Workshops and Retreats
Michael and his team run workshops and creative retreats in various locations in Europe.
Our philosophy
"It is quite simple; not to in any way actually teach the techniques of painting, poetry, music and dance etc., but instead to discover together through play and experiment what it is to be an artist. That is to say, how to empty the mind of conditioning and indoctrination and open it rather to what we refer to as creative flow; which is, one could say, an alternative fertile universe, a non exhaustible source of energy, of image, of poetry, of music, of dance, in fact of all things creative in our lives."
Where we Create Together - CITTADELLA
La Cittadella dei Sibillini has been our creative home for some eight years now, although I'd discovered it 35 years ago when I'd decided to leave Tuscany for this mysterious province I'd heard about on the other side of the peninsula, Le Marche.
It was then that new best friends took me one Sunday lunchtime to the Sibillini mountains to meet Silvio, the owner of Cittadella; his guest house nestling in a valley beneath the majestic Mount Vettore. It had a restaurant and a wine cellerstocked with an astonishing variety of wines and we were offered endless aperitifs during a long afternoon of celebration of nothing in particular, except simply life itself that day, perched as we were on the mountainside, some 1,800 metres in the sky
And I was smitten.
By the beauty of the landscape
By the fascinating history of it's original Piceni peoples and the subsequent Roman conquest of them by countless wars of attrition.
The legends and stories which still abound of fairies and witches, and to discover that the old nature religions still thrive here,
And the seductive charm of Cittadella itself, not to mention its enigmatic owner who embodies in his character the lakes, the rivers, the trees and forests and the very essence of nature in these parts.
There is something the American artist and teacher Robert Henri wrote over a hundred years ago 'The objective isn't just to make art, but rather to been in that state of mind where art becomes inevitable'
And yes, Cittadella is a state of mind. And to do Tai Ci and Chi Kung of a morning in that crystal clear air; to open all our senses to the wind and the bounless sky, to wakening birdsong and then, later in the forest, to dip or hands and wash our faces in sparkling, rushing streams.
This indeed is where creativity finds us.
Where it flows through us
And when we experience the urge to make paintings, write poetry and prose, make music, and to laugh at our good fortune to be here, at this time, at this place'