No. 11: A Workshop in Sicily

I soon embark on my second year teaching a workshop on the art of keeping a travel sketchbook at Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School.

About a year and a half before Covid changed our lives and all of our travel plans, I received an email from Fabrizia Lanza of Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School in Sicily asking me if I would be interested in teaching a workshop. A former museum curator, Fabrizia is an artist herself, not only in the kitchen as a chef and cookbook author but also as a gifted illustrator and painter with a whimsical style. Her portraits are my favorite. Before me, she’d had Maira Kalman teach at the school. I was honored and excited by the idea. We exchanged a bunch of emails and talked via video chat, and set a date for May 2020. The workshop filled up right away and we were all thrilled.

You can fill in the blanks of the derailment of our plans as world travel came to a halt during the pandemic. The workshop finally happened exactly two years later, in May 2022. It was an incredible week. We had most of the original group who had signed up—we referred to the attendees who had endured the two years of waiting as “OG’s”—but many who were still too nervous to travel canceled. However, those spots filled again right away. I barely had to promote the workshop to my followers. And to this day I’m not sure how many people know that I’m about to leave for Sicily, as once we decided to do the event again this year (a decision made at the end of the workshop last year), the spots were snapped up immediately, simply from the stories shared on Instagram and from word of mouth.

It is a fabulous week. We eat food cooked right in the kitchen by Fabrizia and her staff, made with only ingredients grown on the family farm or locally sourced. One of our day trips is to visit the local cheesemaker, and we drink wine from the vineyard that the property sits on. We laugh and get to know each other, all while drawing and painting the experience in our sketchbooks. I get all of the supplies donated from my friends at Creative Art Materials (Caran d’Ache in the US) and Sakura of America.

Here are some of my favorite spreads from the small sketchbook I used to record and remember the 2022 trip:

I will be sharing peeks from my lessons and the trip over on my Instagram, so please follow along with me there. The week tends to be super busy, but I will do my best to share regularly.

We may offer the workshop for a third time next year, so keep reading my emails to receive all future teaching announcements! You can also fill out the form on this page to be added to the waitlist.

Teaching in the gardens at Case Vecchie

Painting Woodgrain Class Replay

If you missed my free class on painting woodgrain patterns with Derwent, hosted by Michaels Stores, here is the link to watch the replay. I will be teaching four more free classes with Derwent this year. Save the date for the next one on June 13th at 4pm EST. It will be lettering and handwriting themed.

Ambassador and Affiliate codes

If you’ve been following my work for a while, you know I am a loyal fan of Blackwing pencils. I have one or two (or even three) in my bag at all times. I am really honored that they have just added me as an official ambassador for the brand. If you’d like to try out the pencils for yourself, and also help support my work, please shop using my unique link, blackwing602.com/sdionbaker. When you purchase using my link, there’s no additional cost to you and I earn a small commission. I appreciate your support!

Additionally, all Canvas lights and accessories are 10% off with my discount code: SDB10. They just introduced a mini light, so there are even more options to choose from!