Every day you will be able to join two courses in the mornings and afternoons which complement each other in their teachings.
*The first and last days are the check-in and check-out dates.

These courses are part of our Residential Programme for Creators on Freedom and Responsibility.

The Alchemist-Painter
Marianna Sauro

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This course is intended to be a journey through history, between science, chemistry and magic, to discover ancient recipes for creating colours and painting tools directly from natural materials.
We will then prepare colours and inks by collecting plants and minerals. We will see which elements can be mixed to create watercolours, tempera and oil colours. We will build brushes and nibs. We will try out various media, to get to experiment with painting and create our works of art.
The tools we will use will be plants, earth and other natural elements (shells, bones, eggs, resin sticks, animal hair, feathers...) that we will obtain from the surrounding area (or that I will bring to you directly). Jars, pestles, wood and many other ingredients will be provided. Students will only need to bring an apron and a pad of drawing paper to experiment on.
This teaching aims to convey to you that in the Nature around us, we can find everything we need to make Art. This makes us free to create wherever we are and whenever we want, without the need to buy paints and other materials. (We are free from the economic system that would like to create for us the need to buy without being able to create for ourselves). The responsibility lies in becoming aware of how we collect natural materials, with an attitude of respect and gratitude, without wasting anything that is given to us by Nature.

Health From Nature’s Wealth
Lara Fondelli

The class deals with Herbal medicine. You can learn how to prepare your own natural “pharmacy” using very simple ingredients and procedures.
The subjects are:
- tincture and glyceric macerate: two different ways to extract healing principles from fresh plants.
-Aloe vera and Aloe arborescens: how you can use them.
- macerated oil, cream and ointment to take care of both your beauty and health.
-Nam mak (thai fermentation): the power of microorganisms for your health.
The class will be very practical and you will be provided with papers summarising all the topics: the main purpose is to provide the basic tools to start easily your own path, to make you able to produce your high-quality products, useful both to heal you and to take care of your beauty and the environment.
Now you are on the way toward freedom: you start acquiring knowledge, then you experiment, and finally, you become competent and you are ready to be independent. Hopefully, you will choose to take the responsibility to spread this ancient knowledge and wisdom to other people.