I have the good fortune to belong to two art groups: The Portland Art Collective and the Salem Art Group. The groups are very different. The Portland Art Collective has 33 members, meets monthly for a meeting where the main focus is show and tell, but they also take minutes and conduct business. Twice a year they have a retreat at Menucha and about twenty women attend. Attendance at meetings is not required and I haven’t seen a couple of members for years.
The Salem Art Group is a small group with only six members. This group meets monthly and does one of the following: 1) meet up for coffee and show and tell, 2) go on a field trip to an exhibit or museum, or 3) gets together for a day of art making. Once a year we go on an art retreat. In our small group, we have an attendance policy, which requires that everyone attend at least eight meetings per year.
This past week both of the groups held their art retreats, which meant I was gone for a week.
PORTLAND ART COLLECTIVE
PAC holds their retreat over a weekend at Menucha, a conference and retreat center in the Columbia Gorge, about an hour east of Portland. All of our art-making is done in The Greenhouse.
We arrive on Friday afternoon and the retreat concludes on Sunday afternoon, giving us two full days of making art, laughing,doing demos, relaxing, and being silly.
During our stay, all meals are provided in the dining room, and they beautifully accommodate people with special diets (like me, who is vegetarian and stays away from gluten, but obviously not from sugar!).
SALEM ART GROUP
SAG holds one retreat a year and the location and time of year vary. For the past several years we have retreated at Camp Sherman along the Metolius River. This year we chose to retreat at the Oregon Coast. Bonnie, one of our members, has a cabin at the coast and a friend of hers offered for us to use her house on the bay as our place to stay and create.
We arrived on Tuesday morning and stayed until Friday. Of course, there was no one preparing our meals, so everyone made their own breakfast and lunch, but we dined out every night at one of the great restaurants, all within a short drive from where we were staying.
ART
During the two retreats, I chose to work on three different projects. I always schlepp more art supplies that I ever use, and I panic at the idea of not having enough to do. During the PAC retreat in the Gorge, I focused on acrylic paintings and visual journaling, along with a new collage project I am developing.
At the coast, I lugged all of my oil and cold wax supplies, set up shop on a long table I brought, and spent the entire time slathering on layers, scraping away the oil and cold wax the next morning, then applying another layer. I have a show deadline coming up the first part of June, so these days were spent working on several pieces for that show. It was a luxury to have uninterrupted expanses of time to work.
Because of the intimate nature of the second retreat, I took more photos during the week. Here’s a look at our little group and some of our activities during our stay.
Here’s my two piles of packing. First to Menucha for the weekend, then to the beach for four days. I thought I took a lot to Menucha, but my stack of stuff doubled for the beach!
It was a treat to have so many days dedicated to art without any of the responsibilities of home. But now it’s time for reentry and to finish up some of the projects I started over the past ten days.
