Why should I come to an intuitive painting retreat?

What if I’m not a good painter or haven’t painted before?

You don’t need any painting experience to do intuitive painting. That’s one of the best things about it! All you need is a willingness to hold a brush with some paint on it in front of a piece of paper and let it tell you what it wants you to do. Simple, right?

There is no “good” or “bad” in this kind of painting, there just IS. We follow what wants to emerge and what wants to emerge after that. We learn how to listen deeply for images, shapes and color, for where THE painting wants to go not where WE want to take it. This is the key difference in intuitive painting.

At the first intuitive painting retreat I went to several years ago with my friend and teacher, Chris Zydel, there was a woman in the group who had never painted before. That experience transformed her life and two years later she had completed the teacher training and opened her own studio. At my teacher training there was a woman who had never painted, now she’s teaching as well. So be careful, it just might change your life.

Is this the kind of thing for me? Will I fit in?

Everyone is unique of course but there are some qualities that are present in the students I work with. See if you can identify with one or two…

• You are a seeker. Self-growth and personal evolution are important to you.

• You think of yourself as creative, even in a small way and even if you haven’t been artistic in a while. You know deep inside there is an inner artist who wants to come out or you’re at least willing to explore the question of whether she exists (hint: she does!).

• You already consider yourself an artist of some kind (writer, singer, painter) but feel like you’re not tapping into your creativity fully. Like there could be so much more but you don’t know how to access it.

• You take care of yourself, maybe not all the time but you have some kind of a practice that brings you back to yourself like yoga, writing, meditation, dancing, walking, etc.

• You are a woman who knows she needs to nourish her sensuality and are looking for new tools/process to do it.

• You take responsibility for how you show up. You’ve done some work to heal past traumas and have healthy boundaries.

• You have a beginners mind and are willing to dive into something new, maybe not with complete abandon at first but are at least willing to stick a toe in.

• You’re willing to trust the process even if/when you don’t understand it.

• You want to play. You think there might be some truth to the statement: “glitter makes everything better.”

Why do you hold retreats and not weekly classes?

I love immersive experiential learning, its how I learn best and how I prefer to teach as well. There is nothing like the luxury of giving yourself a string of days where you don’t have to be anywhere except present to your process of self growth and exploration. You have time and space to sink deeply into your own rhythm and listen for your inner wisdom to guide you forward. We rarely give ourselves this kind of expansiveness, yet for me when I do I am so much more enriched, renewed, centered and alive. You will be too.