What is it with holidays seeming like they were soooooo long ago, from the minute you get home?  It’s only been a month since I last felt the warm bali breeze on my skin, but its seems like eons ago… Luckily I have more than my memories to rely on. I have an Art Retreat’s worth of creativity…

Louise made these for all the Escapees!

I have my Journals full of photos, impressions and inspiration. Just looking at them brings back the love I feel for Bali and the amazing people I shared that magic place with.

I have just come to the stunning realisation that I clam up when something soul-rockingly awesome happens to me. I like holding the energy inside me until it has to BURST out. But the time for sharing the magic that went on in the Escape Artist Retreat has come. It was…

Heidy’s statement is true.

We started each day in the Journaling Pavilion at 7.30 for a freewheeling creative wake-up to the day.

…and then we did a Shaking Meditation with Magic Fairy ( my gorgeous assistant)… yes 20 minutes of shaking! It was hilarious at first, because we all felt SO ridiculous. But the objective is to overcome all those thoughts, to let the heart over-ride the mind, which is constantly harping that “this is silly, I’m tired/hot/hungry/need coffee/blahblahblah”. And to just keep moving. I found it quite cathartic!  After the first morning, i made sure I had my Journal next to me so I could let all the energy I shook up flow into it!

Anne celebrates her shaking style

Then we retired to our Villas for breakfast and once satiated we met back again for the first Lesson of the day. A favourite was painting with our Peerless paints in the garden:

We worked through until lunch. There were small colourful moments on the way to amazing destinations…

We shared supplies and techniques.

A favourite was Susan’s Modeling paste through Louise’s stencils…

The afternoon was filled with drawing lessons and creating finished artwork. This beauty appeared for Leea…

Diana started this mesmerising mermaid with a school of fish for hair…

Our Journals became ripe with whimsical gorgeousness….

It was fascinating for me to see how each one of ‘my’ Escapees approached my lessons. I mean look at this! I’ll never forget Ali’s excitement at breathing life into the lion face that appeared to her in our Shaking Meditation ( on the left, middle row). When we let our imagination step to the fore, it holds delightful surprise!

And look at these visions of amazingness that appeared! There were many, many, many more!

We worked in the Journals we made and in our altered books…Anne’s seemed very appropriate!

I took my Instax camera, and they were put to wonderful use! I think I managed to get photos of everyone ‘at work’. A wonderful pic to have in your own journal.

When the sun started setting we would head off down the goat track ‘stairs’ and have dinner on the beach.

On some evenings we wanted to keep working, and would have delicious Thai food delivered ( complete in coconuts!)… and then get straight back into the art broken up with a quick dip in the pool and a few drinks!

On the last days I ran away for an hour or so to my cliff side ‘Art Nest’ for one on one art time with each of my artists.

I really had everyone creating frorm 7.30 each morning and into the eve…well, I say “I” had everyone creating… but the reality is, each Escapee really pushed themselves! It’s very easy to just flake out in Bali. There’s a mysterious relaxational vibe that can quickly slow down visitors to the island. But we resisted sleeping and drew with a peaceful abandon. If I had to sum up the week in one word I would say:

Nourishing.

I am so grateful to each and every one of my Escape Artists, my friends.

I started this Blog post with a photo our group accompanied with a glass bead made by Diana Rast of Dizzy Bead fame. I am going to finish with this dear glass ( yes glass!) ladybird ring she made for me. Perfect bookends to a week of mixed-media mayhem and magic.

xoxox

Jane