Treat Yourself With Art Workshops and Retreats

In the fast-paced world we live in, endless errands, innumerable emails, and relentless to-do lists demand our attention. But finding time to break away every now and again to unwind is crucial if we want to keep growing as artists. One way to unwind and renew is through art workshops and retreats. Stepping back from the demands of everyday life can inspire leaps in creativity. Art workshops and retreats help us not only to enhance our artistry but also work on ourselves, too.

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Artists Need Time Away From It All

In Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust’s great tome about the creative life, memory is a key theme, and reflection is presented as a necessity for art. The often deplorable Baron de Charlus wisely castigates the narrator, who is restless to leave. There are experiences missed in always rushing and advantages in taking time, in being present. The narrator is young and won’t heed this advice for many pages and years, but the advice remains, waiting for the stillness that will recognize its value.

Artists need time to withdraw from the hustle of life in order to attend to the needs of the creative voice within. That time apart provides the platform for individual ideas that lead to new artistic visions.

Art Retreats: Space and Time

Art workshops and retreats began to appear at the turn of the 19th century as if in response to the growing urban centers, the rumble of industry and the increasing pace of life. In 1900, the German poet Rainer Marie Rilke wrote, “How large the eyes become here!” upon his arrival at Worpswede, the artists’ colony founded in the German town of that name just a year earlier. That same year, the now-famous artists’ residency, Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., declared its mission to provide “rest and refreshment [for] authors, painters, sculptors, musicians and other artists, both men and women.” These retreats offer a quiet space for artists to do their work without the demands of even so much as cooking a meal. Able to think only about their particular pursuit, artists have the freedom to explore without mundane constraints.

Black Mountain College offers another model for retreat. Founded in 1933 on John Dewey’s holistic educational principles that emphasize democracy, the college saw a generation of artists develop there, including Josef and Anni Albers, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, and Cy Twombly. Feeding off one another’s conversations and schemes, few ever wanted to graduate. Their relationships and shared projects inspired works for decades.

Art Workshops: Change and Exploration

Destination art workshops can offer a similar opportunity to work on projects and hear the ideas of other committed artists over meals and drinks. A novel environment allows different perspectives to arise. New friends with similar passions provide support, and an instructor helps guide ideas to life. A week or two in Italy or a few days in a nearby community can invigorate creative channels dried by daily toil. A change of air refreshes, while a different altitude or latitude reveals new qualities of light. The chance to get away allows the eyes to widen and review what is possible.

For some, a seasonal or annual refuge is necessary. As people meet and connect at art workshops, they form communities and encourage one another. They often insist upon a regular retreat; some groups have reunited for decades. Both the location and the participants protect the artistic spirit against the demands of daily life that make that spirit easy to ignore. Other artists may find they prefer solitude and seek out retreats that foster introspection and quiet reflection.

Artist Solitude: Quiet and Focus

The creative voyage, however, need not require a trip. The spirit of retreat is there when we carve time to be alone. Whether in the studio or on a walk, time apart fosters the energy and drive to produce work. To insist upon a period away from the requests of others—from the hassles and strains in the turmoil of tasks and jobs—is a challenge because of the commitment it entails on the artist’s life. Others may not understand, and their responses feel belittling; however, the walls of the studio become thicker with time and criticisms less meaningful. The slow and steady work accumulates. Projects grow. Skills develop. Persistence permits us to become present.

Gift to Oneself

The concept of retreat stems both etymologically and spiritually from the need to pull back. No doubt, this is the first and most valuable understanding, but I also like to think of the word as an opportunity to gift oneself again: to re-treat. When the world is a bother, a quiet refuge to make art is better than ice cream. Art workshops and retreats, therefore, can fill a spiritual need while also permitting a personal indulgence. Only through tending to the self can artists produce the work they offer the world. It may be five minutes, five hours or five days, but only through retreat can someone stop rushing to the next thing and take the personal time necessary to arrive as an artist.

A version of this article written by C.J. Kent first appeared in Artists Magazine. Subscribe today.