Ojai Retreat Weekend , Sept 25-27, 2021

Oct 4

by Anne Kupillas and Charles Leon.

OJAI RETREAT September 25-27,2021

This past weekend in Ojai, seven artists gathered in Ojai, California with three leaders for the first-ever Eat Paint Live Art Retreat. This glorious three-day weekend was filled to the brim with art, inspiration, friendship and food and wine experiences.

For the leaders, this was a dream-come-true experience: to spend a long weekend in a special place with other amazing artists, helping them to learn and grow their skills and open their minds to the joys of plein-air sketching and painting. It’s hard to describe all the feelings of an experience like this! Luckily, we have a lot of photos. The seven talented artists came and brought the full force of their creativity, generous spirits, and readiness to learn and share. This was evident both in the camaraderie and finished works of art.

Our Location

How fortunate we are to live so close to Ojai – a very special valley town in Central California, just about an hour’s drive from West Los Angeles. Known for its artsy, casual charm and sunny weather, Ojai has been nicknamed California’s Shangri-La for the appeal of its natural environment, focus on wellness and spirituality, and the beauty of the valley. It was the perfect location for our first on-location watercolor retreat! Set in a valley ringed by the Topa Topa Mountains, the city has a village-like center dotted with art galleries and bohemian shops. To the east and west of downtown, there are many parks and fruit groves, surrounded by the mountains on all sides and full of lush foliage, including palm trees, live oaks, cacti and bougainvillea. Every evening, the sun setting behind the mountains creates a sunset display called The Pink Moment. You can imagine how spoiled we were with gorgeous subjects to sketch and paint.

EPL’s Leaders – Anne, Charlie and Joelle

Charles “Charlie” Leon is a London-based interior designer and avid urban sketcher. Because Charlie couldn’t make it from England due to COVID restrictions, he Zoomed in with us for an introductory lesson in Composition and joined us via group chat and FaceTime at every convenient opportunity. Charlie painted along with us from photos of almost every location and shared them via our lively group text.

Anne Kupillas, a Long Beach-based watercolor artist and instructor, and Joelle Renzi, a textile artist and travel sketcher, led the group in implementing these learnings plus many others, while coordinating sketching and painting in and around Ojai in all the most picturesque spots. We shared our years of experience, starting each session off with a different challenge or perspective, and then gave personalized instruction in real time to each participant. We loved sharing our knowledge and experience with this receptive group.

Charlie Zooms in for a lesson on Composition - click the image to get the video link on You Tube and watch it again!

Ollie Cigliano of Ollie George Kitchen was our local food expert and chef for the weekend. She created many of our meals for us from scratch, incorporating local produce and other local products like olive oil, honey and pasture raised meats, and served us healthy, delicious organic fare while teaching us about the ingredients and sharing her secrets and stories with us.

The Itinerary – what our days were like (and nights, too)

Day 1 at the Owl’s Wing Bungalow and more

Everyone arrived for a welcome breakfast at our rented spacious Craftsman home base in Meiner’s Oaks, a picturesque suburb of Ojai. How wonderful to finally gather in-person and meet each other! For many of us, it was the first time we had met in person - artists and friends we had known online for the past year(s). After friendly introductions and an agenda run-through, we settled into the main area for a Composition lesson with Charlie Leon. Following this, the group practiced creating simple thumbnails around the property, with many vignettes to choose from.

Lunch and sketching in Soule County Park, surrounded by trees full of woodpeckers and dotted mountains, was the perfect way to ease into on-location art. Anne and Joelle sketched and gave tips, while the artists located their main subjects and created compelling and colorful composition “stories.”

Welcome Artists! Soule Park Anne & Ollie.jpeg

Charlie's Sketch of the group @ Soule County Park.jpg

Two Views of Soule County Park Chris.jpeg

Charlie's Thumbnails Soule County Park.jpg

After lunch, we caravanned to the iconic Bart’s Books to explore and shop the cramajam aisles of used books, including Anne’s favorite – the Art Book room.

Loaded up with purchases, we broke up to change for the evening, which saw us at Topa Mountain Winery, for local wine tasting (their wine flights are amazing!) and sketching at a long picnic table outside, where a whole lot more creating happened, including a group-drawn artwork page passed around in between sips and gulps! We capped the night with a delicious patio dinner at Harvest Moon Ojai, one of the best casual restaurants in town.

Day 2 Farmers Market and Downtown, Plus an Evening in Meiner’s Oaks

Sunday is Farmers Market day, so what better place to Eat, Paint and Live! Our well-rested group gathered at the Lavender Inn for coffee and then we walked next door to the Ojai Certified Farmers’ Market. This was a real treat and a favorite activity of the group. This market sports a bountiful variety of locally farmed produce, flowers, gourmet food and handicrafts.With a delicious home-cooked egg muffin in one hand and sketchbooks in the other, we browsed the market for things to buy and to draw. Anne shared tips on capturing moving people and crowds, while Joelle led artists around to various stands to find interesting subjects (there was no shortage – we could have stayed all morning!).

Libbey Park is right in the center of Ojai’s downtown arcade area, and is a public park designed in the Spanish Mission style of architecture. There were a few features just dying to be sketched there – including the Bell Tower, a four-story (65’) beauty designed by San Diego architect Richard S. Requa. Aside from being a great subject, its bells toll out every hour and it plays patriotic tunes at noon – although we’re certain we heard notes from a ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ song At the Bell Tower, Anne and Joelle introduced the concept of quick Contour Drawing, a useful way to capture the main lines of architecture and landscape when you have limited time, or must move fast (like when you’re sketching on a busy pedestrian street). We moved spots to sit around the tiled fountain and added color and value to our sketches.

Quick+Capture+Bell+Tower+Mixed+Media+Chris.jpg

Shelley did a brightly hued rendition of the Bell Tower!

After another picnic lunch under the oaks –chic individual charcuterie boxes, so divine – we were tasked to sketch the Art Deco inspired “folly” building, complete with octagonal roof, pottery tiles and intricate, curly wrought iron columns. Charlie’s previous “Perspectives” lesson was especially helpful for this challenging subject.

Chris’s capture of the Libbey Park Arcade - so vibrant!

Sarah’s capture is excellent - its definitely got the feel of this building.

We took a walk over to explore the local art at the Ova Arts gallery (which stands for Ojai Valley Artists) and Cercana, a combination home goods and art gallery boutique. Feeling very inspired by the local artists, we parted for some solo R&R and to change, and met up at sunset for a special evening of cocktails and watercolor painting on a private terrace overlooking the Topa Topas, at The Ojai Retreat. On the Pink Moment Terrace, we enjoyed a fresh, fruity libation and caprese skewers, and tried our hands at some wet-in-wet watercolor painting to capture the Pink Moment.

Alas, it was hazy and we got more of a purple/blue moment, but as evidenced by the photos, it was a lot of fun, and all the artists produced some extraordinary in-depth works. No trip to Ojai would be complete without experiencing the special grotto and gardens setting of the historic Ranch House restaurant. We left our sketchbooks in the cars and enjoyed sharing stories and laughs around the supper table, with Ollie entertaining us all with butchery and cheese stories, perfect for a round table of foodies.

Watercolor Pencils Sketch Pink Moment.jpeg

Susy Pink Moment with Butterfly Bush.jpeg

Toasting at the Pink MOment Terrace.jpeg

Day 3 – Olive Oil and Farewells

Our last full day together was another set of adventures. Morning artisan coffee and pastries while casually sketching at Beacon Coffee preceded a short drive through the Pixie citrus groves into the base of the mountains, for a private table tasting at the Ojai Olive Oil Company. It was truly a special event, with our picnic tables cloistered right inside rows of olive trees in the French Grove. We sampled local oils and vinegars while our host, Mimi, educated us about olive oil and the history of the grove. She was a real expert in her craft, and so warm and funny. We even had our own kitten mascot, a feisty black and white farm cat named Batman. Anne tried her hand at painting with the balsamic vinegar (was it successful?) while other artists captured the grove and close ups of the olives, an owl box, and Batman trying to steal the show. We all shopped the wares and relaxed blissfully under the shade of the 50-100 year old olive trees, before heading back to our home base for a farewell barbeque.

The group spent our last meal together saying goodbye, trading “takeaways” and supply tips, and viewing each other’s now filled sketchbooks. After a lovely meal and s’mores by the firepit, taking photos and making plans for future art retreats, we said goodbye – for now. The weekend was full although not long enough, but the perfection of the many moments, the kindness, talent, and friendships made between artists, the food and weather and vibes of Ojai – all of these will remain forever in our hearts. It was all so beautiful and meaningful, and we don’t want to wake up from this dream.

We know this retreat experience will become an important part of who we are, and we hope the same for everyone who participated. Even if you didn’t join us in person, we hope that following our journey has inspired you to create, build your artist community and experiment with on-location art.

Before Lori and Anne built the perfect fire

What We Learned

We basked in each other’s creativity all day! Everyone created the most stunning works based with their own particular evolving styles, incorporating different approaches to sketching and watercolor and mixed media on-location, and translating these new ideas into our sketchbooks.

We really boosted our creative juices, as we all had so many new ideas (and new materials) we experimented with.
We learned specific art techniques, and we discovered new local foods and wine. We grew our abilities to look differently at the world, we learned about art supplies and we learned about one another. We especially enjoyed getting to know each artist and her own individual stories and talents.
Here are a few words they shared with us about the retreat:

Eat Paint Live’s first retreat was a huge success. I’ll bet each retreat will have its own brand of special.

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“Is anyone else having ‘Eat Paint Live’ withdrawals? I know I am. What a wonderful trip, loved meeting everyone and creating art together!” -Cara L.

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The opportunity to spend uninterrupted time on art and be with other artists was extremely inspirational.

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“Eat Paint Live was a first class, top notch experience. All I needed to do was show up and try and I felt myself move forward. I also felt safe to experiment and take risks.” -Chris L.

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Excellent choices of painting and sketching locations plus food and wine experiences.
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This was so well planned, All questions were answered before they were asked! I loved the numbered maps and great itinerary! -Sarah H.

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The small group made it easy to share ideas and see what others’ tools and techniques were.

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“It feels like a dream. You did an amazing job - thanks & will be in touch!” -Susy G.

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I learned a lot by osmosis, listening to Anne, Charlie and all the artists. I loved the food and pampering at all the different venues so that the whole retreat was an immersive experience in creativity and nature. Thank you! -Lori R.

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It was a fun, informative, and all around delightful experience. The organization was fantastic, locations were well thought out with great vistas and the food outstanding. -Sarah H.

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One happy participant. Thank you so much for creating the very thing my life is ready for right now.

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Lots of concepts were covered and experimentation was encouraged in this retreat, and it seemed like the participants each and all found niches and value. -Lori W.

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Loved the locations, the company, the food and the outstanding hosts! Hope to go on more retreats with them! -Kathy D

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Loved everything about it!

This week was so full of joy, relaxation and art instruction and just time to bask in art. We’re so grateful to have spent it among so many talented and generous artists who were willing to come and share their stories, skills and passion.