a solstice retreat

announcing: long days of writing + drawing

In January, we tried something new. We opened up a beautiful stone house in the Cotswolds to a small group of people who decided to start the year slowly. We made fires and arranged flowers and walked up hills to watch the sunrise. We spoke about imposter syndrome and Virginia Woolf, and listened to Minnie Ripperton as we made marks on paper. We banged the gong. We ate blood orange marmalade cake.

Afterwards, as everyone drifted back to their homes, we made a WhatsApp group. And every few days somebody sends a message; a photograph of the drawing they did with their daughter, newly bolstered by a few hours in a wood-panelled room with some watercolours, or a life drawing class in another city. We made a writing + drawing retreat and it grew into a community of people who share their writing + drawing, just for the fun of it.

It was probably around this time that we realised there wasn’t another option but to do this again.

If January’s writing + drawing retreat had been about woodsmoke and napping and gentleness, then its next iteration - taking place at Pye Corner House between June 17 and 19th - has galvanisation at its core. The days will be nearly at their longest; we will eat outside and wait for the skies to bruise. There will be morning swims and walks up the hills, we can talk about our work in the glasshouse or by the stream, our feet cooling in the water. Once again, we will write and draw - in morning-long workshops led by myself and artist Lisa King, as well as one-on-one tutorial time in the afternoons, over a glass of something cold - but there will be so much more besides. Laughter, I expect. Lingering in the light.

We only have room for 12 on the retreat and January’s sold out quickly. So, if you think you could benefit from a handful of beautiful days in a house filled with wonder, lose yourself in gardens fit to burst and open yourself up to time to benefit your creative practice, we invite you to join in. Head here to find out more.

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