nosara, costa rica
april 19-25, 2015
We’ll take over a lush secluded retreat center for 6 days of making art, nuturing relationships, and adventuring in the jungle paradise of the Nicolya Peninsula in Costa Rica. Our group will lodge in a private villa with our own pool and secret path to the beach surrounded by rain forest, falling asleep to the sound of the surf. Faith Evans-Sills and I are teaming up to take you on a layered painting adventure! Each morning Faith will lead us on a nature mandala walk to the beach to begin our day. After a fresh delicious breakfast we’ll dive into lessons in our gigantic open air porch filled with hammocks and comfy couches. We’ll lead you through collage, working with stencils, silk screening, spray painting, layering with drips and washes, creating abstract layers along with painted Mandalas and Feather Power Girls!
What’s Included:
*6 nights accommodation in a private villa, our own Jungle Beach House.
*healthy breakfast and lunch daily by a private chef—lots of fresh tropical fruit and fresh local fish!
*daily painting lessons by both Faith & Mati—using our jungle beach location for inspiration we’ll dive into mixed media layered goodness with lessons in creating abstract paintings through a variety of marks and materials to express natural space and tropical inspiration. Through a slow build up of process you’ll create paintings in our open air studio. Mati and Faith will lead you through lessons in collage, wash painting, stencilling, silk screening, spray painting along with painted mandalas and feather power girls. You’ll come away with work that you love, and lots of new ways of seeing and working, to take home to jump start your own studio practice.
*24 hour access to our own open air art studio, a thatched roof central space full of hammocks and lounges where you can let your inspiration run wild.
*meditative morning nature mandala walks
*private beach access
*private pool on site
*optional yoga
*daily housekeeping
*free day for horseback riding, zip-lining, massage, surf lessons, local wildlife tours
*lots of free time in the afternoons to explore the local beauty and nurture relationships with other creative women.
*a short distance to Nosara, a funky, holistic, hip enclave in the jungle.
*BONUS Gift for our retreaters: Free Year of online painting class with Mati + Faith (worth $1200 full price)
| Register Now: Choose a Lodging Option to make your deposit |
About our teachers:
Faith is a painter, wife, mother, doula, world traveler and New York City transplant. With 20+ years of personal painting experience she enjoys inspiring others to manifest their most heartfelt ideas through creating art. Her art has been exhibited widely, included in multiple publications and she is very excited to now be fulfilling her longtime dream of offering creative workshops and retreats. She lives with her husband and 3 young children by the sea in Charleston, South Carolina, where they enjoy exploring southern beaches and maintaining a close connection with nature through frequent trips to wild places. Follow along here on her eponymous blog and on Instagram where she posts daily beauty and inspiration.
photo by Andrea Scher
Mati is an artist and daring adventurer whose name is pronounced Matey, like Ahoy! She is an Oakland, California based artist, illustrator, painting teacher and author of “Daring Adventures in Paint”. After wanting to be an artist for many years, but feeling like it was “impractical”, at 29 years Mati took the leap and went back to art school at the California College of the Arts. Almost 10 years later, she is still excited and terrified every time she sees a blank canvas. She has had dozens of art shows, taught painting classes internationally and had her art used by clients Patagonia, University Games, Pier 1, as well as greeting cards, and her very own home decor line. She also has illustrated several children’s books including “i carry your heart” written by ee cummings. Through her workshops, book, and popular online course, she spreads a warm message of creative courage: it’s never too late to show the world your magic.
FAQs:
If you have been thinking about joining our Pura Vida painting retreat in Costa Rica but have some questions we thought that these FAQ’s would be helpful:
“I have been thinking seriously about joining your painting trip to Costa Rica and wanted to ask a few questions…”
- Is this trip going to be pretty intensive in art making and teaching? I have not been able to make much art in the past few years and there is nothing I am craving more than 24 hours a day to paint, talk about art, learn new techniques etc. Does that sound about in line with how you have designed the trip?
Answer: We’ve had a lot of questions about the nature of the retreat and the balance of art making to relaxation. Really, you can decide how much you’d like to go to the beach vs make art, but we wanted to flesh out the structure. We plan on teaching in the mornings from 9 to 1pm and you will have 24 hr access to the work studio and art supplies. Breakfast and lunch will be served buffet style in our common space, so you can eat at our leisure. Both Faith and Mati have a lot to share both techniques and art-making wise and we’ll be available for instruction at other times too. We envision that this retreat will be super juicy and inspiring and you may want downtime to soak up the lessons and be further inspired by the ocean, tropical nature and colors.
- What time does the retreat begin on the 19th and end on the 25thfor logistics and airline purposes?
Answer: Participants are welcome to arrive any time after 12PM on July 19th to settle in and enjoy the beach and pool. At 5PM that evening we will begin the retreat with an opening circle gathering and a shared welcome dinner. Check out on the 25th will be at 10AM, shuttles to the airport will leave that morning to get people to their flights.
- How far is the retreat location from the airport….is there a shuttle that can be taken?
Answer: The Jungle Beach House is about an hour from the airport. There are multiple shuttle services that we can recommend. We’ll send you a list of those services once you register. When we have everyone’s arrival/departure times we can coordinate shuttle shares for retreat participants upon request.
- What is the name of the airport closest to the retreat?
Answer: The closest airport is called Liberia, Costa Rica and the retreat itself will be held in the town of Nosara, on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Penninsula.
- Are all the art materials included in the price? If so will we have access to canvases or professional paper?
Answer: We will supply most of the art materials including a couple of larger canvases (24” x 24”)— all included in the price. We only ask that you bring a few small things: select paints, brushes and collage paper of your liking.
- How fast do your retreats generally fill? I am trying to figure out logistics for that week. Do you have a general idea of when I should register by to ensure a spot?
Answer: We have had a lot of interest in the retreat and spots are filling up, we suggest you book ASAP to reserve your spot!
Please feel free to run any further questions by us!
Faith (at) faithevanssills.com or matirose (at)gmail.com
Hope you can join us on this amazing adventure! :)))