Dates: June 8-17, 2027
Instructor: Anne Wolfer
Venue: Castello di Petroia, Umbria, Italy
Medium: Open to artists working in oil, acrylic, or gouache. Anne will demonstrate in oils
Level: Open to all levels
“My paintings stem from an innate desire to express something words cannot.” — Anne Wolfer
Join Winslow Art Center and contemporary painter Anne Wolfer for an unforgettable 10-day workshop in the extraordinary Umbrian countryside surrounding Castello di Petroia. Immerse yourself in rolling hills, ancient villages, olive groves, fields, stone walls, and ever-changing skies as you explore how direct observation can become something personal and expressive.
Anne’s paintings explore the interplay between dimensionality and abstraction. Working with a diverse range of tools and mark-making techniques, she creates a constant push and pull between structure and spontaneity, building up the painting, disrupting it and responding to what happens along the way.
That process begins outdoors. Working around the castle grounds and surrounding countryside, participants will make plein-air studies as immediate responses to the landscape. Anne encourages painters to look beyond simply recording what they see and instead notice what they are experiencing-the quality of the light, the movement of the atmosphere, the rhythm of the land or a particular shape or color.
Back in the castle’s dedicated studio, these studies become the raw material for deeper exploration. Anne will demonstrate how she deconstructs and reimagines the landscape through paint- simplifying or exaggerating shapes, shifting color, losing and finding edges, obscuring forms, and using expressive marks to transform what she has observed. Photo reference can also be used to revisit a moment, detail or composition discovered outdoors.
Throughout the workshop, Anne will explore composition, color mixing, shape simplification, values, and perspective, showing how these fundamentals can be used in both representational and abstract painting.
From study to studio, the painting is free to evolve, becoming less about reproducing a particular place and more about expressing something that words cannot. You’ll learn to push, pull, break apart, and rebuild what you see until the painting begins to say something of its own.
Open to artists working in oil, acrylic, or gouache. Anne will demonstrate in oils.
Perched on a hilltop between Perugia and Gubbio, the castle overlooks the rolling Umbrian countryside and sits within a 500-acre estate of ancient olive groves, meadows, forests, and abundant wildlife.
The birthplace of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (b. 1422), a major figure of the Italian Renaissance, Petroia offers a rare opportunity to experience the history, beauty, and hospitality of the region.
With just 15 guest rooms, Petroia offers an intimate and unhurried stay. Each artist who registers individually has a private room with ensuite bathroom, featuring exposed beams, stone arches, antique furnishings, and painted ceilings—historic character combined with modern comfort.
The castle and its estate are a painter’s paradise: weathered medieval walls and quiet courtyards, silvery olive groves, open meadows where Chianina cattle graze, and long views rolling out across the Umbrian hills.
A newly renovated 450-square-foot studio with soaring 25-foot vaulted ceilings is yours for the entire stay at the castle, so you can paint whenever inspiration strikes. This bright comfortable workspace offers ample room to spread out and paint, whatever the weather. It’s also a perfect space for painting the still life and the figure. Nearby, the covered loggia on the top floor of the main building offers another sheltered space with sweeping views.
We provide the equipment: easels and painting materials are included and available throughout your stay. Just bring your favorite brushes and we’ll take care of the rest.
Note: We provide traditional oil paints, acrylics, and gouache. Other mediums are not provided.
Meals are served in the castle’s historic spaces, from a breakfast of homemade sweet and savory specialties to relaxed family-style lunches and a daily aperitivo on the terrace. Each evening, Michelin-starred chef Walter Paseri presents a four-course dinner inspired by traditional Umbrian cuisine and seasonal local ingredients.
Beyond painting, guests can relax by the pool among the olive groves, hike the estate’s trails, take a cooking lesson, or simply read and enjoy the views. Gubbio, Assisi, Perugia, and Spoleto are within easy reach, and we’re glad to help arrange visits to hill towns and markets, as well as hiking and biking in the countryside.
What’s Included:
With over 10 years of experience organizing art tours, and with part of our team, our daughters Anne and Amy, living in Europe and fluent in Italian and Spanish, we maintain long term relationships with the owners and staff of our favorite venues. We personally participate in every travel workshop to ensure the quality and to coordinate all the needs of an art instruction program.
If you have any questions, please use the form below, phone 206-715-6663 or email martha@winslowartcenter.com to contact us.
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