Painting in Costa Rica

This month a dream came true. I had the great pleasure of painting with a group of beautiful women in gorgeous Nosara, Costa Rica at the wonderful Pura Vida Retreat hosted by artists Mati Rose McDonough and Faith Evans Sills.

I travelled half way around the world, sans my family, for just over two weeks. Mornings were spent swimming, meditating, doing yoga, followed by the day’s painting class. After lunch it was more painting, followed by a glass of wine over a divine sunset with this group of gorgeous women. We ate at amazing restaurants and took evening swims. I saw baby sea turtles, just hatched, making their way into the surf and rode a horse at sunset on the beach. I know, sounds terrible. You can slap me now.

The inspiration for this trip came from a sheer need to meet these women who, though they live on the other side of the world, have become my beloved chums in art. I’ve been studying painting online for a couple of years with Mati and Faith (you should totally check out their e-courses and retreats!) and we’ve gotten to know each other quite well digitally in that time. So to spend some time in the flesh with these two and paint with them was just fantastic. Not to mention having the opportunity to spend time with a whole bunch of other women that I have been creatively growing online with for quite some time, people such as Nikki Cade, Lily Uoka, Anna Ryan, Annamieka Hopps Davidson, who I now have the great pleasure of calling IRL friends.

I also got a chance to take a sneak peak at Mati and Faith’s new book ‘Painting the Sacred Within’, which is coming out very soon and which I am in. But more about that another time.