Editorial listing | This page has been compiled by the AtelierBound editorial team using publicly available information and is not managed by the retreat host. Pricing, dates, and availability should be confirmed directly with the host before making any plans. Last verified: March 3 2026. If you run this retreat, claim your listing at hosts@atelierbound.com to take full control of your page, add your own photographs, and respond to guest enquiries. -- Día de Muertos Oaxaca Art + Culture Workshop: watercolor, group altar, sand tapestry DATES: October 26–November 4, 2026 art workshop with watercolor + cultural immersion with Oaxacan artist Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey Oaxaca, Mexico DAY OF THE DEAD CELEBRATION OF ART + SACRED MEMORY IN THE HEART OF OAXACA Do you need to feed your creative soul? Fill it to the brim with creative transformation and fresh inspiration, memories to last a lifetime. Join a small group of travelers for this magical art + cultural immersion workshop where you’ll meet a rich culture that celebrates creativity and traditions. Experience an unforgettable celebration of Day of the Dead or Día de Muertos in magical, traditional Oaxaca, with stunningly decorated altars, street parades with vibrant music, wild and wonderfully costumed revelers, all-night vigils in local cemeteries, marigold flowers and copal incense, pan de Muerto, sand tapestries and dazzling murals throughout the city. Our workshops are different. We mix art classes with carefully curated private field trips – we meet master artists and artisans in their studios out in the far flung pueblos, sit with them to hear their stories, get to know their process and cultural traditions, share an intimate afternoon with them. Then we bring these experiences into our art classes. Our adventures start with a field trip to a mercado to shop for altar decorations and offerings (cempasuchil flowers, papel picado, long candles, copal incense, chocolate, special breads, sugar skulls, fruit and mezcal). We’ll make visits to 2 cemeteries where Oaxaqueños lovingly decorate the graves of their ancestors and bring offerings to share with their spirits. Participants should bring photos of your dearly departed to adorn our group altar – and if you are so inclined, costumes + face paint for the fiesta. We will catch a comparsa – the traditional Muertos parade – along the pedestrian street as our schedule permits. We will spend our days painting imagery and symbolic representations of our loved ones to honor their memories, assemble a beautiful group altar and construct and decorate a tapete de arena (sand tapestry). The REAL Oaxaca is found in the villages and private workspaces: additional group field trips include a visit to a renowned tapete (woven wool rugs) artistan family, alebrije (carved wooden objects) artisans, and the Mujeres del Barro Rojo (Women of the Red Clay) who are “guardians of the identity & pottery tradition of their community”…where they will have their own gorgeous Día de Muertos altar. Nurture your creative soul with us…your life will shift with this retreat – it will stoke the fire within to feed your mind, body, and soul. Many visitors to Oaxaca never make it past the tourist center – we will go direct to the heart and soul of this ancient place – the streets, studios, kitchens, and markets – and get to know the people and traditions with their rich culture, food, and art. IN THE WATERCOLOR PAINTING CLASS: Pedro will focus on symbols + talismans, key elements in all his painting. He will show participants an extensive repertoire of personal symbols that are incorporated into his art, and offer them the opportunity to discover and paint their own in this intimate setting. This is a chance to consider the “secret soul” of things that matter to you and bring them into your painting.

Website Link

https://pedrocruzpacheco.com/oaxaca-dia-de-muertos-workshop-2026/?utm_source=atelierbound&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=listing

What's Included

Price includes: - hotel room in our group’s room block (rooms have either 2 double beds or 1 king bed + private bathroom) - private van transportation (for field trips & group dinners) - field trips to local mercado (market), alebrije & ceramics artisan studios, 2 cemeteries - materials to create sand tapestry and altar decorations - lunch provided for the 3 days we stay in the art studio (days with no field trips)

What to Bring

- watercolour materials - please bring your own Oaxaca is high altitude, at 5100 feet – some people need a few days to acclimate if they are coming from sea level. Can you walk 6,000 steps a day unassisted at 5100 ft? If not, you will be unhappy on this trip, and we only accept travelers who are in good health and can walk uneven cobblestone streets (narrow, with high curbs) and don’t have mobility or breathing issues. Also, dietary restrictions could be tricky, although there are restaurants that have gluten free and vegan options. Travelers will need to make personal accommodations and adjustments to meet group needs and schedule.

Leader Bio

Pedro Cruz Pacheco is a painter from Santa Cruz Amilpas, Oaxaca, Mexico who works in watercolor, oil, and mixed media. He left his job in a brickyard in 1999 and initially began his career as a self-taught artist. He spent 8 years apprenticing in the studio of master Oaxacan painter Felipe Morales, and showed & sold his work for years in Labastida Plaza in downtown Oaxaca (by Santo Domingo church). Pedro has exhibited in Mexico (Oaxaca, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Merida, Monterrey), Texas, and California (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sonoma County, Eureka), and has taught watercolor workshops in Oaxaca and Baja, BCS, Mexico. Pedro’s style is very Oaxaca-influenced, with magic realism as an artistic point of view – a Mexican version of surrealism. His work is intimate, private, and incorporates personal symbols and talismans that reflect his own life experiences as well as the history and customs of Oaxaqueños. His work features bright, vivid colors and his own deeply personal and heart-felt spiritual view of the world around him. Corrie McCluskey (workshop coordinator) is a visual artist originally from Northern California (now living in Oaxaca) who was a b&w photographer for two decades. She transitioned into visual journaling, mail art, collage, bookbinding and making artist books. She now focuses on mixed media on paper: collage, encaustic monotypes, abstract painting with natural pigments & India ink, graphite, cold wax with oil pigment sticks. Visual journaling is a part of her art expression: it’s all about process and discovery – a container for ideas and play with ephemera. She is a “Guidess”-in-training for people who feel unqualified or too intimidated to express their creativity because they think they can’t “do art”. For 20 years, she was a workshop and event coordinator, and she loves to bring small groups of people together and facilitate an amazing workshop experience.