Fantasy Art Retreats - The Organic Experience

This week's Sunday blog is both a little late and a hurried affair, but nonetheless heartfelt.  Sarah and myself are pleasantly exhausted from our first weekend art retreat, held at Abbey Farm near Cirencester, which ended just over seven hours ago.  We would firstly like to thank the group of wonderful people who attended the retreat for their determination to, not only improve their art, but to step out into new techniques and new ways of achieving their personal visions.  

THE FLOCK!

I can't help my emotional summary here, but I must say that from tentative beginnings, all my "pupils" learned how to fly and believe in their artistic potential by the end of the three-day retreat.

One young man in attendance, is a huge fan of my 1998 children's TV series Lavender Castle (made with the late Gerry Anderson).  He was able to tell me details of the the show that I genuinely did not know of myself, and not only had he and his friend co-written twenty-six episodes for a "future" series, but he proceeded to draw some characters from his new show!  I was blown away, - what faith!

 OUR LAVENDER CASTLE FAN AND HIS ART

WORKS IN PROGRESS

WE HAD GREAT CHATS AND SOME GOOD FUN!

Sarah, whose vision this whole thing was, gave lessons in relaxation, which helped enormously in breaking down tensions and fears for us all, so that by the end of the event friendships and respect had become complete across the board.  It seems to Sarah and myself that we have hit upon a winning formula, i.e. a great rural location, with small numbers, allowing maximum RM attention to attendees!

Our thanks to all who came along for putting up with my recital of a few Gasbags poems seated around the campfire in the woods.

THANK YOU RACHEL FOR OUR CAMP-FIRE AND THANK YOU ALL FOR FOR ALLOWING ME TO INDULGE IN MY GASBAG POEMS

 DEMONSTRATING SOME OF MY TECHNIQUES

OUR MINI ART EXHIBITION ... EVEN SARAH HAD A GO! 

Our next art fantasy art retreat, 'Fantasy in the Cotswolds', will be held in three weeks time, between Friday 23rd and Sunday 25th August 2019.  If you fancy joining us, we still have one room left.  You can read all about it by clicking here.

If you're still not sure, then here's some of the feedback we've had so far:

"I’m here and it’s just the best, Rodney and Sarah fantastic hosts and I have learned so much and feeling sooooooo relaxed. Would highly recommend we are all having the best time!!!"

"Fantastic weekend. Loved it all. Just wish it had been longer."

"Would just like to say a big thank you to you both for organising and giving me the chance to attend this weekend.  It’s been a great privilege to have been able to share time with a great bunch of folks who also share a passion for Art.  It’s given me renewed enthusiasm and a new belief in my own art that has been sitting dormant for a while.  This new way of working using the tracing paper will now allow me to create work that previously would have been almost impossible to finish and your support and patience has given me hope that I can go on to improve and experiment.  The whole weekend and Rodney’s poetry around the campfire will stay with me for a long time and has already sparked an idea for a picture."