Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons to visit Italy.
This October I offered 2 different courses in 2 beautiful cities: Venice and Bologna (the city where I first started teaching in Italy in 2008).

Padmasambhava thangka courses in Venice

Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche in Tibetan) is one of my favorite deities in the Tibetan Buddhist Pantheon.
Here you see a young me painting a Padmasambhava thangka in the year 2000. Check here how this Padmasambhava thangka has turned out!

This is the view of the annual thangka course in Venice – which cannot be beaten!

The thangka course always starts with a lecture on Padmasambhava and drinks and food afterwards, to get to know each other (but it seems a bit like a reunion as lots of people have met before or join this course each year):

Students learn how to draw Guru Rinpoche according to the Tibetan thangka tradition, and also learn his symbolism, and work with the Padmasambhava mantra and Guru Rinpoche meditations.

Situated in Italy, the thangka course is never only about art, but also about amazing food!

And on the last evening we always have a party to celebrate the arts, our friendship and the amazing Padmasambhava artwork that was created.

Venice Art Bienanale

After the course I spent some time at the biannual Venice Biennale of Art.

The best artwork in Venice!

Better than the Biennale I thought was this artwork:

Buddha Shakyamuni and the Torana of the 6 Perfections thangka course in Bologna

The weekend after Venice I was invited in Bologna -not very touristy and well worth a visit!- where I gave a thangka course on drawing The Buddha and -for the advanced students- Buddha Shakyamuni and the Aura of the Six Perfections. And of course people learnes all the meanings and symbolism of The Buddha and his mantra.

Private thangka teachings

This month I also had the pleasure to welcome the Yuliya from Kiev, Ukrain, into my studio in Amsterdam for private thangka classes. She chose to work on the Medicine Buddha:

White Tara course in The Netherlands

And this busy month ended with a White Tara thangka drawing course in the east of Holland (you can also check out White Tara’s Mantra and a video on how to draw White Tara: