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. ------------ Handmade in Oaxaca Art Workshop: watercolor, natural pigments, mixed media​/​collage DATES: September 18–27, 2026 art workshop with watercolor, natural pigments, mixed media​/​collage + culture immersion with Oaxacan artist Pedro Cruz Pacheco & Corrie McCluskey, plus master pigment maker Indiana Christov ART + CULTURE ADVENTURE IN THE HEART OF OAXACA Do you need to feed your creative soul? Fill it to the brim with creative transformation, fresh inspiration, and memories to last a lifetime. Join an intimate group of travelers for a magical art + culture immersion workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico where you’ll meet a rich culture that celebrates creativity and traditions. Jump on this quickly, space is very limited. Our workshops are different. We combine art instruction with carefully curated private field trips where 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. The focus of this workshop: Revel in the HANDMADE in this workshop: painting and mixed media collage in the studio, earthy watercolor paints we’ll make from natural pigments plus handmade brushes using plant materials, exquisite handmade paper made from Oaxacan sourced plant fibers that we’ll use to make a small artist book, the renowned Oaxacan art & handicrafts found in artisan studios and the rich traditional cuisine we encounter along the way. The art classes feature watercolor painting with Pedro – who incorporates personal symbols, talismans, Oaxacan culture and the natural world into his work. Then with Corrie, we’ll craft some handmade brushes, experiment with mark making to develop your unique visual voice, and dive into mixed media collage. Be surprised by what shows up on paper, find the imagery that resonates with you…take risks, and let go of fear and the need to be perfect. Our guest instructor Indiana will teach you how to make your own watercolor paint with natural pigments in a hands-on day of pure alchemy. Finally, you’ll use beautiful Oaxaca-sourced handmade artisanal paper in an artist book you create to take home. The REAL Oaxaca is found in the villages and private workspaces, and our field trips include the Sunday market in Tlacolula, largest of the traditional zapotec style ‘tianguis’ markets, studio visits with master weavers who only dye with natural pigments and a renowned papermaker, a women’s red clay collective, a gorgeous art center housed in a renovated textile factory – all mixed in with art instruction and creative play time. Who should attend this workshop: This workshop is for artists & creative people who love to make things with their hands; we’ll explore watercolor, mixed media collage, making paint with natural pigments, mark making with India ink and other simple materials – all while taking a deep dive into the art, culture, and real ancestral traditions of Oaxaca. Folks who are flexible, have an open, curious mind, and are willing to step out of their comfort zone will feel most at home. We expect everyone to participate fully in the workshop throughout the week. Complete beginners are most welcome! 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 studios, kitchens, streets and markets – and get to know the people and traditions with their rich culture, food, and art.

Website Link

https://pedrocruzpacheco.com/handmade-in-oaxaca-art-workshop-september-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) - lunch provided for the 3 days we stay in the art studio (days with no field trips) field trips to Sunday outdoor market and ancient tree in Tule; pigment making class; studio visits with weavers, master papermaker & red clay women’s collective

Leader Bio

Our instructors: 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 Santa Cruz Amilpas, 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. Indiana Christov was born in New York from an Italian-American family and has lived between Latin America, the US and Spain, spending most of her childhood and youth in Oaxaca, where she now resides and has her main studio. The contrast of cultures has been a constant throughout her life that has forged in her work a rich and eclectic mix of aesthetic and historical references. Through independent research, reading scholarly articles on the chemistry and history of natural pigments, and soaking up traditional knowledge from the Zapotec villages in her surroundings, she started learning and reformulating recipes for historical pigments, such as cochineal lake pigment and Mayan blue, amongst others. She developed a series of workshops so anyone, including kids, can learn to make natural pigments, and non-toxic, solvent-free formulas for watercolor and oil paints.