MAINE COAST ENCAUSTIC RETREAT 2025
Kennebunkport, Maine
September 7 – 13 + September 14 - 20
This retreat is about you. Select what you want to study. Try something new. Wander the Maine Coast. Sip something frothy by the pool. Wake EArly for Yoga. Eat lunch with new friends. Find your voice and have fun getting there.
To register for this year’s retreat, fill out the online form here.
2025 WORKSHOPS
Mark Making + Meaning – Through a hands on process, participants will be guided to create a map of marks that relate to their life experiences. These marks and designs can be used to create a series of new works.
Color Mixing 101 – An overview of how to create a wide range of hues using a limited palette. You will make your own color mixing chart for future reference.
Collage – In this workshop we will experiment with paper and wax, noting the way that certain papers become translucent and pliable when saturated with medium. Using tacking irons and heat guns, students will incorporate fabric, paper, monoprints, and drawings to create collages. Encaustic paint and Pigment Stick will be used as final layers.
Conceal + Reveal – Build up to scrape back. Students will learn different types of scraping techniques and when to use them.
Encaustic + Photography – An introductory workshop to working with photographs and encaustic. Proper materials for printing and mounting photographs will be demonstrated, as well as the incorporation of Pigment Stick, graphite, and mica powder.
Mini Monoprinting – Use your hot plate to pull unique encaustic prints that can be enhanced with pigment stick or metallic leaf and then mounted on panels.
Essential Composition with Values + Shapes – Develop your painting compositions by creating the underlying simple shapes, patterns, and grouping value masses together for strong designs. Guest instructor Kelly Milukas will demonstrate foundational value structure in ink and water-based mixed media underpainting techniques.
Layers + Translucency – Instruction will focus on building paintings from the ground up - covering what can be done directly onto a substrate, between layers of medium, and on the surface - as well as how to create a smooth, even, and luminous surface.
Foundations of Composition – An essential role in solving compositional issues involves learning to seeing values and shapes as the underlying structure. This presentation is required if you opt to take the hands on “Essential Composition with Values + Shapes” workshop with guest instructor Kelly Milukas.
Wax Resist – Using a special paper that can be incorporated easily into encaustic, we will incorporate wax markings, gestural strokes, stamping, folding, batik and resist dyeing to achieve dynamic results that are uniquely your own.
Yoga – Start your day with gentle to moderate yoga and mindful meditation designed to leave you feeling strong and grounded. Mats, straps, and blocks provided. All levels welcome. 5 yoga sessions count as one workshop.
WHAT’S INCLUDED:
+ 6 nights in one of Maine’s most beautiful, historic hotels The Colony Hotel
+ breakfast + lunch
+ 7 workshops + 3 open studios
+ supplies
COST
All inclusive workshop, hotel, and meal packages start at $2,744.00. Upgrades are available. Workshops and open studio slots can fill in advance, so early registration is recommended. A maximum of 20 participants will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis. No more than 12 students will be in each individual workshop.
payment plan
A $100 deposit is required to hold your spot. Workshop fees are due February 1, 2025. The hotel and meals payment is due June 1, 2025. Please see FAQs below for cancellation policy.
DETAILS
Boston’s Logan Airport is 1½ hours away and accessible by train. The Portland International Jetport is only ½ hour away.
What is there to do in Kennebunkport? You can fish; take a lobster tour; whale watch; go on a sailing trip; shop; gallery hop; drive coastal Route 1; play golf or tennis; go swimming in the Colony Hotel’s pool overlooking the Atlantic Ocean; have a peek at the Bush compound; go antiquing; visit the Franciscan Monastery, Blowing Cave, or Spouting Rock; kayak; canoe; walk the beach and nature trails; visit a lighthouse; or take the trolley. The Colony Hotel hospitality staff is ready and waiting with even more suggestions.
