La Cascada da Forcella; an art and nature workshop

La Cascada da Forcella I discovered only recently when Claudia and I were looking for a venue to hold a sensorial day in this mountainous part of Le Marche. A sensorial Day? Yes, one where we dare to simply open our five senses to the world, specifically to Nature.

This all begins before breakfast at our centre in Cittadella; Tail Ci, Ci Kung, the magic bubble and counting swifts as they bombard us in their curiousity.  Then, you see, in the forest later, in a spot like La Cascada where there is just us, fish and butterflies, we settle ourselves amongst the rocks and tree roots, and we are already prepared, physically and psychologically

Those who know, do not speak, those who speak, do not know! These instructions to the group received puzzled looks, but I explained that it was just a game we were playing (and after all, wasn't it Einstein who said, 'The only way we ever learn is through play!') So we all sat far apart from each other, and breathed deeply for ten minutes to take in the essences of the trees into our bodies, and then sketched in silence for an hour or two, opening our senses in complete absorption.

We were back at  Cittadella by mid afternoon to go through our sketches and to select one or two to transform into paintings. I'm sure you've all had this experience of entering that state of creativity where you create beyond yourselves and when waking back up to so called reality, you are in wonder at what has been produced on your watch .

                                                                                                                  

  At the end of the following day we created a huge painting as a give to Silvio, the owner of Cittadella.

This we do every visit and he has now quite a collection

                         

                       It was fun                                                                                         

                   ' The only way we ever truly learn, is through play'

                   Albert Einstein

                   Michael Eldridge