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Quattro Archi Art Centre Newsletter January 2025

Lovely linocut view from the Quattro Archi Art Centre terrace by one of our talented students (Rachel)
Lovely linocut view from the Quattro Archi Art Centre terrace by one of our talented students (Rachel)
 

Happy New Year to all our followers and a big thanks for your support in 2024. The world seems quite a tumultuous place at the moment so it's nice to reflect on the relative timeless tranquillity of Barga....our favourite medieval town!

 

Discount Offer. As a matter of some urgency, I need to remind our visitors from previous years that the 'repeat-visit' discount offer runs out on 15th January, so please take up the offer, we'd love to see you again. After three years of running the Quattro Archi Art Centre it's satisfying to see a steady stream of regulars returning for a bit more creativity, tranquillity, companionship, weather or maybe another glass of the local Sangiovese wine. We have one place on our LinoCut+ workshop in late May, one on the silk printing and painting session in June (Carole Waller), some places on the Painting techniques workshop and also the bookbinding. The Bookbinding is actually two workshops. The first is just bookbinding where you have the opportunity to create 10 different types of binding, making books to take home with you, guided by the very talented Victoria. The second is an Artist's Book workshop in which you firstly work with printmaking and multimedia processes to create some of your own papers which then with other material are assembled into your own design of book and binding. A wonderful peice of artwork in its own right, a wonderful thing to hold and enjoy. If you fancy joining us later this year, please get in touch. And remember, the early booking discount is only available this week.



There's some great examples of Artist's Books in the Bainbridge Museum.


LinoCut+ 20 May, Colour To Cloth 4 June, Bookbinding with Victoria 27 August, Artist's Book 3 September, Painting Techniques 24 September.

 

Potatoes

It's snowy in Scotland....at least where I am now.....so that I have had to dig through the snow to find my potatoes. But never-the-less worth it to get lovely fresh potatoes with zero food miles. But I am looking forward to the summer and our new season. We have our first workshop (LinoCut+) starting the last week in April. We are in Barga in February and March doing our preparations which is always hard work but good fun.



 

New Series of Paintings

Jane Richardson has been busy with a new series of paintings of the churches of Barga. The cathedral (Duomo) is a seperate piece of work but this series of churches includes five beautiful churches in Barga. Two are outside the medieval walls and the other three are inside. Santissima Crocefisso (fixed cross....crucifix) is beleived to be one of the oldest buildings in Barga. Timeless beauty. The pictures will be on show in the Quattro Archi gallery and Jane has also printed greetings cards from the paintings. Can you spot the 'deliberate error'


 
Tea towel image of Duomo Barga
Tea towel image of Duomo Barga

Dirty Dishes-Clean Glasses?

Washing up may not be everyone's favourite task but we have something to help you. Jane has been busy making tea towels for drying all those dishes or polishing those glasses. Her teatowels are really top quality linen with a handy hanging loop and feature a linocut design of the Duomo in Barga. They are available in the Quattro Archi gallery this year.




 
Friendships are created on workshops at Quattro Archi Art Centre
Friendships are created on workshops at Quattro Archi Art Centre

Face-To-Face Workshops

I was fascinated by a recent podcast about relationships in the first quarter of the twenty first century. (It's scary to think that's where we are when the 21st Century used to be the future!) It was talking about the way we have developed relationships of many types online and in many ways become quite comfortable with that.....despite the scary aspects of social media which keep cropping up. But one of the aspects missing from the the online realtionship seemed to be 'context'. The kind of context you get when you meet someone face to face. In a fraction of a second we make hundreds of assessments and judgements ......a skill learned over a lifetime. Not all our initial assessments are 100% accurate but our in-built analysis system....our intuition..... is often quite reliable and we can of course adjust things as we go...... sometimes a person is 'all-the-better-for-knowing'.

So it made me think about the many online courses which are fantastic tools and often great value, but lack that context. They don't let your brain's social tools work the way they would normally, so the friendship/relationship is sometimes hollow. It contrasts with our experience at Quattro Archi where we welcome people to stay as a small group with a common interest and shared environment (with private ensuite rooms!) where there is loads of context and people's 'social antennae' can go to town building relationships.


Drawing to Print Workshop
Drawing to Print Workshop

For practical organisational reasons we set-up WhatsApp groups for each of our workshops or retreats. People use it to arrange meal times or share photos etc. But the surprising thing is that after three years, they are still active with people sharing stories, pictures and good wishes. One of the groups has had a re-union and planning another. And I think the quality and enduring nature of the friendships which have sprung up from the retreats at Quattro Archi is because they are based on a face to face contact. So it was no surprise that the podcast I was listening to added that even today 90% of successful long term relationships arise from face to face contact.

So if you fancy some face to face contact in a creative friendly environment in Tuscany this summer, we still have a few places available such as the exciting bookbinding workshop with Victoria, the Artist's Book workshop or the painting techniques workshop, please get in touch. hello@quattroarchibarga.com

 

That's all for now. Off to Barga soon to get ready for the season, hope to hear from you. Any questions, please get in touch. hello@quattroarchibarga.com

Kind regards,

Jane

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