Retreat Weekend

This weekend was Portland Art Collective's spring retreat. 21 of us headed to Menucha on the Columbia River Gorge for a weekend full of art, food, laughter, rest and lots of inspiration.

The grounds of Menucha were at their springtime peak with lilacs and rhododendrons in full bloom.
A great variety of moss to be found in the woods:

And even some garden art tucked in:

Here is some of the group hard at work. No telling what the others were up to.

Didn't get good pictures of all the great projects going on, but here's a little sampling.

Jill worked on intricate paper dolls:

Sandy's watercolors:

Suzanne's soldered charms:

Z'anne's zentangles:
Diane's paper birds in their early stages:

Cynthia's fiber necklaces:

Lorraine's journals:

Tammy's fabulous fiber garden:

Tory's crown:

And I worked on hand stitching prayer flags.

It was a great weekend with laughter that brought me to tears a number of times. Always the mark of a perfect retreat.

My Menucha Weekend by Lenall Siebenaler

The Portland Art Collective and Friends spent the weekend at Menucha Retreat Center. We gather together here twice a year and always totally enjoy ourselves and on top of that we get a lot created. I always come away in awe of all those around me and in their creativity. Each member of our group is so special and talented. They are also a bunch of VERY nice women. This weekend, we had a large number of friends join us. It was very interesting watching the group coalesce in the beginning. As the first night wore on and we had dinner together wearing our fun hats we all began to meld into one. Very interesting dynamics...

What did I create?

I started out building the base of the cork ornaments that I worked on last weekend. (See earlier photo.) I had finished 12 last week, but felt I could get more done as I watched TV in the evening. That night my hands were hurting from working the needle and wire through the cork. I was trying unsuccessfully to go to sleep totally overstimulated.

One of my goals for the weekend was to get my xyron working and Cynthia saved the day coming to my rescue. I was able to cover about 12 2010 Monthly Planner Calendars using both paste paper and paper I worked on last weekend using the black gessoed monoprint process. See the pictures above. Check out the paste paper File Folders pictures also.

The rest of my time was spent designing and creating 3 different cards. Two Xmas cards: a Tree using the left over papers from my calendars and a very graphic Holly card. Then I did 4 woven heart cards. All total I probably finished 40 cards today.

Besides creating I got a lot of great critiques, conversation and wonderful observation of a large group of fully content and happy creative women!

It was another great weekend...

Lenall