Creative workshops accompanying the exhibition “Light in the Darkness: 17th Century Dutch Painting in Croatian Collections”

Light in the Darkness: 17th Century Dutch Painting in Croatian Collections

This exhibition was conducted as part of the project “Provenance Research on Artwork in Zagreb Collections” (ZagArtColl_ProResearch). The exhibition features around a hundred paintings, prints, and objects of artistic craftsmanship from Croatian collections, as well as a reconstruction of a women’s clothing composition based on the Portrait of an Elegant Lady from the Mimara Museum, created at the Faculty of Textile Technology, University of Zagreb. The work was made by Assoc. Prof. Irena Šabarić Škugor, Ph.D., and assistant Franka Karin, with the help of Professor Katarina Nina Simončič, Ph.D. The project also involved master’s degree students of Textile and Fashion Design, specializing in Costume Design programme. This reconstruction inspired us to host a workshop in our Artionica for the Museum Night, where we drew the collar motif called “mill wheel” with children or adult participants. It was a very inspiring workshop led by three students from the Costume Design program: Lucija Štajcer, Doroteja Kolatahi, and Silvija Šubek.

1. PAINTING WORKSHOP

22 February 2025: 11:00 – 12:30

We are in the month of February, which is also the only month of the feminine gender. It is said that February is fickle and unpredictable. This is also the month of love, when on Valentine’s Day, men and women give beautiful flowers or gifts to their partners, parents, children, friends, or colleagues as a sign of love, attention, devotion, and friendship. In the exhibition, there is one painting that we would dedicate to this day, and that is a painting based on Adriaen van Ostade’s The Farmer Courting a Woman.

TASK: The probability is high that each of us has love for someone—a friend or a dear person to whom we would want to give a gift. What would that be? Try to paint the gift you would give to your dear person. Perhaps you would want to take them on a trip, invite them to a café for a juice, as we can see in the picture, or just walk down unfamiliar paths and talk about the old times when you went ice skating together, eagerly waiting for every Sunday. Perhaps before that, you attended Sunday mass and sang in the choir, or you went hiking and ran by the stream, or you eagerly awaited each Saturday to attend our Little Art Workshop. Nearly everything people can do together is a gift that makes us happy, joyful, and loved.

2. PAINTING WORKSHOP

1 March 2025: 11:00 – 12:30

Through the exhibition, rural motifs seem to emerge, such as: Landscapes with shepherds, Herd with shepherds, Return from pasture, Sleeping shepherd and shepherdess by a tree, Two sheep and a goat resting, Village fair, Horsemen resting, In front of the mill, Return from hunting, Geese and ducks in a landscape with ruins, and in almost all the works, the scene is dominated by idyllic figures harmoniously intertwined with picturesque nature, most often shepherds with their flock on country roads, resting by the water or in the shade of trees.

TASK: In this digital age, modern technology increasingly alienates family members from each other. It is an era of marketing and advertisements that stimulate consumer desires, where everything we want is bought, not just what is necessary. Therefore, we should step away from this consumerism and surrender ourselves to the embrace of nature, its forests and hills, lakes and streams, carefree walks, encounters with various animals that carefully protect their habitats. We need to go to the countryside, sit by a tree, lie on the soft grass, and greet a ladybug while bees diligently fly from flower to flower, as the sun battles the clouds in the sky. We try to guess the shape of the cloud as we feel the call of nature. In this workshop, show us your ideal environment where you enjoy yourself, and paint everything you see or do there, and how you feel.

3. PAINTING WORKSHOP

8 February 2025: 11:00 – 12:30

Since our workshop falls on International Women’s Day (a holiday for women’s rights and world peace), and almost every woman’s favorite gift is flowers, and we have paintings of Vase with a Bouquet of Flowers and Vase with Flowers in the exhibition, the task is quite clear.

TASK: These are just examples of vases with flowers, and we can also create flowers that we love to see in a vase on our table or those we are happy to give as a gift to a special person.

We also organize workshops for kindergarteners and schoolers every working day except Monday! Previous registration is required at: artionica@gkd.hr

Workshops for adults are still held every Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Text: Liljana Velkovski
Museum advisor, museum educator, Artionica workshop manager