2023 Oaxaca art workshop + cultural immersion

If you’re like me, you’re thinking about what you want for your creative self in this new year…and now is the perfect time to put your desire into action and make a plan. Treat yourself to an art + culture adventure in Oaxaca with us and take home art, memories and experiences that will last a lifetime.

~ Do you need to fill your well of inspiration and recharge your artist soul?
~ Want to join a small group of like-minded travelers and lifelong learners in Mexico?
~ Come join our tribe – play with watercolor, collage, and mixed media with us.
~ Any level of art experience is welcome…you too, beginners.

Thoroughly Oaxaca Art Experience 2: mixed media, natural pigments, symbols & talismans – only 2 spaces left

Our adventures include field trips to a famed Sunday market, studio visits in a weaving village and alebrije village, and the archaeological ruins of Monte Albán. We’ll spend an afternoon exploring Francisco Toledo’s arts center and a papermaking studio. We’ll add locally-sourced natural pigments (cochineal, indigo, marigold) to our toolkits, and make uniquely Oaxacan memories on paper in a handmade artist book that we create. Pedro will patiently guide you in exploring watercolor + painting with natural pigments. This is a chance to consider the “secret soul” of things that matter to you and bring them into your painting. There will be demonstrations in Pedro’s techniques to get you started, but participants will be encouraged to create using their own personal approach. Corrie will introduce mixed media + collage as a vehicle to find your voice, to get over your fears of making a mistake, and to play with the materials at hand. You will experiment with mark making, using fragments, found objects and bits & pieces of ephemera, and you’ll use Oaxaca-sourced natural pigments and handmade paper in an artist book you create to take home.
Click here for complete information and to register

Art Journaling Workshop Oaxaca to Puebla: watercolor, mixed media, collage, ephemera hunt

Are you hooked on art journals and want to play with paint and collage while traveling? Love to incorporate found objects into your art? Want to go on a vintage ephemera hunt in a picturesque alley full of antique stores and an antiquities bazaar? This workshop is for creative hunter gatherers, cultural explorers, and lifelong learners who enjoy expressing themselves visually. First, a week-long deep dive into the art and culture of Oaxaca, with its soulful art scene, indigenous culture, and rich culinary and artisanal traditions. We’ll visit ancient ruins and artisan villages for weaving, alebrijes, and red clay, and go on an evening gallery walk. Then, beautiful Puebla for a weekend search for vintage ephemera and collaging our found treasures. We welcome all levels, you too beginners!
This workshop is a combination of watercolor exploration and creative/visual journaling with mixed media (in a sketchbook or on loose paper) to develop your unique visual voice and mark making by playing with different materials. Be surprised by what shows up on paper, find the imagery that resonates with you. The ultimate goal: finding your symbols, talismans, and personal marks. Complete beginners are welcome and encouraged to join us!
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Día de Muertos Workshop: watercolor, group altar, sand tapestry

Dive into the color and pageantry of Día de Muertos in Oaxaca ~ Day of the Dead! First, a trip to a mercado to shop for altar decorations and offerings (cempasuchil flowers, papel picado, long candles, copal incense, chocolate, special breads, sugar skulls, fruit and mezcal). We’ll visit two cemeteries where Oaxaqueños lovingly decorate the graves of their ancestors and bring offerings to share with their spirits. Join a comparsa – the traditional Muertos parade – along the pedestrian street. We’ll paint imagery and symbolic representations of our loved ones to honor their memories – adding natural pigments made locally (cochineal, indigo, marigold). We’ll assemble a beautiful group altar and construct and decorate a tapete de arena (sand tapestry). Additional group field trips include artisan villages for tapetes (woven wool rugs), alebrijes (carved wooden objects), and the Mujeres del Barro Rojo (Women of the Red Clay) who are “guardians of the identity & pottery tradition of their community” (where they will have their own gorgeous Día de Muertos altar).
Click here for complete information and to register