“Creativity is as much a part of the human being as our thumbs are to our hands.”
 –Nick Neddo, lead instructor  

 Draw, sculpt, carve, burn, bind, illustrate, make, compose, print, see, hear, smell, touch, taste...

The ANCIENT ARTS INTENSIVE (AAI) is an immersion into creativity, the natural world, and the wide variety of natural materials and mediums that are available to the artist.  This course is heavily focused on drawing: from real life as well as from the mind’s eye.  Awareness and perception are foundational to the creative process, and therefore is a strong emphasis in this immersion into nature, art, and our human origins.  If you want to develop and refine your drawing skills, love visual art, nature, music, or making things with your hands, come to the ROOTS School’s ANCIENT ARTS INTENSIVE and rediscover your connection to your creative genius and its connection to nature!

In this Intensive you will:

•    Learn to see in different ways & stretch your perceptual abilities

•    Make your own art supplies from the landscape and use them
•    Take risks & try new things
•    Develop your skills & your portfolio
•    Learn to work with a wide variety of natural materials
•    Develop your senses to tap into your creativity
•    Be exposed to primitive technologies & stone-age ingenuity
•    Learn to draw figures, heads, hands, animals, landscapes, action, etc.
•    Explore nature’s bottomless well of inspiration
•    Sculpt in soapstone, wood, & clay
•    Immerse into a community of fellow artists from all over the region
•    Glimpse the arts & material culture of ancient & Indigenous people

Workshop options include:

•    Dynamic Figure Drawing
•    Nature Drawing and Journaling
•    Working with Soapstone, Clay, Wood, Rawhide
•    Making Paper, Charcoal, Wild Ink
•    Music: making instruments and writing music
•    Beats and Rhythms: Percussion
•    Journal-making and Bookbinding
•    Printmaking and Stenciling
•    Camouflage and body painting
•    Natural Pigments and Dyes

The ANCIENT ARTS INTENSIVE is designed for people who want to take their artistic abilities to a higher level while rediscovering the living world of nature through the creative process.  The aims of this immersion course are:

•    improve your ability to observe and accurately render in 2-D and 3-D mediums;
•    develop a level of mastery of: line, form, texture, value, light and shadow, composition, positive and negative space, perspective, and more;
•    introduce a wide variety of natural materials for the artist/craftsperson to explore;
•    expose artists to the inspirational power of nature and living close to the earth;
•    tap into the creative process and let it run wild.

This five day experience is defined by awareness and perception, creativity and inspiration, artistic challenge and growth, and connection to the land and one another.
As a student at ROOTS School, you will be exposed to the world of primitive technology and ancient living skills, as these disciplines contain examples of some of the most innovative art of all time.

A typical day consists of time for sitting with the land, breakfast; morning drawing workshop, afternoon workshop sessions; instruction on using tools and techniques; lunch; visiting a variety of ecosystems for gathering materials, inspiration, and life drawing; awareness and observation workshops; open studio (in which you pursue a medium of your choice) and wander time; campfire dinner and open mic; as well as time to hang out and get to know peers and instructors.  

The course will culminate with a public exhibition of collective work from the week.   

The ROOTS School campus and the wilderness are our studio/workshop/gallery for the duration of the course.  Studio spaces include: a large yurt, a primitive thatched shelter, an outdoor classroom (‘the ship’), an outdoor kitchen, a fully tooled workshop, and of course, the earth under the open sky.  

Tuition includes lodging, meals and materials. Ages 18 and Up.