"There is nothing more important and vital to life than creativity…all successful human endeavour is founded on it. You see, once you externalise the inner world of your imagination, a shift occurs and you glow; both you and the planet glow, and change takes place"

OUR FABULOUS WEEKENDS IN ITALY

Our 2013 calendar offers the following:

• Our Creativity Workshops where we play and create with everything we can get our hands on
• Painting retreats. You can't paint? Yes you can and you will, with freedom and laughter in this serious yet light hearted workshop with Michael Eldridge and Lorenzo Viscidi
• BIG painting. Then a later weekend with Michelle Rumney and Mike Eldridge; BIG paintings, a delicious romp with huge imagery
• Photography, Including Wild Photography in the mountains, with Mauro Magrini, Natasha Lythgoe and Mike Eldridge
• Film making; Ipads, Iphones, tablets; all this new technology has made film makers of us all. An exciting weekend and a new way of looking film.
• Hunting the Heart of The Blue Deer . Healing and Art with Eleanor Darley
• Living Words; Writing through the body and the senses. A seminar in Creative Writing taught by Jeff Shapiro
• Creative Discovery weekend ; Word and Image, (a wonderful weekend playing with words and images; splashing paint and writing Haikus. With Colin Pink and Mike Eldridge
• Energetics. A relaxing weekend in the sunshine, in the pool and in the shade of our olive grove with Liliana Pivato and Gianni Gerroti, learning to balance body and mind with Watsu and Longevity energetics (which is a bit like Qi Kung but more powerful)
• Sacred Sound and Voice; sourcing the magic of the music within you. Very powerful. With Jules Heavens
• Maria's Special Guest Retreats, a totally unprogrammed weekend where anything may happen and always does
• Italian Cooking; An adventurous weekend in an Italian Kitchen with Maria Banks and our resident Chef.
• ONE2ONE Painting and Photography weekends in Italy. For individuals or a couple of friends together

•  For those folks who can't manage any of our weekend dates, or perhaps are not too keen on group work, Michael offers one2one three day sessions in photography or painting throughout the year, and  based in the magnificent mountains of the Sibillini National Park. Dates available depend on weekends he has free, so please contact him directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or telephone him on +39 3283535358.

  Cost E275 plus accommodation at I Cigni 

  
  

Costs for retreats;

Full board at I Cigni is from Euros E66 per day depending on preferences ( single E20 extra per night)

Sessions begin either on a Wednesday or Thursday at 5pm and close after lunch on the Sunday

Tuition fee Euros 150 for three day retreat and E200 for four day retreat. Contact us for fuller details of our 2013 programme and how to pay your deposit via PAYPAL.

Guests wishing to stay on longer at I Cigni, either before or after Retreat may do so at a special rate of E40 per night B&B, with use of all facilities, pool etc.

 It is creative apperception more than anything else that makes the individual feel that life is worth living. Contrasted with this is a relationship to external reality which is one of compliance, the world and its details being recognised but only as something to be fitted in with or demanding adaptation. Compliance carries with it a sense of futility for the individual and is associated with the idea that nothing matters and that life is not worth living. In a tantalising way many individuals have experienced just enough of creative living to recognise that for most of their time they are living uncreatively, as if caught up in the creativity of someone else, or of a machine.

D.W Winnicott, 'Playing and Reality'

                                            All illustrations by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.