You do need a car if your hotel is located further away. The hotels in the city are usually booked out way in advance.The organization, especially the sign-up process.Buying new art supplies, especially hand-made paper from Fabriano.Seeing fantastic watercolor art from around the world.Participating in workshops, watching painting demos, etc.Immersing oneself in the international watercolor scene.Someone who has never been to Italy might feel my cons are somewhat nit-picky. Please bear in mind that I’ve visited many Italian cities. While I did not stay for the entire duration of the festival, I quickly got the sense of the pros and cons of visiting Fabriano in general. What I take away from this experience is how important it is to go out and talk to fellow watercolor enthusiasts, participate, try out new things and just have fun. Raffaele Ciccaleni has his own Daniel Smith dot card with suggested triads placed horizontally. Nevertheless, I enjoyed painting in a group and seeing all the wonderful works that evolved around me. In addition, the triad which I picked was too cool. I had issues with spacial awareness and creating a solid fore-, middle- and background. The plein air session didn’t go well for me. Walking to the destination and then listening to the introduction, shaved off about 40 minutes of painting time.
The plein air workshop was set out to take 3 hours. Being nervous about screwing up and the feeling of “having to deliver” didn’t exactly help create masterpieces. Nude and plein air painting is out of my comfort zone and I was completely out of practice.
The courses were fun, and I am glad I got to participate. Luckily, this lack of organization played in my favor: People who had signed up ahead of me didn’t show, and I was able to attend my two sessions even though my name was among the lowest on the waiting list. Needless to say, this process could be entirely digitized and save time and chagrin. The staff has to flip through the binders and find you on the list. The entire sign-up process is a hybrid between digital and offline, meaning that once you register online, the list is finalized manually in what seems to be an Excel file and kept in a binder. One has to show up in person 2 hours prior to the course and pay cash up front, in order to receive the entrance ticket. What happened was that I didn’t actually know if I made it on the list of 20 or so maximum participants. I had signed up via the official website for a 45-minute nude painting session and a plein air workshop with Raffaele Ciccaleni, only to learn later on that an email confirmation means nothing. Everyone in the group was very nice and a pleasure to get to know in person. And she even invited my husband and me to join team Switzerland for dinner which was great fun. What was confusing to me on the website, Lalita made up for by providing me with all the necessary information. Lalita also let me know that one must sign up to attend the festival – even as someone tagging along. However, she encouraged me to try again next year. Lalita Rochanakorn who informed me that I was too late to submit my work for consideration. So, I contacted my country’s representative, the lovely Ms. Did I have to be a “super pro” to attend a workshop? Or could I perhaps even actively participate as an artist? Being fairly new to the watercolor scene, I had no idea about the expected quality standards for entering one’s own work. I had only read about the festival earlier this year and didn’t know what to expect. He made a fantastic video last year which perfectly captures the vibes of the festival. I even ran into Carsten Wieland from Brushpark Watercolors. For someone who paints in solitude, this was a breath of fresh air. What I thoroughly enjoyed was seeing so many people with the same passion gathering in one place. The atmosphere in Fabriano was exhilarating.
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