The 2024 Summer Seminar at Torri Superiore - Italy
THE 2024 SUMMER SEMINAR AT TORRI SUPERIORE
IS NOW OPEN FOR REGISTRATION !
Come spend 3 weeks in a 14th century Alpine Village
Creating Visionary Works of Art with Old Master's Methods
Saturday July 13th - Sunday August 4th 2024
Learn Different Variations of
~
THE MISCHTECHNIK ~
A Layered Approach to Oil Painting
~ Enjoy Communal Living in our friendly Eco-village ~
Under the guidance of TWO TEACHERS,
You'll develop TWO ORIGINAL PAINTINGS:
All students will create one painting in the traditional Egg Tempera Mischtechnik
...with STEFAN LUCAS ALLEN - Paint Your Dragon.
And, they will create a second painting in a Variation of the Mischtechnik
UNDER EITHER:
...LAURENCE CARUANA, for intermediate & advanced students,
Enter Through the Image in the Casein & Oil Mischtechnik
OR
...FLORENCE MÉNARD, for beginner & intermediate students,
Paint Your Inner Goddess in a Layered Approach to Oils.
TUITION FOR THE COURSE INCLUDES 3 WEEKS OF FULL ACCOMMODATION
IN COSY APARTMENTS WITH 3 FULL MEALS PER DAY.
Come share your vision with a group of kindred spirits!
~ NOW IN ITS 14TH YEAR ~
OUR SEMINAR OFFERS 3 WEEKS OF INTENSIVE TEACHING
~ TORRI SUPERIORE ~
A MEDIEVAL ECO-VILLAGE VILLAGE
Torri Superiore is a labyrinthine village of spiralling stairs & narrow passages,
built from the local limestone in 1300.
In this cosy & creative atmosphere, the inhabitants live in harmony with Nature,
practicing Permaculture & Sustainable Living.
We will become part of village life ~ sharing in communal meals prepared by the local chef
from fresh and mostly organic ingredients grown in the surrounding fields…
Each Student brings their own unique talent to the Seminar
~ Yoga, Chanting, Live Music ~
to enhance the group experience
THREE TEACHERS ~ TWO PAINTINGS
~ ONE UNIQUE SEMINAR FOR 2024 ~
Stefan Lucas Allen will guide you through the process of PAINTING YOUR DRAGON in the traditional version of THE MISCHTECHNIK, which alternates between egg tempera whites and coloured glazes in linseed oil & pure gum turpentine.
To ignite your imagination, you'll begin with a Guided Meditation (accompanied by Florence Cuepaliztli on the medicine drum) to journey through the inner plains and meet your dragon ally.
Immediately after, you'll foster that initial spark with a rough compositional sketch, followed by an earth-tone brunaille underpainting ~ setting you up for a systematic approach to completing the painting in the Mischtechnik. You'll learn to mix and apply the egg tempera whites, followed by glazing in oils.
An additional aspect of Stefan’s dragon painting process is the partial implementation of Alla Prima Painting, also known as direct oil painting or wet into wet. Stefan will show you how to seamlessly weave Alla Prima into the Mishctechnik, reducing the amount of time it takes to complete your piece and giving your painting new-found dimensions of depth.
There will be group demos and daily individual check-ins, as well as ample time for painting.
Stefan is a dynamic teacher who is sensitive to the skill level and chosen direction of each student, making this class a great learning experience for all.
~ PAINT YOUR DRAGON ~
with STEFAN LUCAS ALLEN
AS A BONUS...
If you’re feeling especially motivated, you can join Stefan during one of his many sessions before class in the early morning, or after class in the late evening ~ setting out into the beautiful Alpine landscape to create ALLA PRIMA PLEIN AIR PAINTING STUDIES.
This extra-curricular activity is an exceptional way to study the natural light of our world, up-leveling your ability to depict subtleties of color and light in your visionary works.
FOR YOUR SECOND PAINTING, WE INVITE YOU
TO CHOOSE LAURENCE OR FLORENCE
Symbols are like doorways into the visionary realm. Every symbol has a personal meaning as well as an archetypal one. In this class, Laurence Caruana will encourage you to ENTER THROUGH THE IMAGE - approaching your painting as a symbolic doorway for journeying into the visionary realms.
Students are encouraged to come with a core image or sketch - even a complete drawing - that we can transfer onto the 40 x 60 cm panels (photocopied collages are also welcome). From here, we’ll begin a shared journey into painting and seeing.
With Laurence, you'll learn an interesting VARIATION OF THE MISCHTECHNIK. Together, we’ll select a unique colour for your imprimatura, then work our way up from that visual foundation - transferring the drawing (with white transfer paper) and then rendering the volumes in a mixture of oil and casein whites. We'll then develop a colour strategy for glazing our way towards the completed work. This can vary from a limited palette to spectral colour.
Laurence Caruana founded the Summer Seminar in 2008, teaching every summer for five years until his duties as Academy Director made him gladly turn over his seminar teaching duties to other faculty members. This is the first time since 2018 that he is back as a teacher at Torri, and he’s very enthusiastic about sharing his latest discoveries with the students.
~ ENTER THROUGH THE IMAGE ~
with LAURENCE CARUANA
FROM INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED...
Laurence has worked with students of all levels, but will particularly welcome more advanced students to join him in this master class, where we will attempt more difficult painterly effects such as transparencies, opalescent jewels or highly-polished sculptural surfaces.
According to the needs of each student, we’ll take a deep dive into compositional harmony, sacred geometry, posing the figure or the alchemy of painting materials.
~ PAINT YOUR INNER GODDESS ~
with FLORENCE MÉNARD CUEPALIZTLI
Florence will guide you through the process of PAINTING YOUR INNER GODDESS, using A LAYERED APPROACH TO OIL PAINTING.
As a moondancer and inner journeyer, she’s passionate about offering Inner Journeys to help you find the deepest images inside yourself. Using her voice along with drum or chimes, you'll be guided into a closed-eye inner journey to meet the feminine part of yourself ~ your inner goddess. (This class is open to men and women, encouraging all genders to identify with their inner feminine).
Through the painting process, you’ll connect with her on a deeper level - bringing the goddess to life... To begin, we’ll achieve some interesting effects in the background through different decalcomania techniques. Then, after underpainting in oil whites, we’ll glaze in oil colours and finish with direct painting.
The beautiful Nature around Torri Superiore will inspire our imagination, seeking out the elements of earth, air, fire and water as inspiration for ornaments. You will also learn how to make rich, deep skin tones through layering the paint.
Florence will demonstrate how to mix different coloured earth pigments into your egg tempera, and how to create gold and silver paint to achieve some interesting effects in the final layers.
FROM BEGINNER TO INTERMEDIATE..
Florence started her painting career ten years ago and is now eager to share what she’s learned during her intensive academy years.
She encourages beginners to pick up the brush and overcome inner resistance - showing you how to go with the flow, trust yourself and be playful. She's also eager to share her layered approach with intermediate students.
Feel free to call Florence by her Moondance name Cuepaliztli (from the Aztec Nahuatl language ~ meaning transformation) and learn with her how to open your senses, observe Nature and be one with your Inner Goddess.
~ THE TECHNIQUES ~
STEFAN LUCAS ALLEN
~ Traditional Egg Tempera Mischtechnik ~
A PEEK INTO THE STAGES
OF A MISCHTECHNIK PAINTING
The traditional MISCHTECHNIK uses egg tempera, which is a mixture of whole egg in an aqueous medium (such as gum arabic). After that, white pigment is mixed into the egg tempera to create a soft paste.
This paste is a WATER-BASED medium (you dip your brush into water before applying the egg tempera), creating a fluidity that is especially suitable for hatching fine lines and building up textured volumes.
The semi-transparent whites are necessary for the optical colour mixing that occurs when the coloured glaze is applied over top in an OIL-BASED medium such as linseed oil and gum turpentine. The process is repeated in multiple layers while also rendering some parts directly in the Alla Prima approach.
LAURENCE CARUANA
~ Casein & Oil Mischtechnik ~
While assisting Ernst Fuchs, Laurence learned a variety of approaches to the Mischtechnik. For years he taught the traditional egg tempera approach because it is easier to work with. But there is also a casein approach, which is a little more demanding because this milk-based medium is more liquid and dries faster.
Nevertheless, the casein whites are very effective in the Mischtechnik because they allow for very fine lines and sharp highlights. In this VARIATION OF THE MISCHTECHNIK, we'll apply the whites in a mixture of oils and casein, then glaze in an oleo-varnish medium ~ while striving for effects like transparency, jewel-like opalescence and polished surfaces.
FLORENCE MÉNARD CUEPALIZTLI
~ Layered Approach to Oils ~
A PEEK INTO THE STAGES
OF A LAYERED OIL PAINTING
After the fun part of decalcomania to give texture to your background, Florence will show you how to paint the Goddess’s face or figure ~ building up her forms in oil-based whites and earth-tone browns to render both the lights and shadow in your underpainting. These oil-based colours are much easier to work with than egg tempera or casein, and especially suitable for intermediate and beginner painters.
Through A LAYERED APPROACH that is the hallmark of the Mischtechnik, you will then create depth in the skin tones through a series of thin coloured glazes. Towards the end, we’ll explore a variety of effects in ornaments, learning how to paint crowns, flowers, necklaces, feathers etc, and making our own gold, silver or earth-based paints.
TEACHER'S BIOGRAPHIES
STEFAN LUCAS ALLEN
Stefan Lucas Allen is a visionary artist that has always worked hard to push the boundaries and limitations of his artworks’ technique and potency of message.
In his early childhood he was deeply inspired by a large biblical landscape painting which was gifted to his family prior to his birth by a homeless man named Nick Connel, historically known as the Hermit of Torri Pines. This single painting inspired Stefan and resonated with his youthful desire to depict his fantasies. As he moved through life, eventually he came across a copy of Alex Grey’s Sacred Mirrors series in a book. This was another pivotal moment for Stefan, as these paintings seemed to depict an aspect of reality that was invisible to the naked eye, yet innately true.
Stefan’s desire to uncover the truth of things directly was undeniable throughout his youth, and this led him to experimenting with various forms of meditation, lucid dreaming and entheogenic substances .
Towards the beginning of his adult life he discovered the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art and moved to Vienna, Austria to study with an incredible roster of professional artists. Throughout this informative five year period of Stefan’s life, he became completely immersed in this hub of visionary culture, absorbing techniques from his teachers and peers and learning many variations of the Mischtechnik. He soon joined the Academy’s team as the school’s figure drawing instructor and studio monitor.
Since Stefan’s return to the United States, he has traveled around the country teaching workshops, painting murals and continuing his studies. Currently, Stefan is settled in Upstate New York, where he spends much of his time studying, creating and teaching out of his beautiful studio on the top floor of the Historic Lower Mill Building in Honeoye Falls, New York.
LAURENCE CARUANA
FLORENCE MÉNARD CUEPALIZTLI
For further Bios, please click on the images
to bring you to the About Us page...
