Plein Air Watercolour Workshop Retreat

Please Note: Evelyn's watercolour workshop retreat has to be postponed.
We look forward to the possibility of your retreating to Anam Cara to join her group in May 2014.

	Plein Air Watercolour Workshop Retreat Led by:  Evelyn Dunply (www.evelyndunphy.com) One-week residential workshop retreat Arrival:  TBA
"“Plein Air View of Beara” by Evelyn Dunphy

Join us as we experience the haunting beauty that surrounds Anam Cara. The lengthening spring days offer plein air opportunities in the colourful village of Eyeries, the nearby strand and mountains. Evelyn will lead us in painting the wild, rugged coastal views of this ancient landscape. Brightly colored cottages wind their way down the lane and the misty Killarney Hills overlooking Coulagh Bay reveal themselves in the ever-changing light -- it's an artists' paradise

Each day will include demonstrations of elements of landscape painting with lots of personal instruction. "Develop your ability to look at the complexity of the scene in front of you, and focus your vision so as to design a good painting that speaks of the essence of the scene, rather than merely reporting the things in it".

The Legends of the Hag of Beara: A Guide to Our Challenging Times

The Legends of the Hag of Beara:  A Guide to Our Challenging Times
Led by:  JoAnn Hughes (more information)
A Week-long Residential Workshop Retreat
Arrival:  Saturday, 15 June 2013
Departure:  Saturday, 22 June 2013

“Anam Cara has the great honor of resting on the Beara Peninsula, which is foundational to the legends of the Hag of Beara -- an ancient and contemporary mythical presence.  A large marked stone sitting across Coulagh Bay on the nearby headland of Kilcatherine, overlooking the land and the sea, The Hag of Beara is known as a holy place and holds the stories and myths of the Hag.

Lining Our Thoughts: A Poetry Writing Workshop

Lining Our Thoughts: A Poetry Writing Workshop
Led by:  Leanne O’Sullivan (more information)
A Week-long Residential Workshop Retreat
Arrival:  Saturday, 20 July 2013
Departure:  Saturday, 27 July 2013

“This workshop is for those who would like to begin to write poetry or those who would like to develop poems they have already started.  The main aim of my workshops is to encourage writers through discussion, exercise based and free writing, while also allowing them to take risks in a supportive environment.  Each session will focus on a different topic, such as imagery, perspective, storytelling, rhythm and form.  Everything a writer needs is inside of themselves, and it’s my goal to help them refine the effectiveness of how they communicate their subject matter.  Morning sessions will include a reading of poems by established writers (which will be supplied) with discussion of what makes these poems effective, writing exercises and also excursions to some sites in Beara that have given inspiration to my own writing.  In the afternoons I will be available for one-to-one sessions and this will also be free time during which participants can enjoy the creative peace of the retreat and do some writing.

Creating Works That Rivet Your Readers

Writing with Fire:  Creating Works That Rivet Your Readers
A Week-long Residential Workshop Retreat
Led by: David Hazard (www.itsyourlifebethere.com)
Arrival:  Saturday, 10 August 2013
Departure:  Saturday, 17 August 2013

Publishers and readers find a powerful voice irresistible. For 34 years David Hazard has coached writers, teaching them how to direct the latent powers of their whole being into their writing.
"Great writers... successful writers... learn how to speak with what I call, 'The voice of the soul, and the voice of the body.' Power is released into your writing when you open these energies."
Whether creating a novel, a memoir, or essays, fresh, riveting voice is essential. In the many years I have taken to form this workshop retreat ,I have seen countless writers experience the fresh energies of mind, body, and soul after this encounter -- which is really an encounter with your personal energies.

"Loosening the Bonds" – A Silent, Guided, Elements Retreat

"Loosening the Bonds" – A Silent, Guided, Elements Retreat
A Week-long Residential Retreat
Retreat Leader:  Kim Richardson
Arrival:  Saturday, 17 August 2013
Departure:  Saturday 24 August 2013

Join us for a week of companionable silence and guided meditations and practices drawn from the world’s great spiritual traditions, including the ancient Celtic tradition, in the great natural beauty of the Beara Peninsula. The landscape of the Southwest of Ireland is a living exemplar of the ancient Elements—Earth, Water, Fire, and Air.  In this Elements Retreat, we will seek to use the alchemy  of the four physical   elements, along with guided and silent meditations, walking, music, breath and mantra practices, to go beyond them [into the subtle, further elements of Space and Consciousness]. In this way, we seek to free ourselves for a while from the bonds of attachment to the “false self", and the illusion that is this apparent world, going beyond and inward to awaken to the freedom and beauty of our real Self, and the wellspring of our creativity.