Meditative Art Retreat. November 3rd – 10th 2018
My next art retreat/workshop will be in a beautiful bohemian rustic mountain farmhouse in Orgiva, Las Alpujarras in southern Spain. One of the most beautiful locations I have ever seen. The accommodation is in traditional Alpujarran style, with solar-powered hot water, with the most amazing views and a wood burning stove for warmth in the evenings if needed. The accommodation comprises three bedrooms: one double room, a room with two single bunk beds, and a room with single bed, so places are limited, as this arrangement sleeps five people. It would be great for a group of friends coming together.
Cost for the week: £350 (GBP.) Includes accommodation at the farm house, all art materials, tuition, and a guided walk with me. Also includes breakfast and lunch.
I am also offering this workshop for people local to Orgiva, at a cost of 140 Euros per person for the week, or 20 Euros per day if you can’t do all week. The house is along the Rio Chico, about five or ten minutes drive.
If the farmhouse gets fully booked, you may wish to book your own accommodation, ( I can recommend various places nearby,) and just pay me the 140 Euros for the week’s workshop.
The weather is often sunny and warm in November, with cooler evenings. For people staying at the farmhouse, the retreat includes breakfast, provided by Rita at the farmhouse, including cereal, muesli, toast, juice, teas and coffees, and also lunch will be provided. Supper will be self-catered, and there is a fully equipped kitchen. The nearby town of Orgiva (a short walk away,) has lots of cafes, bars, shops, health food shop, supermarkets, and a Sufi cafe restaurant called Baraka, and other restaurants. There is also a colourful weekly outdoor market which sells all kinds of food, art, crafts and clothes. There are lots of beautiful walks to be taken locally and I know of many beautiful walking routes and will be happy to take anyone who wishes to come along with me as part of the retreat, one afternoon. A particular favourite walk of mine is from Ferreirola to Busquitar, up in the higher mountains, and where there are spring waters from fuentes coming out of the rocks from the higher Sierras. Some of them are effervescent, others iron-rich. The water is said to bestow great healing and health-giving properties. The walk in the mountains goes past threshing floors, with lots of fascinating folklore, and there is a rarefied and magical energy in that area unlike anything I have ever experienced.
We will be painting together. All tuition and art materials will be provided by me. The painting classes will be based on my practice of meditative art in the lovely art studio. We will be painting for approximately four to five hours per day. Space is limited. This retreat is for up to six people. Depending on the weather, we will be painting either indoors or outdoors and the space will be set up as an art studio, with all materials provided.
Contact me via the contact form above.
or:
Email: alicejulietmason@gmail.com to register an interest.
I will teaching how to paint a self-portrait as our symbolic / mystic-self. I will be offering meditative, gentle guidance, setting intentions, using guided meditations, knowing the painting as a secular prayer. Painting modern iconography. Teaching my own techniques: the methods I use such as painting my birds, or other spirit animals, how to paint a face, a figure, light and shade, a symbolic landscape, glazing, colour washes, pattern, how to bring forms forward or push them back through glazes, using under-painting through abstracted techniques, adding white, or leaving white space, using words as under-painting too. Techniques such as glazing, dry brush work, stippling, acrylic pen-work, detailing, and stenciling. Working from my favourite themes: Iconography, Goddess archetypes, the Divine Feminine, Jungian archetypes, symbolism, mysticism, metaphysical art, shamanic and alchemical totems, sacred geometry, pattern, ornament, process and intuitive painting.
For me, there must always be the still-point. The point where you find the zone, where the painting is painting itself through you as the conduit. Or you come to a point where there is a deep meditation. This is my intention in my art practice and in teaching.
Accommodation, breakfast and lunch, painting in the studio, tuition and guidance, art materials, a guided walk in the mountains included in the cost.
Cost doesn’t include flights or car-hire. This retreat is self-catered for supper, so we will make trips to local supermarkets for food. For evening meals, there are several restaurants and cafes, and all the food shops and markets in the nearby town of Orgiva, just a short walk or drive away. The kitchen is fully equipped. Orgiva is a lively, alternative and fascinating town; full of shops, a Sufi cafe called Baraka, health food shops, a colourful weekly outdoor market, with bars and cafes. If you do not wish to hire a car, transport to and from the retreat can be arranged (£100 GBP.)
The places are limited and we can accommodate up to five people. If you are coming with friends, the set up is ideal, as there is a little self contained house, with outdoor seating with beautiful views, three bedrooms; one double, one single, and one with bunk beds, a sitting room, with two sofas and wood burning stove, kitchen and bathroom. The loos are slightly away from the house outside, and are eco-compost loos, with amazing views and feel very clean to use. with a sink and soap. There is a organic garden with fresh vegetables kept by a resident gardener.
The large studio where we will be painting is a couple of minutes walk from the house.
To register an interest, please use the contact form or email me: alicejulietmason@gmail.com
Cost £350 (GBP) for people wanting to stay at the farmhouse, and 140 Euros per week, or 20 Euros per day, for those people living nearby and local to Orgiva.
Cost for the week includes accommodation at the farm house, breakfast and lunch, all art materials, tuition, and a guided walk with me.
The house is along the Rio Chico, about five or ten minutes drive.
If the farmhouse gets fully booked, you may wish to book your own accommodation, ( I can recommend various places nearby,) and just pay me the 140 Euros for the week’s workshop.