Santa Fe, New Mexico

Casa Nambé Retreat

Semana Santa: Watercolor for Self-Expression
with artist Carol Duchamp

April 1 - 7, 2007 (Sun-Sat, 6 nights/7 days)

Class Fee: $1,395

Inclusive in Package:
- 6 nights lodging at Casa Nambé Retreat (double occupancy).
- Santa Fe transfers to Casa Nambe & all ground transportation.
- All meals featuring continental breakfasts & gourmet cuisine (except 2 lunches and 2 dinners during filed excursions).
- Excursions to Chimayo, Ojo Caliente & Taos Pueblo.
- Visits to O'Keeffe & Folk Art Museums & Santa Fe galleries.
- Workshop tuition. Materials list to be provided.
- Airfare is not included: Southwest Air flies into Albuquerque.
- Class size is limited to 7 participants.

Course Outline
A vast and dreamlike horizon stretches over the high mesas of Indian country. Incredible landscapes of high chaparral and red rock canyons display remnants of the Golden Age of the Pueblo Indians. Luminious skies, earth pigments and folk traditions add to our palette of colors. We visit the healing sanctuary of Chimayo, Taos Puebloe, Ojo Caliente Hot Springs,and enjoy Santa Fe's Folk Art and O'Keeffe Museums and Canyon Road Galleries.

This year's trip takes place during Semana Santa when thousands of pilgrams walk on Good Friday to the Santuario of Chimayo for healing and on behalf of those who are ill. Built in 1816, Chimayo is the Lourdes of New Mexico - whose holy earth beneath the church's floor is reputed to have miraculous healing powers.

This watercolor painting workshop is ideal for beginners, teachers, therapists and artists, working in any medium, who are seeking a fresh start. Non-artists wishing to explore watercolor as self-expression are welcome. Whether your work moves in a realistic or abstract direction, class methods for exploring the poetic spontaneity of watercolor will be appreciated. Using a full range of wet-into-wet techniques, we will encourage 'the inner artist' to create a personal visual language, discovering the colors, shapes and subjects unique to each of us.

Class demonstration and discussion will include wetting the paper, color flooding and gradation, brushwork, compositional energy, atmospheric effects, edge tinting, textual elegance and the use of watercolor crayon. We will expereiment with the beauty of accidents, back-up puddles and capillary action. Class size is limited to 7.

Carol Duchamp, M.A. University of Strasbourg, France, has been leading outdoor painting classes in the U.S. and abroad for 20 years. Her teaching style encourages experimentation and self-discovery in a supportive environment that nourishes the intuitive power of self-expression. Her watercolors are rich in color, lushly staurated and sensual in form, and have been described as "cosmic, flowing and full of light." Carol teaches at her Studio on the Mesa in West Marin and for UCSC Extension Cupertino, City College of San Francisco Fort Mason Campus and Art Trek. Carol exhibits her work in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Casa Nambé Retreat: Located on a mesa with a spectacular view of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, Casa Nambé is a historic 1930's adobe hacienda. The hacienda - with its pine vigas, wood and tile floors, kiva fireplace, cactus gardens and epic views - is decorated with regtional crafts and art works from around the world. Retreats emphasize small cohorts, personal creativity and tranquility. An outdoor hot tub is available. Lodeing is in double occupancy rooms with private and shared baths. Casa Nambé is a non-smoking environment.

To enroll in Semana Santa Watercolor for Self-Expression class, please mail a $500 deposit check made payable to 'Four Directions'. Deposit is refundable until six weeks prior. Mail to Carol Duchamp, Art Trek, P.O. Box 1103, Bolinas, CA 94924. Email carol@arttreks.com. You will receive a confirmation packet and detailed pre-departure information including suggested materials list.