The hill town of Montefalco can be visited on a day trip from the painting school
Playtime. That’s the spirit in which I start my first ever art course. Bosh, swipe. A few strokes of charcoal and that’ll do for the slice of lush, landlocked Umbria in front of me. Had Leonardo da Vinci been here, he would have approved of this approach, reckons my tutor for the week, Fiona Graham-Mackay. “You are the creator,” she says, “and this is the playful time. Leonardo was very aware of this.” Fiona is as diplomatic as she is encouraging, describing my sketches as “painterly” (ie, messy) and my one oil painting as “musical” (ie, messy). But the week-long course, based in a hilltop villa with views of hills, olive groves and vineyards, is not about producing masterpieces, or even just about art. It’s about, well, getting a bit messy in your head: losing yourself in the creative process and finding a renewed self on the other side – not to mention enjoying top-notch wine and food from the very hills and soils you’re trying to do justice to on paper.
So, here I am on my first morning, sitting in a foldaway canvas chair surrounded by olive trees, board on my lap, charcoal in hand, recalling Fiona’s introductory words of an hour ago: “Drawing is a very, very magical process. Ruskin said that everyone should learn to draw, even before they write.” It’s just as well, then, that my olive grove resembles the free-form splatter of a three-year-old.
Source by:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/umbria/articles/painting-courses-in-umbria/
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