Dingle, Ireland
Summer Workshop
Dates for 2024 TBA
The Program
This 10 day painting workshop on the beautiful Dingle Peninsula is a collaboration with Irish musician and artist Billy O’Brien.
In daily painting trips you will strengthen your work through various technical and conceptual exercises and challenges out on the green hills and rocky shores. Critiques, discussions, and readings begin in the morning class, and the conversation continues in the evening at the vibrant local pubs, over a pint of Guinness and some great live music.
It is not easy to seek something that belongs to us in such a grand subject as landscape, especially the awe inspiring Irish land with its unobstructed distant views, islands, and hills dotted with ancient structures, standing stones and chewing sheep. It is a transformative experience, with a different pace of life, that will allow you to push your work so much further, and bring this momentum and freshness back home with you.
On top of being an amazing trip to Ireland, this course will provide you with an environment that is both intensive, supportive and fun, and challenge you to explore new approaches and directions, ask new questions, and invigorate your work.
The Landscape
The landscape is vast and ancient, but also existing in a perpetual flux. When we experience it, we touch on something so much grander than ourselves, something everlasting, that simultaneously comforts us by connecting us to something bigger than ourselves, and terrifies our temporal nature. It’s constant mutability requires us to truly stay in the present moment in order to witness it, much like listening to music. It is a challenge to anchor ourselves in time, and seek our own personal perception and meaning in something so grand, while making it our own through painting. I think that is a challenge of artmaking in general, and throughout this course we will use landscape as the vehicle through which to explore that.
The Town
The Dingle Peninsula on the Southwest coast of county Kerry is world famous for its magnificent scenery: mountains cascading into the ocean, rocky islands, rainbows, double rainbows and cliffs. The unpredictable Atlantic climate at times flushes the fields in luscious greens, and casts deep blue and turquoise into the ocean, and at other times envelopes the landscape in a thick ethereal mist, obscuring shapes, softening edges, and creating colors that don't have a name.
The peninsula is dotted with ancient beehive structures, standing stones and fairy forts, on which sheep munch the grass incessantly. Dingle itself is a colorful fishing town located at the mouth of the bay, lively with numerous pubs and music, restaurants, art galleries, craft shops and various unique peculiarities, all coalescing into its own unmistakable character.
Photography and video by Douglas Ferris @douglas.ferris
George Dugan
George Dugan was my painting professor, mentor, and dear friend. He taught me everything that really matters about painting, and more. He showed me how to see a world of utmost beauty, and encouraged and helped me when I was going through hard times. His wit, vitality, and wisdom is unforgettable and his words and outlooks on life are permanently with me. George fell in love with Dingle while travelling Ireland in the 70s, and created a study abroad program in 2000, in order to bring students from the US to experience the landscape and the culture of this small and unique corner of the world. I was honored when George asked me to teach his course, and this town became dear to me quickly. I've had a wonderful time teaching his painting course for 5 years in 2015-2019, after which I have transformed the program into this painting workshop.
Testimonials
“Painting in Dingle with Anya and Billy was such a special experience. Each day was different from the last, painting and exploring various scenic locations and ancient sites. A magical landscape, ephemeral and always-moving; to be a witness to everything in the land while painting is an experience like no other. A true immediacy to making paintings, in reaction to the world around me, outside the comfort and stability of a studio — it was the exact challenge I needed to grow as an artist and person. Thank you Anya and Billy for your insights, support, and wonderful conversations throughout the week. It was a time I’ll never forget!!”
- Lucy Kay
Anya is a thoughtful, attentive teacher who starts classes with critiques, readings, and demonstrations. She will help you with whatever you would like to accomplish in the workshop. Each day you will be taken to a unique setting to paint, including fairy forts and the drastic cliffs of Ireland. The location itself is magical, and Anya's talented painterly skills will inspire your artwork and leave you motivated to keep creating.”
- Kristen M.
"I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making my experience in Dingle that much better, I truly learned a lot and feel as though it has pushed me in many new directions in my studio practice."
- C. Connolly
"Anya is one of the most amazing people to work with and what better way to than in another country! This workshop was one of the most inspiring classes I have ever taken and helped me understand how to paint landscape. I strongly recommend this program to anyone that wants to make close bonds and a community of visual arts, has a love for nature and for those who want unforgettable memories"
- L. Byck