Join Janet in this beautiful setting at the Connecticut River Valley Inn, in historical Glastonbury, CT. Fresh flowers will greet you in the studio as we paint together and progress to interpreting the head and figure in a loose and expressive style. Janet is a true "hands-on" national instructor!!! All levels are welcome! Sign up at Artists Rising Creativity Retreats.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Janet Rogers, AWS
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 386-451-8441

Create abstract watercolor paintings using eight different painting techniques. Combine these techniques and multiply the fun. Play with bubbles, cups, rubber cement, masking fluid, air, gravity, stamps, and ink to produce a collection of colorful paintings. Then, choose one favorite and crop it to find the most dynamic part. Katie shows how to enlarge the area, make templates, and turn that watercolor creation into a fabulous art quilt. Learn how to choose and place the fabrics, building from the top down, until you have a quilt that looks like a watercolor painting! The best part? No painting experience is needed, so jump in and turn yourself into a painter and art quilter all in one exciting class!
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Katie Pasquini Masopust
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

If you have been trying to loosen up and create painterly pastel paintings, this workshop is for you! Through demonstrations and daily exercises, we will work on layering color to create a prismatic and painterly pastel painting. Focus is on value, color and edges which all contribute to building this effect.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Robin Thornhill
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Watercolor paintings can be so much more than a checklist of watercolor techniques. David goes beyond paint application basics and shows how to construct strong, vibrant, personality-filled paintings. David firmly believes that planning does not destroy creativity, but creates opportunity. Daily one-on-one critiques and demos will be vital to helping you find your watercolor voice.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: David Daniels
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Our world moves very fast. This retreat-like workshop focuses on slowing down and relishing in process rather than product. Supplies needed are minimal and no machine is necessary. Small compositions will be created with an emphasis on how to use the hand stitch as a major design element. So grab a bag of fabric scraps and your favorite hand sewing tools, and jump on board. This is not a technique workshop where you learn how to hand stitch. The focus is on using the stitch line as mark making on cloth. The stitch marks are the brush strokes that make the composition complete. Each day opens with a design presentation. Students will explore personal mark making preferences, with the power of parallel play in groups.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Deborah Fell
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Making beautiful flowers, concentric patterns, block design, and experimenting with exotic fabrics are all included in this class. Learn Sue’s layered construction technique for cutting, assembling, and arranging flowers as she has done in her extensive Flower Series quilts. This class will give you the opportunity to use gorgeous fabrics and expansive color—plus, the construction method can be applied to other designs. Create a study quilt (about 16”x16”), then move on to a larger, more involved art quilt with surprising complexity and power. (Those who are taking this class a second time can expand on these concepts.)
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Sue Benner
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

During this workshop students learn about the history of dyeing and printing with plants; how to prepare fabric/fiber for dyeing and printing; ways to secure and alter dye color on cloth; and many ways to get patterns and images on fabric with a variety of mordants and plant materials. We begin by gathering as many of our printing and dyeing plants as possible from the surrounding area. Then we explore dyeing solid and mottled colors with botanical pigments both individually and in combination; printing plant materials onto fabrics; eco-printing and dyeing together; and using some simple shibori techniques in conjunction with eco-printing and dyeing.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Lisa Binkley
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Come… relax your creative spirit through the magic of Procreate’s rotational symmetry. It’s easy to learn and it creates stunning results. This workshop is perfect for both Procreate enthusiasts and for those who have been curious about learning this amazing drawing App. Come…explore the fantasy of florals…the possibilities of Procreate, and the meditative power of the Mandala. This experience will restore you creatively —in both mind and spirit.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Beth Buffington
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

This unique painting retreat is a rare opportunity to join Alain in the beautiful setting of the CT River Valley to loosen up your landscapes! We’ll work both in the studio and outdoors on the grounds and gardens of the beautiful CT River Valley Inn. This workshop is designed to empower you with successful strategies for loosening up your landscapes with bold marks and fresh color. Learn to simplify complex scenes into clear shapes, values, and edges. Organize these shapes into strong design and color combinations using bold, expressive marks to interpret your environment for a lush painterly look. Discover innovative approaches to color through the use of underpainting techniques and interpretive color strategies that will break you out of your routine.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Alain Picard
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Do you have moments of complete frustration with your work? We all do. In this course Melinda will help you to embrace those moments and learn to work with the idea of Chaos and ‘The Uglies’ in your paintings in order to achieve rich work with history and lasting interest. Are you looking for more personal expression? We will look at setting Creative and Conceptual Intentions in order to create meaningful, individual work. We will focus on the importance of contrast in our work by looking at the Elements of Design which will give you concrete ideas in abstraction. These Elements, mixed with several approaches to Figurative Abstraction will spark your creativity and give you lots to work on going forward.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Melinda Cootsona
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Immerse yourself in a deep dive into the creative process of Abstract Painting with elements of collage and mixed media. Students who have a desire to find their own personal voice and style while learning the fundamentals of painting with acrylics (and mixed media) in an abstract manner, will find many opportunities to flourish in this robust workshop. Jodi Ohl, artist and author of “Abstracts in Acrylic and Ink,” will guide students through a variety of inspiring chats, comprehensive demonstrations, and provide personal guidance daily. Students can expect to work on multiple pieces on both paper and canvas (or hardboard) to develop their own personal style and build on their body of existing work.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Jodi Ohl
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

I love painting florals!!! And I work in different techniques and mediums… including watercolor, acrylics, and alcohol inks. At this retreat, I will share all kinds of approaches to capturing the joyous spirit of flowers!!! We will play with drawing, stenciling, collaging and painting my very favorite subject matter… glorious flowers!!! It will be a Flowerpalooza!!! Any skill level is completely welcome!!! From beginner to established. I really enjoy bringing out the creativity in everyone at my retreats. And we will laugh, share and maybe even dance a little?? Being with kindred spirits is pure joy!!!
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Lori Siebert
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting and drawing in which an artist studies a photograph and attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. In this workshop, you will be reproducing an image of your choosing using Melissa’s award-winning techniques for transforming a photograph into a masterpiece of Fiber Art. You will learn to see as an artist does, select appropriate fabrics, build a pictorial quilt from an image using a raw edge applique method. You will then learn to enhance your work by adding depth, dimension and detail with inks. This is a technique class where we will be working only on the quilt top. No sewing involved.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Melissa Sobotka
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Barbara offers workshops in pastel or oil, or both, focusing on landscapes. Her workshops are primarily in the studio, but she may occasionally offer a plein air portion to a workshop if requested. All demos are in the studio. Her teaching style includes daily demonstrations, during which she talks through each step and allows questions. She provides exercises that have very specific objectives so that students are able to see achievable results and she offers plenty of individual assistance at the easel. Barbara holds Signature Memberships in Oil Painters of America and American Impressionist Society, is a Master Pastelist with the Pastel Society of America, and an Eminent Pastelist with the International Association of Pastel Societies.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Barbara Jaenicke
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Explore textile pattern design using DIY acrylic inks and textile paints that will leave your fabric with a soft hand and give you exactly the colors you want. Explore a multitude of ways to create richly textured “base” fabrics by applying acrylics inks with different types of brush-strokes, sponges, altering ink and water ratios, adding salt, mono-printing, and scrunching, as well as pleating, stitching, clamping and pole wrapping fabric with a variety of shibori techniques. Learn how to successfully print with foam, rubber and wood stamps. Master screen printing with thermofax screens, then apply pattern design principles using various types of repeats to print on your textured “base” fabrics. It’ll be a blast of inspiration, innovation, information and fun.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Judy Coates Perez
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Join me and immerse yourself in the creative process. The experience begins the moment you register as you source, find, and gather your own personal collection of papers, fibers, ephemera, and other bits & pieces that will become the basis of your creation. As the workshop begins and unfolds, we will gather together, both within the workshop space at The Connecticut River Valley Inn and at some special, local locations. You will spend your time transforming your treasures into a series of what might loosely be called artist books. Instruction will cover the range of techniques used in mixed media: surface designing, using paints and inks, hand stitching, book binding, rusting, dyeing, embossing, mark making, gel printing, collaging, creative layering, and more.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Seth Apter
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Learn a non-traditional approach to oil painting or explore oils for the first time. Cold wax medium is an additive that thickens oil paint, speeds up the drying time (a bit), and neutralizes the paint so there’s no concern about “fat over lean” rules. We will be using R&F’s Pigment Sticks (compressed oil paints) along with tube oils to create paintings without brushes or smelly solvents. You will discover new tools and methods for creating rich and authentic small works on paper and Ampersand’s Gessoboard. With Arches oil paper as our primary substrate, you’ll have several paintings going at once. This workshop is fun, a bit messy, and will change the way you think about oil painting.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Julie Snidle
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Open to students of all artistic levels, Paper and Book Artistry is for those who are ready to ditch perfection, get messy, and play with no rules. Roben-Marie’s teaching style is friendly and easy going with a focus on having fun and playing with supplies in non-traditional ways. Join Roben-Marie in a lovely historic inn located in The Connecticut River Valley for an inspiring and joyful workshop designed to help you with creative play, building up a stash of amazing art papers, and exploring the mixing of different mediums and journal making. Paper and Book Artistry is more than creative time…it’s time brimming with togetherness and friendship.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Roben Marie Smith
Cost: $975+
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374