Off to Portugal

Flora Bowley

On Wednesday I'm off to Portugal.  Take a breath Jules... it has come round sooo quickly and I'm not quite prepared for what I'm about to do.

I'm going to Bloom True, to take a 2 day workshop with Flora Bowley.  I have loved and do love her work and I'm pretty excited to be learning a different stylee of painting.  Having had no real painting tuition, we're going to be completing 2 big canvases (by big, around 75cmx75cm).   Wow.  How on earth am I going to get them home on Easy Jet.

I had really wanted to go on the Do What You Love Retreat in Yorks organised by Beth Nicholls, which happened recently, and from the feedback from my friend DillyBoo Swirly Girl that looked amazing (Flora did a 3 day workshop there) Check out Dilly Boo's painting, it's amazing!  So I saw the workshop that was suddenly put on in Portugal and in talking it over with Will, decided that it could be a real retreat for me.  A Re-Treat.   So I'm going Wednesday, returning Monday and will have 2 days on my own there, 2 days to explore Lisbon and the area where I'm staying, which I think is called Estoril?  I'll be back on Monday and hopefully have in my possession 2 canvases.  Here's hoping so. xx

A bit about Flora Bowley: 


She is an internationally celebrated painter, teacher, inspirationalist, and world traveler. Flora believes there are no mistakes in the creative process and strives to do something new in every piece.  Her unique process of layering free-flowing color with natural forms and expressive mark-making combine to create lush paintings born from the present moment; chaotic, subtle, mystical and ever-changing.  

Flora lives and works full-time as a painter in Portland, OR, where she is inspired by magical forests, abundant gardens and a thriving community of fellow artists. Throughout the year, Flora enjoys traveling, painting, and teaching her “Bloom True” workshops in colorful locations around the world.  Her work can be found in numerous galleries and also on a variety of unique products made in collaboration with the uber-groovy paper goods company, Papaya.  She is currently working on a top-secret book due to be released in the Spring of 2012.

One of Flora's many paintings "Deep Peace"