Oaxaca Art Classes
OAXACA ART CLASSES & WORKSHOPS – to inspire & transform your creative self
Our Oaxaca art + culture workshops offer personal, real, true experiences with Mexican culture.
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 a magical art + culture immersion workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico where you’ll meet a rich culture that celebrates creativity and traditions.
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.
With us, you’ll open yourself to discovery
Get out of your comfort zone, let go of fear, self-doubt, and the need to be perfect in your art – we will guide you. Nurture your creative soul with us…your life will shift with an art retreat here; it will stoke the fire within to feed your mind, body, and soul.
Going to a new place invigorates you
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, and markets – and get to know the people and traditions with their rich culture, food, and art.
• Journey to magical Oaxaca, where culture meets creativity
• Immerse yourself in the rich culture and traditions
• Make personal connections with artisans and artists
• Reignite your creativity, find fresh inspiration
• Play with watercolor, collage, mixed media art journaling
• Open yourself to discovery, let go of fear, self-doubt, perfectionism
• We welcome all levels of art experience…you too, beginners
2025 Oaxaca art + culture workshops:
• February 26 – March 7, 2025 – ONLY 2 SPACES LEFT
Carnaval 2025 Oaxaca Art + Culture Workshop: watercolor, mixed media/collage, masks
Instructors: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey
Oaxaca, Mexico
• May 23 – June 2, 2025
Art Journaling Workshop Oaxaca to Puebla: watercolor, mixed media/collage, ephemera hunt 2025
Instructors: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey
Oaxaca & Puebla, Mexico
• September 19–28, 2025
Handmade in Oaxaca Art + Culture Workshop: watercolor, natural pigments, mixed media/collage
Instructors: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey, and guest Indiana Christov
Oaxaca, Mexico
• October 26 – November 4, 2025
Día de Muertos Oaxaca Art + Culture Workshop: watercolor, group altar, sand tapestry
Instructors: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey
Oaxaca, Mexico
Private art retreats
Would a private art retreat be just the ticket to make your heart sing?
We offer customized retreats for 1-3 people that combine art classes with amazing field trips off the beaten path.
Generally, our private art retreats run for 6-10 days, with a mix of art classes and studio play time + additional cultural immersion field trips to artisan studios, archaeological ruins, and street art/gallery walks.
In our art studio, we currently teach:
1) watercolor + painting with natural pigments
2) mixed media/collage, art journaling, and mark making practice with India ink and natural pigments + handmade brushes
We can also add other art instruction to your itinerary; for example, a half day class of: making natural pigments, papermaking, painting carved wooden masks, or painting a wooden alebrije – all with Oaxacan master artisans of these art forms.
Workshop & private art retreat 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. He teaches art classes to children in the neighborhood and for youth programs in Oaxaca centro.
Corrie McCluskey (workshop coordinator and field trip leader) 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.
