The Alchemy of Italy

Chiave d’Arco Ltd. – The Keystone of Excellence
Summer 2011

The Jerusalem Studio School is pleased to announce the return of its summer programs at the historic Certosa di Pontignano under the new management of Chiave d’Arco, a company formed to develop and lead the “keystone” artistic experience at the Certosa, including other school and artist-led courses, seminars and workshops. Please visit the Chiave d’Arco website for full information and registration for all art courses being offered in 2011.

The JSS Master Class Program is the educational core of the Jerusalem Studio School (JSS). It has distinguished itself as an intensive, incubator-like full-time studio program for the highly motivated and gifted student. It is not only guided by focused, probing instruction and critique grounded in the creative process – in learning for the eye and the hand – it aims to foster the tenacity and independence necessary to work through the diverse complexities artistic endeavors surely require. Work in the Master Class is pursued via the immediacy of experience, through continual practice, engagement with great masterworks and hard uncompromising work. In the Master Class, it is the doing that produces understanding.

The JSS at the Certosa takes the model of this Master Class and plunges it into the sensual root and sap of the western world’s artistic heart. Italy’s art, landscape, architecture, artifacts and light converge into an integrated comprehensive experience of art and life that exists nowhere else. The sheer quality and quantity of it dwarfs all that comprises the Western world’s museums combined. This program nourishes a lifetime.

The Master Class in Italy is under the tutelage of Ken Kewley, Stuart Shils and Israel Hershberg. The 2011 program offers a knock-out line-up of excursions to Naples, the Piero della Francesca Tour of Arezzo, San Sepolcro & Urbino, Rome, Florence, Assisi & Perugia. A few places remain during the 6 week program, available by application process only. CLICK HERE for full details about the program.  REGISTER HERE.

The Certosa Studio Program is a shorter, intense program option offering 1, 2 or 3 week stays from July 24-August 14, 2011. Led by Sigal Tsabari, a teacher in the JSS Continuing Education program, and guest artist Giovanni Casadei, an Italian painter based in Philadelphia with over 20 years of alla prima painting and teaching experience, the program provides intensive teaching for students of all levels of outdoor painting experience and carefully constructed excursions and museum visits. Daily interaction with the landscape of the Certosa is accented by painting demonstrations, evening slide talks and additional drawing sessions, both from the figure and in the city of Siena. CLICK HERE for more info.

Additionally, Chiave d’Arco is pleased to announce that registration is now open for the new Chiave d’Arco Workshop, “Throwing Light on the Figure” with Catherine Kehoe, August 7-21, 2011. Designed for students with some prior experience in oil painting, the workshop will focus on the perceptual challenges of painting the figure in different indoor and outdoor settings through a progression of one-session paintings to longer, more sustained pieces. A variety of interior and outdoor options at the Certosa will be explored. CLICK HERE for more info.

Chiave d’Arco is also pleased to share news of an upcoming landscape painting course at the Certosa led by Dean Fisher through the Silvermine Arts Center of New Canaan, Conn. Slated for August 27 – September 3, 2011, additional details will be added to Chiave d’Arco’s website as soon as they are available.

Future Chiave d’Arco workshops and courses are currently being planned for 2011-2012 to offer a growing series of top-notch drawing and painting seminars with some of the best teachers and artists today in the unparalleled context of the Certosa di Pontignano. Visit Chiave d’Arco’s website to learn more and subscribe to future announcements.