Each trimester, Proctor’s European Art Classroom program welcomes eight students to their self-made artist colony in Aix en Provence, France. For nine weeks, the group will live together, cook together, study art history, art, and literature together, and immerse themselves in the culture of southern France. Periodically, they will take their artist colony on the road, exploring some of Europe’s oldest, most cultured, complex cities along the way. Three weeks into their fall adventure in France, Addie ‘25 shares reflections from their first weeks abroad.
We are headed to Florence. That didn’t hit me until this morning, waking up after a long exciting week filled with adventure and art. I couldn’t even believe that I and nine other people were going to be in Italy in only a day.
The time has flown by, it feels like two seconds ago I was standing in Cezanne’s art studio drawing each detail and listening to his life story. And, yet it feels like it was yesterday that I stood exactly where Vincent Van Goh stood day after day and painted painting after painting. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and standing in that room it did not feel real. My brain couldn't process that I was going to paint right where Vincent Van Goh painted.
The things we get to experience here are not only once in a lifetime but we are having magical experiences that not many people get to have in their lifetimes. We are doing so many amazing things that it is hard to believe that there was a time where I had never even thought about painting where Cezanne and Vincent painted. Everything we have done has been so life-changing and I can’t even imagine all the great experiences to come. So with all that being said we are off to Florence and Bologna Italy!
Check out more photos from European Art Classroom Fall 2023!
- European Art Classroom
- Off-Campus Program