Summary: Discover the physical and symbolic power of color in this immersive workshop that bridges painting and sculpture. Participants hand-make pigments, explore traditional binders, and apply color to a range of natural materials while learning the cultural and historical meanings of color. Through hands-on experimentation with surface and form, the workshop culminates in a collective installation of paintings and sculptural studies.
Full course description:
Discover the physical, emotional, and symbolic power of color and pure pigments in this immersive workshop that bridges painting and sculpture. Through guided exploration, participants will work directly with pure color—hand-making pigments, mixing traditional binders, creating textured grounds, and applying color to a range of surfaces including paper, wood, leather, and other natural materials.
We will also delve into the cultural and historical symbolism of color—how different societies have understood, valued, and ritualized it across time. From sacred blues and protective reds to earth pigments rooted in ceremony, participants will trace the evolution of color as both a material and a language.
Each session includes a grounding ritual, a short technical demonstration, and hands-on experimentation. Participants will investigate how color behaves across surface and form, navigating texture, absorption, and intuitive response. Through both two-dimensional and three-dimensional explorations, the workshop reveals how pigment can shape not only images but also objects, space, and emotional presence.
The program culminates in a collective installation that brings together paintings, surfaces, and small sculptural studies created throughout the workshop.
No previous experience is required—only curiosity and a willingness to engage with color as a living, tactile, and culturally resonant material. This workshop offers a supportive environment for artists and beginners alike to deepen their understanding of color, matter, and spatial form.
MEET THE ARTIST
Kathryn Cameron
Kathryn Cameron is a New York–based artist whose practice explores the fragility of mind, body, and spirit through the symbolic language of shapes, forms, and color. Working with natural and repurposed materials such as paper, leather, wood, steel, wool, and pure pigments, she investigates the deep interconnections between humanity and nature. Her work is rooted in the textures, irregularities, and rhythms found in both natural environments and architectural structures across cultures, while also drawing upon the universal principles of sacred geometry, fractal geometry, and the Fibonacci sequence as unifying threads that connect human experience to the larger order of the cosmos.
Cameron’s sculptures and installations often emerge from her sustained engagement with materials and their transformation—steel bent into fragile arcs, paper pulp formed into delicate surfaces, wool processed through traditional and sustainable methods, and pigments sourced from the earth itself. These tactile processes become both a meditation on impermanence and a search for balance, translating weight into lightness and absence into presence.
A founding member of the New York School of the Arts and the HUB Center for the Arts, Cameron serves as exhibition curator, program director, and faculty member. In addition to her teaching in New York, she leads workshops and courses internationally, fostering cross-cultural exchange and material exploration.
EXAMPLE ITINERARY
Example Day:
8:00 AM | Morning Movement
Guided seaside walk or gentle yoga to awaken the body and mind.
9:30 AM | French Breakfast Under the Pergola
Fresh pastries, seasonal fruit, rich coffee, and conversation in the morning light.
10:30 AM | Art-Making with Intention
Studio time focused on guided creative exploration and personal expression.
12:30 PM | Chef-Prepared Lunch
A vibrant meal crafted from locally sourced ingredients, enjoyed al fresco.
1:30 PM | Creative Studio or Free Time
Continue your art practice or relax — swim, read, journal, or simply rest.
4:30 PM | Garden Aperitif
Aperol spritz or botanical mocktails in the garden as the afternoon softens.
6:00 PM | Evening Integration
Sound bowl meditation, restorative session, or optional stroll into town.
7:30 PM | Dinner by the Sea
A relaxed, candlelit dinner on the beach as the sun sets over the Mediterranean.