This VIP painting program respectfully and generously empowers you with hands-on practice, responsive guidance building connection with your true creative nature and the support you need to feel beyond comfortable – excited about finally being able to paint from your heart!
Wake to the feeling of freedom and excitement knowing you’ve chosen this immersive experience as a gift for yourself… there’s a sense of “OH YES!!!”
Catch the intriguing scent of art materials; see the different sized brushes, easel and your paints… It might seem a bit of a mystery but rest assured, all will be revealed. With everything taken care of, you get to focus on how it feels to paint your way!
Imagine the sensation of the palette knife slicing through buttery paint… See hues shift and change as you’re guided step-by-step to mix the colour you want. Is it a coral red, vintage pink, a tint of violet, a sage green, mustard yellow or… a striking turquoise? With curiosity and wonder you dip your brush and make your unique mark… It feels good to just be like the little you and just do it, right?!
Colours, shapes, line, mark and textures fill each day, along with guided meditations, healthy gourmet food, gentle walks (depending on our venue) and easy companionship.
Feel yourself relaxing into being completely yourself, opening up and having your questions answered as they arise, and being guided to access your own wisdom, so you can learn with ease, and grow in confidence.
Having delighted in the freedom of your creativity, feel your heart fill with gratitude for restoring your creative innocence as you behold your own studies and paintings, and promise to always remember the goodness of bringing your inner beauty to outer expression.
Have you ever yearned to live more fully and creatively self-expressed, just not sure how, so put it off… again? Right from Day 1, you’ll relax into guided ways of inner-listening and creative self-expression. Dr Suzanne makes it happen so easily that you wonder why you put it off for so long!
Do you really do want to learn to paint, but worry it’s too late now?
Creative expression is not limited by age. Dr Suzanne works with people from their 20’s right up to their 80’s. Her students forget their years and tap into their creative innocence as they become immersed in colours and textures gaining confidence with every customised session.
Do you think you can’t paint because you didn’t go to art school?
More and more people are discovering the joy of painting, and why not?! Whether you went to art school or not, you’re welcome to find out your creative nature is truly unique and amazing regardless of limiting ideas. There are many famous painters who never went to art school, dropped out or who were ‘late bloomers.’
Is worrying about being ‘good enough’ stopping you from following your heart’s desire?
Focus on what you want, and it will expand. Focus on what you don’t want, and it will expand! You get to choose. So, why not imagine the deep calm, wonder and aliveness of painting and expressing your kind of beauty.
Are you feeling blocked by self-doubt?
With the state-of-the-art coaching methods, you’ll be surprised by how those old doubts can be replaced by deep truths. No longer held back, and with support exactly when you need it, you’ll be truly surprised by what you can do.
Have you found group classes to be too noisy and stressful with irritating attention seekers?
Your private retreat is sacrosanct! You’ll have Suzanne’s attention, expertise and care all to yourself, learning in peace and quiet in dedicated time and space taking breaks when you need them.
Frustrated by not being able to mix the colours you want?
By the end of your second day you’ll know exactly how to mix the colours you want, and practiced creating exciting effects with colour – big steps toward making paintings you love!
Worried you can’t draw?
Suzanne will guide you in a natural way to draw so you’ll quickly gain confidence seeing you can create the most beautiful qualities of line.
You don’t want to learn online?
Great! Let’s find a suitable time and place for you to explore and express yourself with paint. The most important thing is that the venue feels right for you.
If you can relate to any of this, now is the time to allow yourself this extraordinary, transformational opportunity. All you need is the willingness to learn and grow, and you can relax knowing you’re beside a caring expert who loves to share her wealth of painters’ secrets!
On your personal VIP Retreat with Dr Suzanne, you’ll have intensive tuition, step-by-step visual art skill building, guided practice, Q&A, coaching and support as needed, so you can paint in ways you didn’t think possible!
By the end of your “Paint from the Heart VIP Retreat”, you’ll have …
- Become more aware of, and grateful for your natural gifts
- Moved through creative blocks so you can freely express your self
- Gained clarity and feel more self-assured through reconnecting with heart’s yearning
- Developed strong foundational skills for your painting practice and understanding about art materials and what they can do
- Discovered your unique way of ‘speaking’ with paint
- Created studies and paintings that express your kind of beauty
- Received Suzanne’s signature Creativity-Nurturing Method customised to suit you, so you have powerful tools to sustain your art practice and enjoy painting from your heart for years to come!
And like training wheels on your painting bicycle, Suzanne will be there for you in her Private Paint From The Heart Facebook Group and ongoing Illuminate Mentoring should you desire.
TOP 10 REASONS FOR NOT MISSING THIS PROGRAM
- This VIP retreat accepts you exactly where you’re at and nurtures your uniqueness!
- You’ll learn the foundations of painting, as well as more advanced teachings, AND gain freedom of expression in under a week.
- Your sessions are effective, enjoyable learning chunks distilled from Suzanne’s decades of artistic experience and range of teaching and coaching skills.
- You’ll create a painting that previously you could not have imagined making.
- Being the only student, you’ll fast-track your learning as you relax into creative practice with guidance exactly when you need it.
- Your teacher has the expertise to not only teach painting, but also guide you to access the wisdom of your heart and care for your creative soul
- You’ll reconnect with your ‘true colours’ and discover how you can express them more fully.
- You’ll be given Suzanne’s priceless Creativity-nurturing Method: Grow your Soulful Art Practice so you know the steps to making creative expression part of your life.
- “Choosing colours is like choosing life!” exclaimed Marilyn, one of my students. You’ll get to choose you every day!
- Gently reflect, and gain clarity, positively impacting the rest of your life.
I found “Paint from your Heart” healing and uplifting. It gave me that space to pause and decipher a path through troubled times. I finished feeling more integrated and emerged.
Itinerary
From your first meeting online with Dr Suzanne, right through to your final session, everything is thoughtfully prepared to help make your creative learning and expression flow with ease and grace.
The Creative Freedom Day (online) and two logistics appointments beforehand help Dr Suzanne prepare to ensure your retreat goes ever-so-smoothly.
Your exact itinerary depends on your specific requests, location and whether we’re working in-person or online. As it’s for one, we get to create something extraordinary for you.
Here’s an example of an in-person itinerary at my studio – the photo on the left is just outside!
On the day of your arrival, I’ll meet you personally and help you get settled.
Supported by quality materials, there’ll be 2 x 2 hour intensive learning sessions each day, plus Q&A during lunch and breaks for refreshments whenever needed.
With time to integrate what you’ve learned during the afternoon, enjoy a gentle walk alongside calming, majestic trees and glorious afternoon sun casting rosy light across the land.
Each day you’ll bring awareness to your heart, and come to trust your inner prompts. Sense your confidence build as you see your paintings evolve, and feel lighter, free of old ideas that may have been holding you back. If that sounds good to you, here is the basic structure of the retreat days.
Day 1 Creative Freedom Day
Clearing old limiting self-concepts and reconnecting with your heart and soul with transformational coaching prepares and empowers you to discover your natural way to paint. This day happens prior to your 4 day retreat.
Day 2: The Joy of Colour
By the end of our sessions today, you’ll have gained colour confidence. Discover how to mix the colours you want; how profoundly meaningful colour can be and ways to combine them informed by colour theory made easy – teachings from the famous Bauhaus.
Day 3: Colour part 2
Day 4: The Elements of Visual Language
By the end of our third day, you’ll be so much more at ease as you’re expertly guided to explore the other elements of visual language – mark, quality of line, shape, space, materiality – discovering what your materials can communicate.
Day 5: Painting from the Heart... & How to Care for your Creative Self
Be guided to explore different kinds of compositions and thoughtfully compose and create your unique painting. Integrate all you’ve learned today, as you affirm and create with your visual language and get a sense of direction beyond the retreat. You’ll complete the day knowing how to sustain, grow and enjoy your painting practice for years to come.
Should I book?
The answer is yes if you…
– want to learn how to paint even though you say you’re not creative enough!
– You’re ready to say ‘YES!’ to your heart and soul’s yearning, and follow through with dedicating the time and energy to own your dream
– You’re willing to be guided to do gentle inner work to clear creative blocks
– You have an intuitive knowing it’s right for you
– You’re ready to express your kind of beauty and feel the joy, fulfilment and renewed sense of meaning
– You’re a beginner wanting to learn OR would love to feel inspired about painting again.
The answer is no if you…
– are only wanting to paint landscapes, animals or the figure
– are unwilling to slow down and be guided to do the inner & outer work!
– want to paint like someone else
– insist on being late, missing sessions or using your phone during sessions
– are experiencing psychiatric, mental health issues or addictions that make it difficult for you to focus and learn
What’s Included
THE FOUNDATIONS OF YOUR VIP PROGRAM:
~ Your Creative Freedom Day of coaching via Zoom during the week prior to your 4-day retreat
~ 2 logistics/planning meetings if your retreat is in person
~ Orientation to the area, if working in person
~ Comprehensive customisation of course material and behind-the-scenes preparations (NB: At least an hour’s preparation is needed for an hour of your attendance)
~ Art materials when we work in person
~ 8 x 2 hour sessions of intensive, private painting classes
~ 4 x Q&A sessions over a leisurely gourmet 90 minute lunch/gentle walk
~ Refreshments and lunches when we work in person
~ Priority email
~ Suzanne’s e-book The Creativity-nurturing Method: Grow Your Soulful Art Practice
~ Monthly Illuminate Mentoring sessions follow for the duration of your program
~ Follow-up Masterclass in either Colour or Composition
What’s Not Included
- Your accommodation and travel expenses
- Suzanne’s accommodation and travel expenses
- Activities during your free time
- Shopping, phone calls, taxis, laundry, Spa services
- Personal, medical or travel insurance
- Mini-bar and room service bills
- Freight of your art
Meet your Retreat Leader Dr. Suzanne Moss
Artist, Painting Teacher, Life Coach & Artists’ Mentor
Hi! I’m Suzanne and perhaps like you, I’d put off my dream to really dive into learning to paint. I took that leap 28 years ago and now have the honour of helping others develop the foundations needed to make their passion thrive.
Eleven years ago, I began to bring transformational coaching methods to teaching art, especially for people who do not consider themselves to be artists, or who worry about ‘not getting it right’, so they could experience the fulfilling joy of their unique creative expression.
Working at a university Art School, I saw students with different kinds of creative block and trained in coaching to help them. I began teaching people who do not consider themselves to be creative or artistic, or maybe just a little bit!) at a community art centre, in 2013. I felt touched by people’s willingness to learn and creative innocence and loved this tender work. All my teaching experiences then and since affirm what an honour it is to help people express themselves creatively.
A professional artist, my paintings have been exhibited nationally in curated exhibitions across Australia. It was after my journey through serious illness in 2011 that I began to teach art as a mindfulness practice. I developed a coaching framework that brings together both the spiritual and the practical, so that you can be empowered by strong foundational skills, see what you can do with those skills in projects guided step by step, and quickly gain confidence.
My first career was Physiotherapy. I’d been attending private art classes for several years, including a months’ drawing course in Florence, Italy, when my dream of going to Art School resurfaced. The fragility and transience of life was at the forefront of my mind, as two of my patients had recently passed away.
I was in my element at Art School, and on completing Honours won several prizes and saw many great works of art while on a travelling Scholarship to Spain. I painted full time for a couple of years before my doctorate, and returned to Florence, London and New York studying how artists created captivating luminosity.
Mentoring, lecturing, supervising senior painting students and my own research into painting made for an intense professional life… until I became ill.
During that time, I had an epiphany that set me on my current path.
READ MORE...
I began to make little drawings of things I loved. It was like saying thank you to all the wonders of this life, and I began to feel euphoric! As the days passed, I often forgot about the illness.
The next few years were about painting, research into creativity and developing my courses. And in 2014, I presented my first creativity-nurturing workshop for 20 academics at university – diving in at the deep end – completely surprised at the ‘rave reviews.’ I’d discovered my Method, integral to all my programs since: meditative art classes with guests at a 5-star resort in Tuscany; a 2-week “Love your Creativity Retreat” in Florence and a “Reclaim your Creativity” weekend for a Franciscan community in Germany. I wrote a small book “Painting Light, Touching Space,” and my hands stopped shaking as I experienced a new level of mindfulness while studying with Artist, Zen teacher and East Asian Calligraphy Master Kaz Tanahashi in California.
During the last few years, my focus has been on developing, sharing and refining “Paint from your Heart” as a one-to-one retreat-course and my other passion: creating sacred spaces with my paintings and ceramics.
My paintings have been exhibited in curated exhibitions in Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Hobart and Melbourne and twice selected for the Women Abstract Painters’ Biennial. Today, I work from my studio in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in Australia, painting and helping those who secretly yearn to paint fast-track their development, so they can feel proud to share their art with family and friends.
Suzanne is a gifted, sensitive and intuitive guide and companion. Her life experience has brought together an exceptional balance of skills, knowledge and understanding of colour, composition and inner journeying.
I came to this time with absolutely no previous experience of painting, (other than enjoying what other people have produced). When I first saw the possibility of me “risking” this experience, my critical voice cut in and said “don’t kid yourself” However, I had a deeper knowing and luckily this won out.
I have been gifted with a new set of eyes, which has nothing to do with being an “artist”. I now have an extra means of seeing, feeling, understanding and expressing who I am.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart Suzanne and would encourage any person to follow their yearning and allow Paint from the Heart to empower and fill their life with light, colour and love.
I’m very interested!
FAQs
How much is it?
Each retreat is customised and so the costs vary. Have a complementary call so we can get clarity about your needs and budget. Properly informed, you might choose the online version or we can begin to plan your unique Paint from your Heart experience.
Can you accommodate dietary restrictions?
Yes, I can arrange suitable lunches with your detailed instruction, however, I am unable to guarantee complete absence of allergens for people at risk of anaphylaxis. If this applies to you, it is best to organise your own food or participate in the online version of this course in conjunction with private Illuminate Mentoring.
What travel documents do I need?
What’s the weather like?
Autumn (March, April and the first half of May) is the best time to visit the Snowy Valley, with crisp mornings and sunny days, from 15 – 28 degrees.
What do I bring?
Be sure to bring comfortable walking shoes, a sunhat for the sunny days and beanie for cool evenings; an apron to protect your clothes, a warm jacket, and your journal.
Where do you take people on solo retreat?
I have given retreat-courses in people’s private homes and venues such as art centres and resorts, as well as my studio in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. If you’d like to meet somewhere else, we can discuss what might be possible!
What is the best way to get to your venues?
For Tumut, fly into Canberra and drive the 2 hours from there, or I can pick you up from the airport.
For Florence, you can fly directly to Vespucci Airport or take the Fresciarossa express train from Rome or Milan to Santa Maria Novella Station.
Are there medical facilities nearby?
Other questions?
Suzanne has a calm, caring mastery and brilliance that truly connects with me and guides me to discover my Self and my natural way to draw and paint. I can’t speak highly enough of “Paint from your Heart.”
I feel wonderful after those 4 days! It was like pressing the ‘refresh’ button. Before, there was heaviness. Now I feel awakened and excited with clarity to pursue this new way of being that welcomes my worth and meaning. I see a changed woman when I look in the mirror. And when I play my piano it sounds sweet and I know my soul and being are aligned.
Now I realise there’s opportunity and possibility. I start my day differently. I care for myself. I schedule my creative time and have so many ideas – I feel so much better! Creatively, I’ve been feeling ‘on fire’ since the course!
I’m convinced I would not have reached my destination with other people in the room (virtual or real). And to maintain momentum in my new painting practice and sustain this preferred way of living, I’m continuing with Suzanne as my Mentor. It’s helping me to be better for me!
Working with Suzanne has changed my life!! I thought I knew about paint….I knew nothing!
I thought I was developing a palette…..not even close. I thought I knew the style of painting I wanted to do…nope!
By working intensively with Suzanne everything has changed. She seems to not only have an immense depth of knowledge in art (far beyond anything I have seen or learnt from reading EVERY book and watching EVERY video I could) but is so gifted at relating what needs to happen for an individual student.
There is a freedom gained from the way that she works with you. With the only intention that you be the absolute best you can be Suzanne informs, assists, guides, and coaches you to see the right way through, FOR YOU!
I absolutely urge you to get in touch especially if you are serious about your artistic direction.
She is a treasure!
Peter Gilchrist
CEO RTI Australia
Copyright © 2022 Dr. Suzanne Moss
Portrait and studio photographs courtesy of Donna Longobardi. All other images taken by Dr Suzanne Moss during her painting course/retreats.