3-DAY BOTANICAL WATERCOLOR RETREAT
With Mary Laury & Sandy Fortin
June 23rd - 25th // 9:30AM-4:30PM
$450 per person
The first day of the Retreat starts by grounding your senses in an immersive, guided meditative experience where the garden meets the sea. Wander slowly through the coastal flowers, refreshing your spirit with floral scents mixing with salt air. Sandy, Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) Guide with Energy Elements, guides your thoughtful one-hour journey in the beautiful gardens of The Foggy Bee. This experience helps quiet the artist's mind, release creative blocks, and discover fresh inspiration through guided, gentle sensory invitations.
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Return to the studio with a renewed perspective, grounded by the earth and inspired by the shifting coastal light, ready to paint lifelike watercolor portraits of flowers and botanical studies in vibrant colors with Mary Laury. New to watercolor? Welcome! You’ll learn as you go with a skilled instructor in a beautiful setting. Learn how to recognize details you never noticed before. Observe how the petals attach to the flower center and their relationship to one another. View the anatomy of the plants through an artist’s lens, building a lifelong enjoyment of the intricate details that make these natural wonders a subject worthy of artistic interpretation.
You'll have three days to explore your botanical subjects and interpret them into compelling artwork you can enjoy long after the flowers have faded to fond memories. The retreat ends with a thirty-minute serene, meditative reflection experience back in the garden with Sandy. Walk away with a new awareness of yourself, Maine’s botanical landscape, and the new friends you've shared the experience with.
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About Mary Laury: Mary is a coastal Maine–based artist whose work is rooted in a deep love of place and a lifelong commitment to creative exploration. Working primarily in watercolor, she is drawn to Maine’s landscape—its rocky shores, blueberry barrens, garden blooms, and the watchful presence of gulls along the coast. Mary’s artistic journey has always been intertwined with teaching and community. She served as Executive Director of Schoodic Arts for All, a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating arts and culture in Downeast coastal Maine. Following her retirement from that role, she returned wholeheartedly to her first love, teaching watercolor painting and drawing. Since 1989, Mary has shared her passion for the arts through classroom instruction and creative retreats, guiding students with an encouraging, hands-on approach.
About Sandy Fortin: Sandy is an AFT Certified Forest Therapy Guide and a Certified Energy Psychology, Access Consciousness and Reiki Master Practitioner. She's the founder of The Green Gem Holistic Healing Oasis, an alternative healing retreat center in Bangor, Maine, after a 3-year apprenticeship in Alternative Modalities during her business internship with Husson University. She's also acted as a Retreat Facilitator, Trainer and Guest Speaker in various alternative practices, as well as a Wellness Coordinator at Husson University and LL Bean. She loves hiking, swimming, skiing/snowshoeing, paddling, bicycling, sailing, birding, gardening, yoga, tai chi, dancing, traveling, camping, wandering in the forest and sharing with others the health benefits of being in nature.