From Plant to Pigment:
ENCAUSTIC, NATURAL INKS & WATERCOLOR
A CREATIVE PARTNERSHIP WITH LORRAINE GLESSNER & BRENDA HOWELL, TEACHING ASSISTANT
Art-making {encaustic} grants access to worlds that may be dangerous, sacred, forbidden, seductive, or all of the above.
—David Bayles, Art & Fear
August 3-7, 2026 AT LAREAU INN & FARM, WAITSFIELD, VERMONT
Limited to 10 participants
There’s nothing quite as exciting as making your own art materials straight from the nature. In this retreat, we’ll step into the lush, harvest-rich Vermont landscape at its August peak — gathering botanicals and natural materials to transform into vibrant inks. The process is part art, part craft, and part mad science, connecting you directly to the place and season as we coax color from the land.
Back in the studio, we’ll put these hand-crafted inks to work, combining them with commercial watercolor inks, dry pigments, and other water media on Yupo or Mineral Paper. A series of bold, fast, and gloriously messy prompts will have you pouring, splattering, spraying, and pushing paint with brushes, tools, and gravity itself — letting texture, translucency, and happy accidents emerge. These energetic experiments become the perfect jumping-off point for your encaustic work, inviting you to layer, embed, collage and combine wet media on wood, encausticboard, and encaustic-friendly papers as well as translate some of drawings into encaustic paintings.
Throughout the retreat, we’ll focus on the magic of layering, translucency, and mark-making — building a deep connection between material, process, and the Vermont landscape. By the end, you’ll have a body of richly layered work (and a set of handmade inks!) that celebrate the beauty of nature, craft, and the alchemy of turning plants into pigment.
**Please note that participants should be prepared to spend time outside as well as in the studio. Any participant unable to take part in the outdoor activities are welcome to opt out and alternative indoor creative exercises will be provided.
Retreat Information
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The Retreat fee includes accommodations for 4 nights at Lareau Inn, daily breakfast and lunch, one dinner, daily afternoon snacks and first night orientation, plus most workshop materials. A list of available rooms with links to images is listed on each of the Retreat pages below.
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$2900 Per person includes all of the above accommodations, food, snacks, most workshop materials and FUN.
Payment of 50% of the workshop fee ($1450 if paying via check, Zelle or Venmo, $3005 if paying via Paypal is due at the time of registration with the remaining 50% ($1450) due approximately 6 weeks before the Retreat start date. Please contact Lorraine for payment details.
Not Interested in Lareau Inn Accommodations, breakfast or lunch?
$1900 includes workshop fee and most materials.
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Registration Instructions if staying at Lareau Inn:
1. Review the list of available rooms below and choose your room-each is linked to images and a brief description.
2. DO NOT book your room from the Lareau Inn web site. All rooms have already been booked in advance for our Retreats.
3. Contact Lorraine via email with the name of the room you’d like to book and for payment details.
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Please Note Although the workshop continues through Friday, you must check out of Lareau Inn on Friday morning. If you would like to stay in the area Friday evening or beyond, there are many places in the town of Waitsfield and in nearby Stowe as well as Additional Accommodations in Waitsfield (see menu item below).
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Available at Waitsfield Inn and Featherbed Inn which are within one mile of Lareau Inn.
Please Note Although the workshop continues through Friday, you must check out of Lareau Inn on Friday morning. If you would like to stay in the area Friday evening or beyond, there are many places in the town of Waitsfield and in nearby Stowe.
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In the event that you need to cancel your workshop, please notify Lorraine via email.
Cancelations made 30 days or more from the workshop start date will be refunded their deposit (minus $100 processing fee).
Cancelations made 30 days or less from the workshop start date will be refunded their deposit (minus $100 processing fee) only if the space can be filled. If the space cannot be filled, no refund will be issued.
In this circumstance, a credit of 50% of the deposit may be applied to another Vermont Retreat Only. The other 50% of the deposit will not be credited or refunded.
Itinerary & Materials
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Monday 6-9pm Orientation
Tuesday-Friday, 9am-4:00pm Workshop Hours
Tuesday-Thursday, 6:00-9pm optional night studio hours
*NOTE* A Detailed Daily Itinerary including optional evening activities is emailed to participants a few weeks before the Retreat start date.
Monday 6-9pm Orientation
Meet & Greet Wine, Cheese, Snacks and Smores by the Lareau Farm Fire Pit & Lorraine will discuss the basic method for ink making and foraging for material to prepare us for our morning walk.Tuesday 9-4:00 Workshop, 6:00-9:00pm Optional Night Studio
We will start the day foraging the various areas of Lareau Farm- river, meadow, forest and garden for suitable materials to make ink. Back at the studio, we will batch the materials according to color to create at least 2 distinct colors of ink. After lunch and while our first batch of ink is steeping, we will begin creating layers, pushing paint and making magic with water media. The rest of the afternoon is devoted to experimenting, free painting, collage and mark-making and beginning our second batch of ink if time allows. Brenda and Lorraine will begin conducting personalized individual mentoring sessions.Wednesday 9-4:00 Workshop, 6:00-9:00pm Optional Night Studio
Depending on how much useful foraged material we still have, we may go out for a second forage or begin to create our second/third batch of ink. Lorraine will demonstrate ways to prepare boards and layer wet media onto encaustic as well as create poured translucent layers of encaustic to begin translating your wet media studies. We will continue with uninterrupted work time for experimenting, painting, working toward a series and individual discussions with Lorraine & Brenda.Thursday 9-4:00 Workshop, 6:00-9:00pm Optional Night Studio
After a brief demonstration on using collaged, embedded layers of translucent papers and mark-making in encaustic, we will continue with uninterrupted work time to further explore these experimental processes.
Take the rest of the afternoon to experiment with marks, make color studies, ask questions, request informal demos, and continue with individual discussions with Brenda and Lorraine.Friday 9:00am-1:00pm Workshop
Morning work time to complete projects, look at books, journal your thoughts and continue individual mentoring with Lorraine and Brenda. Lunch, clean up and good-byes. -
All encaustic paints, encaustic medium, tools and equipment
A variety of R&F Drawing Oils
Sumi ink & other misc. drawing media
A variety of Watercolor inks
Misc. drawing papers
Paper towels/rags
Extra encaustic brushes
Stencils and other textures
Misc. collage materials
Disposable gloves
Extra translucent papers
Extra drawing media
Extra watercolor paints
Extra brushes and tools
Tracing paper
Graphite transfer paper
Eye droppers
Palette paper
Needle and thread
Rubbing alcohol
Extra water soluble drawing media
Extra non water soluble drawing media
Extra Yupo & Mineral Paper
All ink making equipment
powdered pigments
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The following is a list of materials to bring to the Retreat—Visit Lorraine’s Amazon Store for Art Supply/Portable Art Supply Ideas
**Note If it presents a hardship to bring any of these supplies, please Contact Lorraine.Watercolor or Mixed Media sketchbook (lay flat, size 9 x 12 or 11×14, heavy stock to withstand wet media, encaustic sketching-at least 117 lb or above)
1-2 drawing media of your choice in black or earth tones (pencil, pastel, conte charcoal, oil pastel, Crayon, graphite, Sharpie felt pen, etc.)
1-2 water based drawing media of your choice black or earth tones (Small, portable watercolor set, India ink, walnut ink or India ink pen, Tombow markers, artgraf water soluble graphite, Stabilo Woody or All-pencil, caran d’ache neocolor II crayons, etc.)
Small tube of any brand Titanium white gouache
Closed toe shoes for safety in the studio
3-5 hake or hog’s bristle natural hair brushes in 1-2 inch sizes for encaustic painting (1 brush will be designated your medium brush, so it must be free of color if you are bringing used brushes)
Materials for collage (fabric, papers, magazine images, photos, etc.)
2-4 wooden painting panels (your preference of 8×8 or 10×10 or 12×12, but no larger or smaller, please)
2-3 brushes for water media
Found objects to push the paint around (examples: small squeegees, brayers, old credit cards, Catalyst painting tools, silicone baking tools, rubber tipped clay tools, palette knives, etc.)
Exacto knife, straight edge, extra blades and cutting mat package OR precision scissors
Optional Materials
Smock, any encaustic paint color, pigment stick or Drawing Oil color you favor, Iwatani torch with extra butane, any tool or material for any technique that you normally employ while working with encaustic, textured objects and/or sharp ended tool for pressing into/incising/writing/drawing into wax, flat edge Catalyst wedge, silicone tipped clay tools or Catalyst tools, 1-2 inspiring books to share with the class, sweatshirt or sweater for chilly evenings and mornings, head lamp or battery operated desk lamp. If you would like to share your current work with Brenda or Lorraine, bring 2-4 actual OR images of your work, digital prints or phone/iPad sharing is fine.
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Sturdy hiking shoes/boots
Small waterproof cushion or portable chair
Small backpack
Comfortable clothing
Light rainwear
Hat
Water bottle
For art supply/portable art supply/hiking or travel ideas, visit Lorraine’s Amazon Store
About Lorraine & Brenda
Brenda Howell has explored her passion for color, texture and beauty through different materials and mediums. Her desire is to produce beauty but not in the traditional sense. Attracted to the quirky and overlooked she uses anything discarded yet lovely --rust, old books, burned wood, nails.... These unconventional materials are the basis for her encaustic paintings, sculptures and installations. Brenda has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and has taken coursework at Temple University, Tyler School of Art.Her work has been included in juried exhibitions throughout Pennsylvania and New Mexico and is included in public and private collections. She is a member of Artessa Alliance, InLiquid, DaVinci Art Alliance and the Cheltenham Center for the Arts. Brenda lives and maintains a studio in Philadelphia, PA
Lorraine is a former Assistant Professor at Tyler School of Art (2003-2016), a workshop instructor and an award-winning artist. She has a diverse art background with skills that include painting, sculpture, photography and digital imaging. Recent professional achievements include curating, With Wax: Materiality & Mixed Media in Encaustic at Chester County Art Association in West Chester, PA, a Grand Prize Award from the show (re)Building, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY and a recently appointed position as an Artist Instructor at R&F Paints. Her work is exhibited locally and nationally in galleries, museums, craft centers, universities, Fine Art Shows and more. Lorraine brings to her teaching a strong interdisciplinary approach, mixed with a balance of concept, process, experimentation and discovery.
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Please enjoy these images of artwork and fun scenes from recently taught workshops and retreats similar to this one
