An exploration of the beauty around us through drawing, sculpting, printmaking, texture, and mixed media.

What if the beauty we've been searching for has been right in front of us all along?

In the delicate architecture of a leaf, the shadow cast by a flower, the subtle variations in color on a weathered stem, or the intricate patterns found in the most ordinary things growing just outside our door. The natural world is constantly offering us something beautiful, yet how often do we move through our days without really seeing it?

There is an art to noticing, and sometimes all it takes is slowing down, looking a little closer, and allowing ourselves to be captivated by what has been there all along.

Join me at the cottage for The Art of Noticing, an immersive creative workshop inspired by the details, textures, shapes, and unexpected beauty of the botanical world.

Over our time together, we'll explore a wonderful collection of artistic processes, moving beyond traditional drawing and painting into printmaking, sculptural work, stitching, and mixed media. We'll experiment with materials, discover new ways of working, and translate the natural world into art through our own creative interpretations.

Look closer. Think differently. Create something unexpected.

We'll begin with the simple practice of looking, studying the shadows, contours, lines, and textures that make each botanical form unique. From there, we'll take those observations into the studio, exploring a variety of techniques that invite experimentation, discovery, and unexpected results.

What we will explore…

Throughout our time together, we'll move between several artistic processes, allowing each to inform and inspire the next.

Our time together will include a rich assortment of techniques and materials, including:

• Botanical Sketching: Exploring shadow, contour, line, and form while learning to capture the character and details of leaves, flowers, and stems.

• Sculptural Botanical Reliefs: Using Italian clay to press, shape, and preserve botanical forms, creating dimensional impressions inspired by nature.

• Natural Dyeing: Exploring the colors found in nature by creating dyes from botanical materials and experimenting with ways to transfer those organic hues onto fabric and other surfaces.

• Metal Chasing & Repoussé: Exploring the art of shaping and embossing metal by working from both the front and back of the surface to create raised designs, intricate patterns, and dimensional details that bring meaningful imagery and creative ideas to life.

• Texture Painting: Building layers, marks, and surfaces with paint and mixed materials to interpret the organic textures of the natural world.

• Concertina Sketchbook Making: Creating a handmade, unfolding sketchbook to collect botanical observations, sketches, prints, textures, and creative discoveries, building a personal visual journal throughout our time together.

• Cyanotype & Anthotype Printing: Creating botanical prints through the magic of sunlight, using light-sensitive processes and homemade solutions to produce distinctive impressions of natural forms and different shades.

• Stitching: Incorporating thread and simple stitching techniques to introduce line, rhythm, texture, and dimension.

• Mixed Media & Collage: Combining papers, pigments, prints, drawing, painting, and found elements to create richly layered compositions.

You'll have the opportunity to experiment with different approaches, discover new ways of working, and develop a collection of work that reflects your own creative interpretation.

It’s never just about the art!

One of the things I treasure most about hosting creative workshops is what happens when people come together to make something.

There is a particular kind of inspiration that happens around a shared creative table. Conversations begin, ideas are exchanged, someone discovers a new way of approaching a technique, and another person's work sparks an idea you might never have considered on your own.

We learn from one another, encourage one another, and often discover abilities we didn't know we had!

Whether you've spent years making art or are simply longing to return to something creative, you will find room to explore here. You don't need to arrive with a portfolio of finished work or a particular level of experience. You simply need curiosity, a willingness to experiment, and a desire to spend time creating in good company.

I believe creativity is as necessary as oxygen, and that making room for it in our lives is one of the ways we cultivate a life beautifully lived. These gatherings are an opportunity to step away from the usual demands of the day, work with your hands, engage your imagination, and share the experience with others who appreciate the same things.

The artwork we carry home is wonderful, but so are the conversations, the friendships, the discoveries, and the memories made along the way.

A different way of seeing….

You'll leave with a new appreciation for the intricate structure of a leaf, a handful of new techniques, or a fresh understanding of how different materials can work together.

You'll discover a creative direction you hadn't considered before, or find yourself looking at the garden, the landscape, and the ordinary things around you with an entirely different eye.

You’ll leave not only with beautiful work you've made with your own hands, but with a renewed sense of possibility and a desire to keep creating long after our time together has ended; because the art of noticing doesn't end when the workshop does. It follows you home, into the garden, into your everyday surroundings, and into the way you see the world.

COME CREATE WITH US!

Join us this spring as we gather around the maker’s table for a few days of artistic exploration, new discoveries, and the kind of inspiration that comes from making things together.

Be sure to bring your curiosity and a willingness to see where the process takes you!

The Art of Noticing is waiting to be explored, and we'd love for you to be part of it.

Workshop details

Included in your workshop fee:

:: Two days art instruction with Daune Pitman

:: All supplies provided

:: 1 long table dinner at Oak Cottage, Daune’s home

:: 2 lovely lunches

:: Afternoon snacks

:: Welcome gifts

**This workshop is non-refundable.**

Logistics:

• NOT INCLUDED IN FEE - travel and accommodations

• Oak Cottage is located in beautiful Eastern North Carolina. If you are flying, you can fly into Raleigh, NC (1.5 hours away) or Greenville, NC (15-20 minutes away). Driving? We are 1.5 hours away from Raleigh, NC, 3 hours from Richmond, VA, 6 hours from Charleston, SC, 10 hours from Nashville, TN…..to give you an idea.

• Once registered, we will send you hotel recommendations or there are Airbnb’s in the area, as well.

General Itinerary:

Thursday, March 11 - Welcome Long Table Dinner, 6:00pm

Friday, March 12 - Workshops/Lunch, 10:00am-5:00pm

Friday, March 12 - Group dinner at a local restaurant, 6:00pm (not included in the price of the workshop)

Saturday, March 13 - Workshops/Lunch, 10:00am-4:00pm