This past June, artist and tutor, Chris Bell, and his beautiful wife, Krysia, welcomed 7 of us to their home and studio outside Barga for a week of drawing, painting, glazing, experimenting, eating, drinking, laughing and taking in the beauty of this northern part of Tuscany. A fantastic experience at Art Toscana!

Over the next 2 posts, I’ll share some of our creations.

And if you must see more art from some of my classmates, here are their websites.

http://joannatan.com/

http://www.jannettekeating.com/jart/home.html

First up, we did collaborative abstract drawings in charcoal – a fun exercise to get the imagination fired up. We started by taking turns adding charcoal lines to each other’s canvases. Emerging shapes, themes and scenes were highlighted further in charcoal, then press-printed onto large sheets of paper which became glazed acrylic paintings. (I apologize for the less-than-stellar photography – some photos didn’t turn out at all and so some of my classmates’ works are missing.)

Deb Milimaka-Miles

Jannette Keating

Joanna Tan

Our next project was a plein air oil painting, capturing the surroundings from a fabulous private garden in Barga.

Joanna Tan

Carmel Hornidge

Deb Milimaka-Miles

Wendy Harrex

Frances Chua

Jannette Keating

Marion Younan

Stay tuned for Part 2!