Kimberly Becker

"I love sharing my experiences with others, and am passionate about new experiences."

Each day will start with a Tuscan style breakfast including fresh bread, pastry, sweet spreads, and cafe, cappuccino or tea. Fine wines from the region or IL Rifugio's house wine is included with our meals and wine tasting event. Free-time periods will be determined by the dynamics of the class and the preferences of the participants.

Please note the itinerary is subject to change.

To begin this workshop, I will pass out sketchbooks and we will look at any materials that people brought from home.  I will show how to put articles from magazines into the sketchbooks so both sides of the page can be read.  We can talk about what is inspiring to someone, and how to capture that idea in a sketchbook. Try stream of conscious writing; I give you a word, and you just start writing what comes into your mind until I say stop. Then we discuss how this exercise stimulated your thinking.  We will have a discussion about what motivates us to create.

Lunch and dinner will be provided at Il Rifugio with ample time between to explore the grounds or enjoy relaxing at the house and working on your projects. Kimberly will be available to answer any questions. We can discuss how even a paper menu, or a wine label, may be what excites you and how to keep an eye out for materials to use in your books. This class will be quite free form. If the actual drawing and painting in the sketchbook is appealing, that will carry us in one direction.  If, however, this group is not comfortable with their artistic abilities, and would like to lean more toward putting materials or words into the book, then that will carry us in a different direction!

Today we will spend the morning in the historic Etruscan hill town of Cortona to familiarize you with the town where you might want to spend some of your free time shopping, visiting galleries or museums.

After lunch in Cortona we will return to Il Rifugio for a chance to add any new materials to our sketchbooks, and an introduction to the art of creating collage.  During each class, Kimberly will be reading from books that inspire creativity.

Tonight we will have a hands on cooking lesson at Il Rifugio and eat what we create.

This morning we will spend a couple of hours foraging the grounds around Il Rifugio for natural materials to include in our books.

After a short break (and snacks of course), we will compile the material we collected on the property and in the town and apply them to our books and collages. Using some of my sketchbooks and journals as examples during this session, I will show participants how to put together small sketchbooks or journals to carry with them using various papers for covers, endpaper ideas, and some simple binding methods.

After lunch at Il Rifugio there will be time for discussion of our work so far. This will be an opportunity to share with the others what you discovered in the process, and for discussion of which technique- sketchbooks and journals, or collage, work best to express your ideas and thoughts. There will be example sketchbooks to look at for ideas on future projects.

This evening we will return to Cortona for wine and cheese at a unique art gallery/shop and then go for a traditional Tuscan meal at a local restaurant.

Today we will explore more of the materials that can be used in our creations. I will have plenty of marking materials and supplies such as watercolors, colored pencils, charcoal, fabric and glue, or simply writing thoughts with words. During this period we will look at and discuss your choice of art materials I will ask each student to bring from home.

Lunch will be at Il Rifugio and after lunch we will all work on our projects with the help of Kimberly.

Think Leonardo Da Vinci and Michael Angelo! Tonight you will be the guests of a Renaissance night at Il Rifugio. There will be a lecture/slid show by a local expert followed by an all Renaissance food dinner. This is educational and a lot of fun.

Today will be an all-day trip to the famous hill town of Civita di Bagnoregio.

Kimberly has relatives that where born in this very unique town!

Dinner will be either at a restaurant or at Il Rifugio depending on where the day of travel leads us.

Today I will begin by reading from a children's book or poem, and then the class will spend a specific amount of time creating a collage that expresses whatever part of the reading stays in your mind.  This spontaneous activity always has exciting results!

Finally, we will wrap things up with a critique of the work we have made, and time to answer any questions anyone may have about how to continue at home with your sketchbooks and collages.

Lunch will be at Il Rifugio and the afternoon is yours to explore and shop in Cortona. We will all meet a local restaurant for a final dinner.

Departure Day   10:00 AM - We bid you a reluctant "arrivederci". Transfer from IL Rifugio to Cortona or the train station will be provided.