Painting in and Around Florence

3 units

Students will spend an intensive month painting in and around Florence. This course will provide daily opportunities for investigation of the city and a range of experience oil painting, from one-day sketches to more finished work. Students will work from direct observation, painting on a French easel and will spend the first day buying any necessary materials. Students will record their daily visual experiences of the city in oil sketches at Piazzas Signoria, Annuciata, Santo Spirito, San Marco, and Santa Croce. The class will investigate some of the city's famous sites including the Duomo, the Battistero, and set up along the Arno to paint the Ponte Vecchio. For a more panoramic approach, work will be done in the relative calm of the Boboli Gardens and Belvedere Fortress and San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo. Studens will also visit teagarden dei Semplici and the gardens at Villa Medicea di Castello. Trips to nearby towns of Fiesole and San Gimignano will offer a change of pace and an opportunity to paint the Tuscan landscape.