This summer's workshop will be the seventh that I have held in Caunes. Because of the warm hospitality of the town and especially because of the extraordinary efforts of our friends Terry and Lois Link who own the Ancienne Boulangerie Bed & Breakfast and Berges, the workshop studio facilities and accomodations have developed into the kind of artists' retreat I could never have dreamed of. I go there to teach and paint and relax all in ways that I can't do back in the Bay Area. The place, the light and air, the food, the pace of village life in the south of France put me in the frame of mind (and maybe body) to make my best work. That has happened for others who have joined me in the past, perhaps it will be just the thing for you too!
About the Workshop
The focus of my instruction is on creative process. This is a workshop for those committed painters who seek art-instruction structured not as a class, but as a seminar---individual artists with personally-defined project goals who come together to share ideas, points of view, personal perspectives and mutual encouragement under my direction, which is primarily individual. We are also a group of artists and another portion of instruction is for the group itself. I have assembled a reader of articles, interviews and artist's statements as well as slides to augment some of the readings. All of this is to provide a common stepping-off point for discussions about art and artmaking which may go wherever the participants care to take them. In spite of the individual-focused workshop instruction coming from me, artists always learn incredibly valuable and eye-opening things from each other in countless informal, unstructured, serendipitous ways. It is important for me to make room for that to happen.
I plan on using the mornings as a time for demos and instruction in different techniques. During the day, you may work in the studios at Berges, or out and about in the village and its environs. In the afternoons I will be painting in the studio and can be available for conferences. Evenings are open for dinners, discussions and critiques as scheduled by me or needed by the group. First day and last day potluck dinners are scheduled; any others during the workshop can be organized by the group informally anytime people feel like it. (The facilities at Berges make this very pleasant and easy to do.) To ease into these group activities, I will schedule an evening potluck dinner/discussion or two in the Spring before we go to France.
The focus of this 14-day workshop is on individual development. It is important that each participant outline for him or herself project goals to be achieved by the conclusion of the workshop. That these goals need to be practical and realistic given the time-frame is something that I can help you arrive at in advance. What is paramount is that whatever is accomplished (with my help as best that I am able), is of actual use and value to your development as an artist--that it raises your work to a new level.
Think about it this way, you have two weeks in a rustic countryside retreat 7,000 miles away from your otherwise hectic, pressurized life in San Francisco. There are few distractions (except for the fascination of the place, people and the food and wine!) You have ample studio space on beautiful grounds and all the public access land about you as far as you can walk, bike or drive to explore. What can you make of this opportunity to benefit yourself as an artist? This trip may be an occasion to put aside habitual approaches to painting and to try something new, with a mind to how it may change or augment your way of working for the better. It has often had the effect of freeing people up, loosening up their work so that new things happen. It might lead to a change in medium, technique, or creative process. You might opt to work in small format, in series, multi-panel or in book form. You may decide to work in mixed-media or with found-objects. You could end up doing installation or site-work. Any materials or technical approaches which have been placed on hold in your mind, waiting for the right time--this workshop may be that time.
This goes for subject, theme or conceptual matters as well. No matter what your work has been about until now, to live and work only at painting in the South of France will be some kind of departure from the usual. I encourage you to embrace this change by keying in on all those aspects of light, weather, humidity, sounds, smells, tastes, surfaces, spaces, history and culture that make up a sense of place. It could become the subject of your work. Consciously or not, your art in San Francisco has probably been affected by these qualities of "place" which may only become apparent this summer when you engage with a distinctly different place. Sometimes, being in a new place only sharpens the sense of memory of where you come from. Removed from habit and routine, sometimes your mind wanders and alights on things you hadn't thought about for years and memories can well up with surprising urgency. Issues of autobiography and identity can become powerful artistic issues and being immersed in another language and culture raises them into relief. Who knows what will catch hold of your interest? My principal goal for participants in the workshop (aside from your having a wonderful time!) is to stimulate you to discover new sources of motivation and imagination as well as new ways of making art. It is a chance for growth.
After you have given some thought to the above, please submit your project goals to me in writing. It doesn't have to be a term paper, just some thoughts about how you would like to use the workshop. What do you want me to help you with? Be as concrete and specific as possible so that I can start thinking now about how to prepare for the summer. Don't panic if your ideas are unclear; it's early yet. Plans can change over time.
Caunes-Minervois
Caunes is a medieval village--there has been a settlement there at least since the Romans quarried the famed red marble from the mountainside at the edge of town. It has roughly 1,500 residents and a range of services including two restaurants, two cafes, a boulangerie, charcuterie, pharmacy, bank with ATM, super-marche, a grocer and two doctors. Just twelve miles away is the large, perfectly preserved walled city of Carcassone.
Caunes is nestled on the slopes of the Montaigne Noir, a range of hills with peaks up to 3000 feet. Most of the mountainous land to the north of Caunes is public and open for hiking. This area is sparsely populated and forested with pine, chestnut, beech, and oak. The rolling plain stretching miles east to the Mediterranean is largely planted with grapes for the wine industry of Languedoc. Farming in the area also includes apples, cherries, olives, and melons.
Points of interest in the region:
Carcassone, reconstructed medieval Cite (the modern city has a great Saturday open market, also shops, restaurants, art stores etc.)
Nearby wineries, chateaux
Minerve, roman town and Cathar site
Montoulieux, bookstore town
Lastours, nearby Cathar ruins
Peyrepetuse, spectacular Cathar ridgetop fortress in the Corbieres
Collioure, Mediterranean fishing village where Matisse, Derain, Dufy created Fauvism
Ceret, hillside village with museum where Picasso and Braque painted as early cubists
Accomodations and Studio Space:
L'Ancienne Boulangerie Bed and Breakfast The B&B is located within the stone walls of the oldest part of the village of Caunes. The five pretty rooms at L'Ancienne Boulangerie are arranged around a sunny terrace in the center of the building. All are single or double occupancy; three have private baths and two share a bath.
Berges
Terry and Lois also own a property one km outside the village on the banks of the Argent Double River. The main building is a former "usine" or factory for the the cutting up of marble blocks from the nearby quarry. With its large floor space and twenty-foot ceilings, the usine has turned out to be the perfect studio space for the workshop as well as the center of our activities in general. Demonstrations, critiques, evening discussions and dinners have all taken place there and of course painting til all hours of the day and night. Last year, Terry and Lois installed a communal kitchen (not to be confused with the kitchens in each apartment unit) furnished with dishes etc. and a dishwasher in a building ajacent to the studio. This makes it easy to put together potluck dinners and barbeues on the lawn under the cherry trees.
Above the studio space are four fully furnished apartments (each with kitchen and bath). All have double beds in the bedrooms along with a canape lit in the salon. A beautiful black-lined swimming pool is situated next to the building and at the far end of the grounds, past an orchard of cherry trees is a swimming hole beneath a Roman bridge.
Exhibition Space: Village Abbey
Dating from 791 AD, the Abbey was chartered by Charlemagne. This grand historical site is the principal tourist destination for visitors to Caunes. As in past summers, I will arrange a group show of our work in one or more of the public exhibition rooms of the Abbey during our stay.
Workshop Program:
- Fourteen days of painting instruction based on each student's workshop proposal.
- On-site painting (both as a group and individually as you choose to) as well as studio painting at Berges.
- Individual instruction and critique at Berges studio.
- Evening group critiques, slide-lectures, and discussions based on material from the reader (to be provided by me before we leave for France).
- Group exhibition in the Abbey.
- Instruction in French cooking or lecture/tasting of regional wines can be arranged for the group through Lois and Terry if desired. (fee charged)
- Side-trips can be arranged as the group desires (and if we have enough rental cars among us.)
Note:
The above items represent only a rough idea of what we will actually do in the workshop. So much depends upon the desires and needs of the group itself, the weather, and who knows what other circumstances. It's an adventure every time. It has never been the same experience twice.
About Art Supplies and Equipment:
There is a basic, serviceable art supply store (in combination with a house-painting supply store!) in Carcassone which has virtuallly anything you might need, eg. oils and acrylics, gesso, brushes, canvases, even arches paper, 22"x30". There is an upscale stationary/artshop off the square in Carcassone as well. If you have special needs, the best store is Sennelier in Paris which will ship direct to the B & B in Caunes if you arrange for it. Consult with me about these things before we go. Given the extreme airport security measures these days, don't even think about bringing solvents or flammables on the plane. I'll have thinner for you to use in the studio as well as large pressboard panels to paint on so as to preserve the stone walls. You might consider bringing a lightweight travel-easel for en plein air work.
Please send me your questions and suggestions about any aspect of the trip; you can contact me at the numbers below. I will set dates for pre-trip meetings as soon as I have a sense of the group. We might even squeeze in an en plein air landscape session or two before we go--It's fun.
Glen Moriwaki gmoriwak@ccsf.edu