Watercolour and the Art of Seeing
With David McEown
May 7 - 11, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Explore watercolour’s magical flowing spontaneity and essential techniques as you paint directly from nature. Enhance your perception, way of “seeing”, and connectedness to the earth with this travel-friendly medium. Enjoy a dynamic watercolour demonstration; exploring paint as a form of meditation and play. Uncover the secret hydrodynamics of watercolour paint…
Sketch by Sketch: connecting with the world through drawing
With Emma FitzGerald
May 16 - 21, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Learn to sketch without fear of making mistakes! Join celebrated author/illustrator, Emma FitzGerald as she leads participants through a series of exercises that build confidence and improves observation skills, while allowing for the happy accidents that make a drawing that speaks from the heart. Using pen and watercolour paint, and…
Contemplative Mind, Spontaneous Brush: Ink, Colour and Japanese Washi Papers
With Heather Midori Yamada
June 22 - 27, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Relax body, breath and mind with short guided meditations and simple perceptual exercises. Follow brushwork demonstrations using Japanese sumi ink and watercolour on various Japanese washi papers (provided). Inspired by the natural beauty of Cortes Island, we will explore mixed media approaches of layering, tearing and collaging. Deep intuitive and…
Locus Amoenus: Exploring Organic and Artificial Systems in Art
With Rebecca Brewer and Veit Laurent Kurz
July 25 - 30, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Together we navigate an urgent inquiry and reflect on dynamic processes of renewal and the power of generative frameworks in the organic and digital realm: How can we, as physical beings in an increasingly digital world, reclaim the intimate, tactile gestures of our hands? Can we react to the vast,…
Nature Paints Itself
With Jeremy Herndl
July 25 - 30, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
What if the world created us humans to speak its names, sing its rivers and winds? What if nature paints itself, using our deft human hands and the tactility of sight to emulate its textures, colours and spaces? In this workshop we shall enter the space of nature, the garden,…
Science, Art, Sound & the Sacred
With Merlin Sheldrake and Cosmo Sheldrake
July 30 - August 3, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Apr 30, 2025.
Explore the entanglements between science, art, sound, and the sacred in a beautiful, wild setting. What we call art and science both arise from our faculties of imagination, wonder, and curiosity. We will spend part of our time outdoors – in gardens, on seashores and in forests – connecting with…
Kintsugi: Embracing Imperfection
With Yuka Morino
September 21 - 25, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jun 22, 2025.
Kintsugi, 金継ぎ translated literally from Japanese means "golden joinery". This traditional Japanese art used to repair broken ceramics uses natural materials, like tree sap or urushi lacquer dusted with gold (or other precious metals) to make the cracks, or broken lines beautiful. The cracks are called Keshiki 景色 and in…
Fish as Storytellers: Intangible Knowledge and Lived Practices
With Zoe Todd and Courtney Chetwynd
October 2 - 6, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jul 3, 2025.
Drawing inspiration from fish as storytellers in their own right, this workshop will explore storytelling, play, and artistic creation as tools for sense-making. Through interactive dialogue, collective visioning sessions, collaborative art-making, and land-based reflection, participants will explore how diverse relationships in their lives give rise to profound knowledge in storied…