Art Retreats

An insightful teacher with forty years’ experience, Michael has inspired thousands in their art practice. His work challenges the balance between reality and illusion. This highly awarded artist will help retreat participants enrich their expression through examining their own ideas and direction. 
Attention will be on using mixed media and sensitive use of colour. Michael hopes that each student will come away with a much deeper understanding of their personal art practice.
Coorabell Hall is an inspiring place where artists can enjoy a secluded environment in which to relax and focus.

Our indigenous culture holds a deeply spiritual connection with the land that dates back more than fifty thousand years. This unique retreat offers a rare opportunity to learn under the seasoned guidance of Emma Walker, a master of contemporary art with many years’ experience in teaching and exhibiting. Emma will encourage students to make works using a variety of techniques and mixed media.

Just a short flight from Europe, Morocco is a world away in culture and appearance. At the northwest corner of Africa, hemmed in by the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Sahara desert, it has a rich and various landscape.  Marrakech has a history as exotic as any city in the world. This mix of North African and Saharan colours, of Arab, Berber and European culture, of a light tempered by both mountain and plain, has given the city a unique and complex character, which has inspired artists and writers from around the world. Marrakech is a perfect destination for artists and writers. 
 Tim Maguire and Anthony Sattin brought a unique combination of skill and experience to this retreat. Both Tim’s approach towards landscape and nature, and Anthony’s understanding of Moroccan culture and history, provided fantastic stimuli. 
 
The aim of this retreat was to furnish novel stimuli through excursions in and around Marrakech where participants could collect visual material using sketchbooks, quick watercolour studies, drawing and photography. Anthony Sattin led the group on visits to sites of cultural interest such as the Marrakesh souk, spice markets, a Berber village, and other sites of architectural significance. A trip into the High Atlas Mountains and to Marrakech gardens offered opportunities for landscape and nature studies to developed into final art works.

Paris is one of the richest and most vibrant cities in the world, filled with an incredible concentration of galleries and museums dating back hundreds of years. Add to this a backdrop of magnificent avenues and historical streets, monuments and churches, and it's no surprise that Paris has always been an artistic Mecca.

Acting as an Italian-speaking guide, Elisabeth re-traced her steps and shared precious memories from her personal journeys through Tuscany. For participants this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to re-live with Elisabeth Cummings what was a powerfully formative time in her art practice.
When speaking specifically about Montecatini Terme, Elisabeth is excited by the amazing proximity to Tuscan scenery of farms framed by the mountains where Michelangelo obtained marble for ‘David’, to the Mediterranean coast and small towns: Lucca, Pistoia, Toscana and Trato being favorites; each with unique cuisine and architecture.
Retreat artists had the opportunity to capture rich, vibrant impressions directly from the source, either in the form of sketches, notes, and coloured impressions, and then make more substantial pieces in the studio at the Hotel Croce di Malta. 
Elisabeth assumes a quiet place of wisdom as she works with and guided each student with individual care, according to his or her capacity and personal choice of direction. A master of contemporary art with 50 years’ experience of teaching and exhibiting, and winner of countless awards, Elisabeth is respected as being one of Australia’s leading contemporary female artists and colourists. She lives in Wedderburn, NSW.

"When a small group of people come together in a beautiful, stimulating environment with a common purpose, a positive group dynamic builds and intensifies over time. A whole new experience occurs where participants learn from the teaching artist, the place itself, and from each other, as friendships grow."   
After years of teaching, Elisabeth still enjoys getting into the student's world,sharing her sensibility with them, and delighting in their developmental leaps.  
Elisabeth encourages artists to come ready for the adventure and beauty of Tuscany, knowing the experience will continue to feed their practice long after the retreat is over.
Interview with Elisabeth Cummings October 2009

This retreat is about exploring one's inner landscape between dreams and reality in all of its colours, shades & images. Through an expressive process you explore the edge of the known & unknown and take creative risks that will offer revelations and glimpses of a personal truth that will forever change the way you make art. Michael Taylor is an insightful and dedicated teacher who has inspired thousands of emerging artists for over 40 years. 

In April 2009, 14 artists and Elisabeth Cummings journeyed to perhaps Australia's most powerful sacred site, Uluru. The spiritual transmission from every aspect of nature and the ancient rock itself filled and inspired us to open and create paintings of extraordinary beauty and presence.;

A short flight from Europe, Morocco is a world away in culture and appearance. Marrakech has a particularly exotic history with its mix of North African colours and Saharan light. It is now one of the world's liveliest playgrounds and a perfect destination for writers and artists. Elisabeth and Anthony offer brilliant guidance on this retreat. Elisabeth’s approach towards landscape and nature with Anthony's literary grasp of Moroccan culture will reveal vibrant subject matter on excursions in and around Marrakech.

Journalist and author Barry Divola lives in Sydney, but has travelled to New York 15 times in the last 20 years. Manhattan resembles the biggest collection of neighbourhoods in the world, and we’re going to visit many of them – doing writing exercises inspired by our excursions around the city, uncovering story angles (both fiction and non-fiction), structuring ideas, writing better travel stories & short fiction, battling writer’s block and honing our interview techniques.

This 5 day Master Class is a golden opportunity to review your artistic and aesthetic goals, and refine the creative process you engage to make art.
In a supportive environment you will encounter and transcend outdated approaches, opening to new concepts and directions for your work and practice.
In group seminars and individual tutorials you will receive guidance, critique and feedback from selected work you have brought in, exploring technique as well as the relationship to your work and audience…. resulting in a clarified sense of yourself as an artist with focus, intent and creative goals to strive for.

The fabled monastery town of Luang Prabang is considered the spiritual heart of Asia and is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful cities in the world. A rare jewel indeed!
Join us with accomplished artist Wendy Sharpe who will guide participants in deepening their art practice. Wendy is an inspiring and experienced teacher and offers this retreat to artists of all levels.
We will be sketching and making works on paper – in pencil, watercolour, gouache and pastel – taking photographs, working en plein air in stunning locations around this exquisite French Heritage City, and discussing our work in supportive critique sessions.