Beyond the Classroom > Study Abroad

The Artist’s Book: Provence to Paris

January 2001

For three weeks in January 2001, fifteen Augsburg students and ten students from other upper Midwest campuses traveled through France with Augsburg professors Tara Christopherson and Pary Pezechkian to study watercolor sketching and beginning French.

Following the paths of six masters from the last century: Matisse, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Picasso, they visited studios, sites, and museum collections from Provence to Paris. A typical day began with a French vocabulary and culture lesson specific to the day’s adventure; and practice with a watercolor technique. Students then spent time at a site where the artist worked, saw the art it inspired, wrote responses, and painted watercolors on location. The final extended weekend in Paris - in between patisseries, shops, museums, and clubs - students bound journal entries, assemblage, and watercolors together into a unique travel memoir.

The resulting artists’ books were exhibited in Lindell Library during February 2001, documenting those incredible sensory experiences in words and images.