Daily Archives: September 4, 2024

Day 3 at an Art Retreat


Good morning Sunshine!

Day was a tough tough day! I was so exhausted at dinner time – I had trouble finishing my ice cream. That’s what I call a disaster.

But not to worry – I did finish the ice cream – then wished everyone good night before I wandered my way back to my room and bed.

But let’s start at the beginning.

Day 3 started off gracefully – sunrise out my window, Yoga, Breakfast, our morning lesson – on Shapes.

A shape – as per Tabatha – is just a line that meets itself. So there is an inner and outer part. It can be simple – a square, or it can look quite complex – a squiggle shape if you will. It can be identifiable like a man/woman shape, or it can be very complicated. It just needs an inside and an outside.

Breaking down something that you want to paint into the shapes that make it what it is is one way of attacking the drawing phase of art. Keeping things simple makes it easier to get the starting part completed before you move on towards adding details.

Looking at paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe is like looking at shapes without all the complexities of distracting details. Colors are bright and sometimes glaring – but the lack of tiny details makes her paintings stand out.

With these thoughts in mind, We then drove into Santa Fe to visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. I elected to take the free audio tour -everyone else opted to discuss the paintings in small groups. But I find an audio tour keeps me focused on the reason I came to the museum, I can tune out the background noise and just try to internally absorb the art.

And what smashingly beautiful art it is. Oh man – the shows I’ve seen just do not do the scope of her work – nor do they cover with the same intensity her internal and external struggles.

Georgia came from an interesting background – even in high school she was recognized for her talent – and the museum had two of her early water Color’s one display. Glorious. But of course I prefer her work done after she moved here to New Mexico.

In 10 rooms – the Museum attempts to cover the scope of her decades of work – culminating in two rooms that contain personal items from her years here in New Mexico. There are some of her dresses, her signature hat, her phials of pigments that she would add to the paints to get the intensity of color for which she is known.

While the museum displays focused on her art, the audio tour also talked abut her struggles with Depression and illness, and with her feelings about her husband’s disloyalty. These were all of course well documented and must have made her desire to isolate herself from the noise of the world around her more intense. She often escaped on solitary hikes and water voyages around her ‘homes’ at Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú.

We will be visiting both today (Day 4). I can’t wait.

After the visit to the museum, we grabbed an awesomely delicious lunch at the Plaza Cafe – a deceptively huge dinner like place on the main Plaza of Santa Fe that featured Breakfast all day. The Hash Browns were some of the best I’ve ever tasted. And everything packed a spicy wallop – to the disappointment of some of my fellow artists. I think our bland diets did us in!

After lunch we came back to our Ranch Home to paint. Most folks opted to take a rest – and in hindsight I should have done the same, but I was so energized by seeing Georgia’s work that I had to paint.

I finished my ‘Square’ of Butterflies – I’m very happy with it, and then decided to revisit my work from Day 2. This time I decided to take a much simpler approach. I got rid of detail to focus on shape and color. I’m much much happier with the result – but plan to continue working on it.

Suddenly it was dinner time – and I immediately realized that I was completely and utterly wiped out!

Dee – who had brilliantly taken a nap – spotted me just sitting in a chair with my knees at my chin and questioned how I was feeling. I tried to figure out why I was so insanely done in, and we eventually agreed that the intense focus went a long way towards explaining my depleted state.

So it was dinner, the aforementioned ice cream, and bed.

Day 3 over!

Signing off – The Soup Lady

Day 2 at an Art Retreat


A glorious sunrise is peaking thru the window – and I’m glad to see it. The sky here on the ranch near Santa Fe is a huge blue bowl hung upside down over a landscape that is clearly NOT Montreal.

Dead trees, scrub brush, and even the occasional succulent are visible out my window – nothing man-made in view if you don’t look at the first 10 yards. And right now (almost 7:00 AM) there is a decidedly pinkish hue to the sky.

Good Morning World!

I start the day with Yoga, then head into the ‘common’ room for breakfast. There are lots of options – but this is a farming ranch so there are farm fresh eggs. You can easily imagine that the chickens just finished contributing their part – and I opt for just simple fried eggs with a slice of a Simolina Bread the host made yesterday. Yummy.

We sit around the outdoor stone table and chat. Most of my fellow artists (that gives me goose bumps..) had a former life as Councillors – and the conversation turns to the Myers Briggs Evaluation scale.

Nope – I didn’t know what that was either – Dee had to explain. She also explained that she, Carrie and Char are trained Soul Councillors – and her last job before retiring was as a Professional Career Advisor. Carrie – the highest trained of the group – had been working with Trauma Patients who were considered suicide risks – but gave that up when it started effecting her personally.

Back to Myers Briggs – apparently there are 4 different characteristics that make up the scale. Introvert/Extrovert, Concrete/Intuitive, Thinker/Feeler, and Perceiver/Judger. Dee described each one in detail, and she has promised to let me know where I’m at on these scales – But after her explaining what they mean – I’m going to bet I’m an Extrovert/Concrete/Thinker/Perceiver. But we shall see – and I promise to report back!

Finally Tabatha calls us to order for a review of the Retreat Rules! That’s cool – there are Rules in a Retreat. Sounds a bit like Rules in a Gun Fight for those with an interest in old movies.

And yes – I wrote them down.

  1. Relax, No Stress, Have Fun
  2. There’s a quiet zone. No talking to the folks there until they are ready to re-join the group. We choose a table with 4 chairs away from the common area. I wonder if I’ll opt to use it – or just excuse myself and hide in my room. I’m guessing – hide in my room.
  3. Respect – No Judgement. Don’t let your uninvited Critic rule your feelings – put him/her/they into the passenger seat – and let them know you are driving this car.
  4. You are responsible for your own experience. If you are feeling lonely, overwhelmed, whatever – TELL Someone. Don’t assume that the group is ignoring you, judging you, etc. That’s your inner critic talking.
  5. Honor the best in each other and in yourself.
  6. Honest critique is tough – leave it to Tabatha. Your job is to go – you Rock!
  7. Practice Positive Feedback – Ask “what do you like best about what you’ve done” – and then support their opinion!
  8. Be gentle with your own inner artist
  9. Look out for each other

Whew – those are interesting rules, eh? I love the idea of putting the inner critic in their own seat in the bus. I’m prone to letting my inner critic be a bit too loud. So I’m going to work hard on saying to my inner critic – thanks, but I’ll work this out on my own.

Next we have our first ‘class’ – where we discuss Marks and Lines. Art starts by making a mark. And you can get that process started by making lines – even doodles are art.

Tabatha explains that before we arrived here we were in the Gathering Phase – putting the pieces we’d need together. Now we are beginning the Creation Phase – where the world is full of options – and we start to narrow our focus.

To this end, we as a group decide what our first painting focus will be – and we choose an area around a lovely adobe wall with a very bright blue chair and very bright blue windows to paint from different positions. Set-up is slow. I’ve never used my easel before, and I have to set-out the paint colors I’m going to use. Just thinking about creating a color for Adobe is a challenge. I muddle thru – and suddenly – There’s a break for lunch – then back to work.

Painting – just FYI – is hard work. And I’m slow. I did get the first paint layer done by Lunch time – then went back to work until it gets too dark to see my canvas clearly. We will get more time tomorrow. Xan deems her work done – Dee says her work has only 2 colors – and I’m thinking – oh dear – there’s a lot of detail to that blue chair!

We change for dinner (you don’t paint in something you care about staying clean – even if you are a ‘clean’ painter) – and drive into Santa Fe proper. Tabatha has reserved a table for 8 at The Shed – yummy New Mexico Mexican – and I splurge and have 14 of the best shrimp ever. Oh Yum.

We return to the ranch after a quick stop at grocery store to do our evening activity – a group painting.

There are 9 Canvas board squares – and Tabatha has sketched limbs on the squares. The limbs extend from one square to the next – and our job is to paint our square, keeping the parts of the limbs that leave our square in position to match the limbs in the squares that will border ours. If you’ve ever done a model railroad layout = you’ll immediately get the idea.

We start to work. It’s a lot of fun, and a lot of sharing. The group at the top of the table take a more collaborative approach – but I decide to treat my canvas as a flat rock with limbs. It ends up covered in Butterflies hiding behind the limbs Tabatha drew. The Butterflies are drawn with Metallic paints – Gold, and Silver, and Blue, and Magenta – and yes – even Pink.

Hours later (time definitely flies when you are doing art), we regroup by putting our squares into their correct positions in the larger piece. The result is rather cool. 8 unique paintings that interlock! My inner critic suggests that maybe we should have all had more direction – but I tell it to shut up!

It’s definitely bedtime – so we clear up the mess we’ve caused – told ya that painting is NOT a clean sport, wish each other good-night and head off to bed.

Tomorrow we go to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum. I’m excited.

Signing off

The Soup Lady