Exploring Place Based Pigments and Papers

This program begins Sunday, July 6, and ends Saturday, July 12. The fees listed at right include lodging and all meals (except “Commuter”, which includes a Commuter Meal Plan).  An additional sliding scale Course Fee is required.  For more information on our pricing, see our Pricing page.

This course will teach students how to make their own watercolor paints and papers from locally foraged materials. This course will include a mixture of outdoor time and studio time. Outdoor time will be spent discussing and foraging for various rocks, soils, plants and saps that can be used in paint and paper making. Studio time will focus on transforming these materials into watercolors and handmade papers, and eventually creating entirely handmade watercolor paintings. Students will leave the course with at least one fully handmade painting, and several recipes and instructions for making their own locally sourced paints and papers at home.

This course will seek to help students explore their relationships with the world around them through foraging, paint making and papermaking. We will meet these objectives by taking foraging walks during which I will teach students how to find and ethically harvest ochres and paper making materials. I will then teach them to use these materials to create handmade watercolor paints and handmade papers. I will encourage an awareness of where art making materials come from and where they go after they are done being art (whether that be in one year or hundreds). My goal is for students to develop a connection with place through art making, and for them to finish the course with the information necessary to continue to develop these skills if they choose to do so.