Unlock Your Creative Potential
Create, See, Think, Feel, Create.
Explore this Circular Path in the Beautiful French Alps
Come Join Me in Paradise
with a Paintbrush!!
Hello Creative Beings!
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I'm very excited to share my favorite places, art making, and favorite activities with you here in the mountains of the Haute Savoie, France. Less than an hour from Geneva airport, and yet a world away from the usual.
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Studio sessions in a variety of media, and pleine aire immersions, will be rounded out by gastronomical, and local excursions--with plenty of optional free-time, or more studio-time to maximise what you personally seek from our time together.​
Our homebase will be in my creative center, Espace Créa-Tea-Vité, in the heart of La Clusaz, a most beautiful alpine village less than an hour from Geneva airport.
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We will also be spending time in Talloires France, creating in the footsteps of Cezanne, on the shores of Lac D'Annecy.
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We will be a small group, maximum 10 in total --non-participating partners also invited-- so if you're interested, don't delay.
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31 August-5 September 2026
Place: La Clusaz, France
As your fearless leader on this journey, my mission is to spark joy and unleash courageous creativity in every setting.
I’ve had the privilege of leading workshops for Apple, Adobe, Barclays, and Stanford University, as well as for artists, entrepreneurs, and innovators around the world, even the wee little ones. I've also guided treks in the mountains.
I’ve worked with refugees, homeless mothers, and other at-risk communities — guiding both complete beginners and seasoned artists.
Wherever we begin, my role is to help participants transform challenges into opportunities, embrace curiosity, and unlock their full creative potential.
Agenda
Five days of creative thinking and activities, designed to inspire not only your painting, but everything you create—whether you photograph, cook, write, dance, code, build, or simply reflect. My wish is that you leave refreshed, recharged, and ready to bring new joy, and authenticity to all your endeavors.
Day 1
Arrival Connection & Play
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16:00 Arrive at the retreat, unpack, explore the beautiful grounds, and take a deep breath as you transition into creative mode.
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French apéro and nibbles--We’ll map out the adventure ahead and establish the most important ground rule for the week: prioritizing joy, curiosity, and the sheer importance of having fun.
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Our first official dinner together—a savoury celebration to kick off the week, fuel our bodies, and toast to the creative journey ahead.
Tonight, we practice the fine art of suspending our preconceived beliefs—especially those rigid ideas of what art "should" look like or what we think we're capable of. Leave the inner critic at the door; this week is all about high curiosity, low pressure, and pure fun!
Day 2
The Chicken​​
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Breakfast at your Residences- Fresh croissants and other goodies from the local boulangerie
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Morning Workshop on the Big shapes, composition, and your why
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1 hour hike to refuge for lunch, and afternoon painting session overlooking the Mont Blanc range
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Using our high-altitude mountain plateau as a vantage point, we’ll put the morning's workshop into practice. We will train our eyes to spot the massive shapes of the landscape, using our Recipe Books to collect textures, marks, lines, and creative "spices" from the nature around us.
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Dinner tonight is free time — explore local restaurants at your leisure.
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Today is all about the big picture. It’s incredibly easy to get lost in the woods because you're hyper-focused on a single tree. Remember: you can't season and cook a chicken if you don't have the chicken in the pan first! We are building the grand, structural foundation of our art today—the intricate details will come later.
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Day 3
The Sauce & Spices
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Breakfast at your Residences
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Now that we have our structural foundations down, it's time to talk about flavor. This morning's workshop focuses on color theory and palette control. We will explore how to mix vibrant, intentional colors—and, crucially, how to avoid "muddying your sauce" so your chicken stays fresh and luminous.
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Buffet Lunch
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Optional Open/Structured Studio at Créa-Tea-Vité--or Free Time to absorb the beautiful surroundings
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Sunset over Lac D'Annecy Group Dinner Excursion watching the paragliders fly by
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Today, we explore the internal lenses we use to decipher our visuals, specifically how we translate color and detail. While we are mastering our palettes and learning how not to muddy the sauce, we must remember the ultimate rule: don't over-spice the chicken. It is incredibly easy to get so obsessed with the excitement of the sauce and the spices that you lose the chicken entirely. Color and texture should elevate your strong foundation, not bury it!
Day 4
In the Footsteps of Cezanne​
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Breakfast at your Residences
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Today, we step into art history. We travel to the breathtaking village of Talloires, nestled on the shores of Lac d’Annecy. This is the very landscape that inspired Paul Cézanne, most famously captured in his masterpiece of the Château de Duingt.​
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​Picnic Lunch at Talloires Beach
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​Open your Recipe Book for a plein-aire painting session by the lake. Channel the spirit of the intrepid spirit of Cezanne as you capture the shifting alpine light and water.
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Optional swim, boat, beach
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Return to La clusaz to explore more local restaurants at your leisure.
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As we paint in the footsteps of masters, we ask ourselves: What are the things, the moments, and the visuals that make you feel truly alive? What frightens you? What makes you laugh?
Art isn't about playing it safe or painting a perfect postcard. Today is about the vital importance of risk-taking, breaking away from expectation, and deeply listening to what your heart wants to say on the canvas.
Day 5
Putting it All Together
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Breakfast at your Residences
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Dive back into your "Recipe Books"—the journals you've filled with marks, notes, textures, and watercolor pages this week. We will use these rich archives as the blueprint to create a larger-scale watercolor or mixed-media piece. This session is dedicated to expanding your unique creative voice and celebrating your personal expression.
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Buffet Lunch
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Optional Open/Structured Studio at Créa-Tea-Vité to finish your work, or,
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Optional Free Time
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Group gathering to share our work and what we learned
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Group Farewell Dinner
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Throughout our final day, we’ll explore the power of our creative differences—learning to trust what we truly see, think, and feel. Most importantly, we’ll discuss how to maintain this creative momentum back in reality, and how to actually use those 20 sketches and 836 camera-roll photos amassing on your phone!
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Is This Retreat Right for
Me?
Anytime, Anywhere
Too many stories are lost because story tellers are afraid to share them. How many poems go unwritten because someone was told they didn't have the background to write them?
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This retreat is not about winning awards and polishing pebbles into gemstones. It's about harnessing your own, unabridged authenticity, and tweaking the lenses through which you see, think, and feel the world around you--so that you might maximise your creative voice and potential.
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So, never-evers, beginners, advanced, and everything in between are welcome. (Although I highly recommend messing around with some watercolor paints and YouTube videos ahead of time, just for some familiarity.)
A minimum level of a love for walking, and ability to tolerate altitudes above 1000meters would be helpful, with sturdy walking/hiking shoes, as we'll most likely be doing a 6km (roundtrip) walk to a most beautiful mountain refuge for lunch and painting.
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What I hope you will take with you should be applicable to not just what you paint creatively, but what you photograph, cook, write, dance, clean, spreadsheet, code, construct, and contemplate...
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I hope you return home, refreshed, recharged, and ready to infuse new delight, into all your creative endeavours.
Catherine
...a chance to reconnect with my inner artist. Lisa sees the potential in every participant and brings it out.
Helen
Working with Lisa I realised art isn't about perfection — it it about discovery. She is encouraging, insightful, funny, and endlessly patient.
Henri
Both relaxing and energizing at the same time. I left feeling inspired, refreshed, and brimming with ideas.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
+33749095492
All Text & Images Copyright 2025
Lisa Cirenza
74290 Talloires, France
siret 888 534 534 00019
