19/11/2022
Farewell to Workshops in Italy
In 1986 my mentor and good buddy, Bill Patterson, asked me what I thought about organizing and teaching an art workshop in Europe. Of course I said “YES!” and Workshops in Italy was born. It started in France (on a castle on the Riviera no less) and was a program for our students at UMASS and the Hartford Art School. We held workshops in Paris, Brugge, Assisi, Venice, Sicily, and at Castel Brunnenberg in the north of Italy. We included visiting artists like Jack Beal, Sondra Freckelton, Gregory Gillespie, William Beckman, Dennis Nolan, Scherer and Ouporov and Scott Prior to work with our participants.
In the early 90’s Bill left the workshop and my other good buddy, Jeremiah Patterson became my workshop partner. We changed the workshop format from one that catered to university students to a workshop for adult artists and art lovers. For over 30 years we shared our great love of Italian art, culture, wine and cuisine while we taught workshops in egg tempera, watercolor and drawing.
This summer we celebrated hosting our final Italian workshop….and it was incredible! Our friends in Cortona opened their restaurants and hearts to us and provided us with fellowship and culinary experiences that we will never forget.
Jeremiah, Bill and I would like to thank all of you who traveled, studied and reveled with us over all of these many years. It has been an AMAZING journey!
Jeremiah will be posting future workshop info.
Fred will again be teaching a workshop with Whidbey Fine Arts on beautiful Whidbey Island August 2023. You can find out more here:
https://www.whidbeyislandfas.com/fred-wessel
