Classes on location begin with a demonstration of the day’s lesson teaching drawing and painting in easy steps. Delight in your creative process and learn in a setting without pressure, rich in subject matter: Mayan models in colorful clothing, charming courtyards and gardens and scenic landscapes. One-on-one sessions and helpful critiques are offered with specific suggestions for your improvement.

This Art Workshop/Tour provides a unique travel experience which will take you to scenic and colorful venues throughout Guatemala. The hotels, excursions, special events, and cuisine will be luxury and five star all the way. Watercolor, gouache and acrylic painters, as well as non-painting companions are invited to join Jan on this “experience of a lifetime”.

You will step back in time over 300 years as you enter Antigua with its Spanish Colonial appeal and charm. From colonial architecture, Monasteries, courtyards with fountains, Cathedrals, and bougainvillea draped ruins, to its romantic surroundings, this town is considered one of the most beautiful in Central America. You will travel through the highland mountains to the famed Lake Atitlán (Aldous Huxley called it the “most beautiful lake in the world”), surrounded by majestic volcanoes and twelve Maya villages. Prepare yourself for the multitude of colors and shopping, the likes of which you have never seen, in Chichicastenango, the world renowned Maya market. You will be enthralled by many other beautiful venues that await you on this magical journey.
Explore Guatemala! Expect to be welcomed without judgment. Expect to grow as an artist. Expect to find beauty in Guatemala and within yourself. Empower your visions, observations and ideas by manifesting them through your art…and have a memorable experience!

Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Antigua, Guatemala. Semana Santa refers to the week proceeding Easter Sunday, and is the most important holiday in Central America. It is a festive event, featuring religious processions and colorful carpets in the streets. The participants never forget what they are commemorating. As the week progresses, these magnificent processions become more and more solemn. These celebrations are perhaps the most extravagant and impressive in all Latin America, rivaled only by a similar event that takes place in Seville, Spain.

The cobblestone streets of Antigua are covered in alfombras (carpets) made up of colorfully dyed sawdust, pine needles, flowers, flower petals, corozo (yellow flowers pulled from giant pods), berries, fruits, and vegetables. The celebrations, thought to have been introduced by Pedro Alvarado in the early years of the Conquest, start with a procession on Palm Sunday, representing Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, and continue through to the really big processions and pageants on Good Friday. On Thursday night the streets are meticulously carpeted and on Friday morning a series of processions with teams of penitents wearing peaked hoods and accompanied by solemn dirges (melancholic music from local brass bands) and billowing clouds of copal incense accompany them as they carry the image of Christ and the Cross on andas or massive platforms.

Semana Santa in Antigua is a World-Class event that most people have only heard about. You may have been to Guatemala but you have never experienced anything like this. Join us for this amazing trip.

Cultural, Market, Village, and All Saints Day Tour
This unique travel experience with Vickie VanKoten will take you the most scenic and colorful venues throughout Guatemala. The hotels, excursions, special events, and cuisine will be Luxury and Unique all the way. Quilters, fiber artists, weavers, photographers, painters, folk art collectors, shoppers, travelers, and friends… all are invited to join Vickie on this “experience of a lifetime”. You will step back into time over 300 years as you enter Antigua with its Spanish Colonial appeal and charm. From its colonial architecture, Monasteries, parks, Cathedrals, and bougainvillea draped ruins, to its romantic surroundings, this town is considered one of the most beautiful in Central America.

You will go behind the scenes to grow in an understanding of both Guatemala's Maya and Colonial history, and see how people live by visiting their villages and cemeteries during celebration of one of their most important holidays, All Saints Day. Experience the colorful kite flying celebrations in the village of Sumpango, and the family reunions in beautifully decorated village cemeteries, as the family celebrates life by beautifying the graves with flowers and other brilliantly colored ornaments. You will observe their graveside picnic feasts as they relate stories to the living about the loved ones who have passed away, and tell the departed the most recent family news.

You will travel through the highland mountains to the famed Lake Atitlán (Aldous Huxley called it the “most beautiful lake in the world”), surrounded by majestic volcanoes and twelve Maya villages. Prepare yourself for the multitude of colors and the shopping, the likes of which you have never seen, in Chichicastenango, the world renowned Maya market. There will be lots of time to explore, shop, relax, and to collect ideas for future works on this unique Guatemala experience. You will be enthralled by many other beautiful venues that await you on this magical journey. Just ask Vicki!

Join the legendary Tony van Hasselt on his 3rd Annual “All Saints Day” Guatemalan Escapaint. It was in Guatemala, under his Painting Holidays banner, that he organized many workshops in the 70’s and 80’s taught by painting greats such as of John Pike, Robert E. Wood, Tom Hill, and Milford Zornes.

Returning for the 3rd year in a row he will teach and paint his way through the cobblestone calles and ruins of the colonial city of Antigua. Named by Travel and Leisure magazine as one of its Top 10 Getaways, Antigua “seems airlifted from 16th Century Spain to a misty, tropical setting up above the world”. Founded by the Spanish Conquistadores in 1543, the cobblestone streets of this Central American colonial treasure are rich with the architecture and ambiance of ruined churches, ancient monasteries, convents, and colonial homes with hidden courtyards. Draped with bright bougainvillea and breathtaking views of emerald volcanoes in the background, this picturesque colonial city seems time-trapped in the most romantic and breathtaking setting. Here you will stay at beautiful Palacio de Doña Leonor, site of the former home of daughter of Pedro Alvarado, sent by Cortez to conquer Guatemala for the King of Spain in 1524. The Palace was built in the late 1540’s. It is one of the most exquisite boutique hotels in Antigua; an elegant mansion tastefully decorated to invoke 17th century luxury, and just a few steps away from the main plaza.

Travel through the highlands of Guatemala and experience the Maya culture as you visit villages during the All Saints Day Fiestas; the family reunions in the beautifully decorated cemetery of Pastores, and the Maya markets of Chichicastenango and Comalapa. Encounter what Aldous Huxley called “the most beautiful lake in the world”, Lake Atitlán. Three towering volcanoes majestically stand watch over the lake and its twelve Maya villages in this artist’s paradise.

An adventure you’ll never forget! Travel with John and Anita and Discover Ecuador, and the most amazing Galapagos Islands on this travel experience of a lifetime. The optional add-on of the Galapagos Islands will absolutely enthrall you and may be the most incredible of any travel adventure you have ever experienced. Explore Old Town of Quito Ecuador, an extensive colonial center built over the ashes of what was a major part of the Inca Empire. Spanish Colonial architecture, cathedrals, open plazas and vintage facades dating to the mid 1500s are part of what is now declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Incredible scenery with ice capped volcanoes, and pastoral scenes of colorfully dressed indigenous herders watching sheep, and llamas grazing in windswept fields of grass will create memories to last a lifetime. All this and more as we travel to the Hacienda Cusin, in the Northern Andes. A restored 17th century Andean estate, it is now a charming and comfortable country inn furnished with colonial antiques, tapestries, and Andean crafts. Old stone walls topped with moss encircle two acres of gardens which attract over 50 species of birds. Experience Otavalo, one of the world’s most famous indigenous markets where the people arrive at dawn by the mountain trails surrounding the city from nearby villages and towns to sell their products woven on back strap and Spanish treadle looms.

Travel to an Ecuadorian Cloud Forest for a fauna and flora experience to get a sense of what South American jungle and wildlife is like. View the Avenue of the Volcanoes as you travel to Hacienda San Agustín de Callo, built on the site of an Inca palace, by the Emperor Tupac Yupanqui in the 15th century. One of the two most important archaeological Inca sites in Ecuador, it is the only lived in museum of Inca and Spanish Colonial style. From here you will have day trips that will introduce you to the magic of this country – volcanoes, Inca markets, Rose plantations, and working haciendas.

Discover the actual painting "high" of Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, and others on this Plein Aire Experience with Bob Burridge. See for yourself why painting outdoors was (and still is) so popular. This on-location painting workshop is for all levels of painters who want to learn the time-honored joy of paint sketching outdoors and finishing up in the studio. Bob’s painting workshop emphasizes loose and creative experimentation, and nurtures individual success and personal enrichment with a big emphasis on daily painting projects at your own pace. It is stress-free, but be warned; you could end up with too much enthusiasm for painting. Bob’s energetic and positive approach will inspire you to have fun again. This workshop is a must for artists who want the confidence and permission to paint the way they have always wanted to paint.

Travel with Bob and Discover Ecuador, and the most amazing Galapagos Islands on this workshop/Tour of a lifetime. This optional add-on of the Galapagos Islands will absolutely enthrall you and may be the most incredible of any travel adventure you have ever experienced. Explore the Old Town of Quito Ecuador, an extensive colonial center built over the ashes of what was a major part of the Inca Empire until the Inca leader Rumiñahui razed it to the ground rather than surrender to the Spanish conquistadors. Today much of the colonial architecture and vintage facades date to the mid 1500s when the Spanish founded the city. Here large open plazas are surrounded by cathedrals and stately public buildings. It has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

View the Avenue of the Volcanoes as you travel to Hacienda San Agustín de Callo, built on the site of an Inca palace, by the Emperor Tupac Yupanqui in the 15th century. One of the two most important archaeological Inca sites in Ecuador, it is the only lived in museum of Inca and Spanish Colonial style. This working farm offers an unrivalled glimpse into Ecuador’s rich and colorful past.