (inside)

Today, I finally visited the Barranquilla’s cathedral. I walked downhill from El Prado to the much poorer city sector, the centre. I found the church extremely well designed, noticed the purity of lines and spaces, the reason I am sharing this post with you all.  Moreover, the modern gothic Maria Reina Cathedral has an epic very close to the building of Chartres and Bourges cathedrals, both French gothic, since it took 27 years to build it and for the same reasons: lack of money and civil unrest. The construction started in 1955.

But what I found more interesting, the church was designed by a great Italian architect, Angiolo Mazzoni who was exiled from Italy because of false accusations toward the Italian monarchy. And what is even more interesting, he designed the Rome train station Termini (the one we walk every year because of Studio Italia) on top of other great stations such as in Siena and Venezia. He is a proponent of the so called Fascist architecture, the reason of his presence in Colombia after the war.

Maria Reina is indeed beautiful. Vast and well lit with huge and wonderful stain glasses (by Mario de Ayala), it can accommodate very large crowds in an oval space. The sculpture of Christ in the apse, Christ as the Liberator of Latin America (R. A. Betancourt) is just stunning. Scarcity can be noticed in the high reliefs of the apse since they are made in plaster from a dozen of moulds; but they are beautiful.  The vault (my photograph) resting on the four walls and the clerestory opening to the outside open space, recall the construction of the past Gothic.

Indeed, a beautiful morning spent by myself, in meditation, in this beautiful barranquillero building.  By the way, walkthearts is organizing a painting workshop in Colombia for early 2013.

The vault resting on the four walls with its open clerestory.

Colombian Art 101

Today, I visited the Museo d’Arte Moderno de Barranquilla.  Fortunately, and thanks again to the great Colombian amiability, they opened it just for me since it was close for renovation, and the guard noticing that I was a gringo from Canada… – on my way to the museum, I saw the dogs of my last post sleeping on the street.  The MMAB had a special exhibit of Luis Caballero’s  works, based on strong gay eroticism.  It was my first encounter with this artist whom I found very interesting. His drawings (conté, sanguine and watercolour) were just astounding. Born in 1947, he died at a very young age, in 1995.

After visiting this very small museum, undoubtedly, I would sincerely say that the golden age of Colombian art was belong to the late 50s and the early 60s, just before the civil unrest which led to the FARC movement; war and art doesn’t go well together, unless you want to express its horrors such as Goya, Callot and many more did.  This golden age is linked to the American Abstract Expressionism influence felt all over the world. Worth to underline once more, the works of the barranquillero Alejandro Obregón which for me are very romantic since they call always nature. Enrique Grau, from Cartagena (a city two hours away) is also a prominent figure of Colombian painting, but more conservative in his approach to art. Below, Woman with a fan (1960), is a good example of his works when the flatness of canvas joust with figuration. Needless to mention the works of Botero renowned throughout the world. Indeed, Obregón, Grau and Botero compose the triumvirate of Colombian Art, just like Riopelle, Pellan and Borduas for Canada; and Pollock, Rothko and Warhol for the United States.

 

Art in Atlántico

C. Restrepo, Siera Nevada de Santa Marta, 1999.

Today, we attended the official inauguration of the new Museo del Atlántico in Barranquilla, a city on the north coast of Colombia, capital city of the department (or state) of Atlántico. The celebration brought forth two exhibitions: a curated show and the permanent collection. Approximately 100 works of uneven quality were shown on two floors of a renovated colonial building which used to belong to an old French family, the Duguand.  Picaditas tipicas (Colombian hors-d’oeuvres) were served in the typical congenial atmosphere and it was the moment to renew old friendships such as with Miguel Iriarte, the director of the Aduana (Old custom building) where we had a show many years ago, and the director Maria-Eugenia Castro of the Museum of Modern Art of Barranquilla.

Two of our favourite works were Carlo Restrepo’s Siera Nevada de Santa Marta (aluminium based), and this wounded bitch with her six puppies, a perfect reflection of Colombian poverty, a work which made me forget to take note of the artist (a good sign). As for the Restrepo’s work, it is a very good interpretation of colours and the space of the region, a landscape done differently.

The Department of Atlántico is working hard in bringing cultures to Barranquilla’s old center where crime and poverty are rampant. Let’s hope by bringing art to this extremely interesting part of the city, will bring happiness and on the long run, education, health and wealth.

The Museum is at Call 35 Cra. 39, Barranquilla, Colombia.

Sorry for forgetting to take the name

Tintin and Pop Art

As you already know, we offer art history and painting courses at the Ottawa School of Art.  In one of our courses, students were asked to develop a conceptual work that reflects the confluence of Pop Art and Tintin. All this ended up with a student show curated by Ashlea Low (left). According to Ashlea:

“Since January 10^th 1929, Hergé’s Tintin has engaged us with the adventures of a young investigative reporter and his fox terrier Snowy (Milou). Tintin never ceases to amaze us with his dangerous adventures and corky tales. In the upcoming 3-D movie by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, Tintin will be featured in a new 21st Century style.

As we all know, Pop Art is inspired by modern popular culture and mass media. During the 60s, artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns, used imaging from comic books, advertisements, consumer products, television, and the movies to expose critical or ironic values.  Our class did the same thing but with Tintin’s world. Our works recreate Tintin’s characters in the political turmoil of today’s society and under a contemporary Pop Art twist. Notice Tess Parker’s work when Tintin is holding a iPhone (left), and saying the very same words from the original album.

In conclusion we have taken Tintin, stripped him down and recreated him in the new world by using the Pop culture irony of today. In these paintings we have recreated a unique vision of Tintin. Understanding the world around us and incorporating it into a Pop Art style was challenging, but forced us to see what today is like in comparison to the society in which Tintin was created.”

Suzanne, Robert, Marguerite and Taylor

“Creativity in our everyday lives”

Last night we had our icscis alumni holidays get together and we had lots of fun! We ate and drank well among discussions about art and life. A common topic among our group was the importance of creativity in our everyday lives.  While our routines at the office and at home leave hardly any space for creativity, we need to add quality time to our lives.  And for this we need to fulfill our natural need to express our uniqueness, may it be through painting, sculpting, writing, singing, etc. Let’s not forget Queen’s song “these are the days of our lives”!

As we said in our holidays invitation to all icscis alumni, since we have such good memories about our meals together may it be in Tuscany, Provence, Egypt or New York, this year we decided to plan a night out restaurant.  And we loved the experience! It was great to see so many icscis friends, thanks for joining us!

Halina and Yves

Olivia Boudreau, L'étuve, 2011

“The Québec Triennial 2011: The Work Ahead of Us”

On view until January 3, the second edition of the Quebec Triennial at The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal  is worthwhile to visit!

The title “The Work Ahead of Us” is borrowed from an installation by Grier Edmundson, one of the artists in this Triennial. He himself took it from an essay by the Russian avant-garde artist Vladimir Tatlin. The title suits the exhibition since it explores the boundaries between historical and contemporary art approaches and raises questions about the future of art in a critical and ever-changing present.

The exhibition features the works by fifty emerging and mid-career artists in and around the Montreal area.  Among our favorites, Olivia Boudreau’s L’Étuve (2011), an impressive video installation of a group of women gathered together in a steam room and Numa Amun’s Citadelle des sens, a series of surrealist drawings in ink on paper resembling medical textbook prints.

We enjoyed very much our visit and we are now looking forward to visiting The Armory Show and the Whitney Biennial next spring during New York art trip 21012 (March 8-11).  By the way, we still have space! Find all the details at:http://www.walkthearts.com/_art_tours/art_tour_new_york.shtml

Numa Amun, Citadelle des sens, 2007-09