Wednesdays Part 2

 

This is a photo of me sitting on a hillside beneath the majestic Monte Vettore

But it isn't just that

This is a photo of Judy Offord seemingly lost on the edge of a wood on the same hillside

But it isn't just that

This is a photo of Delfi Renzi sitting in the garden of our Energy Centre at Cittadella with Monte Vettore in the background

But it isn't just that either

Duncan Campbell was with us too on our Wednesday special but alas no photo of him. Probably up a tree somewhere, where he is oft wont to be

And listening.

We are all listening

Because this was our sensory day.

A day of opening and exploring our five senses

Spending time on each; a half an hour or so.

Because, you see, it is what we do when we enter our garden of now, our realm of creativity. We open our senses to nature

It is where our minds are free to accept the gifts that Creativity bestows on us; gifts or art; imagery, music, dance, poetry, and all the other wonders that allow us to create beyond ourselves and to give light to the darkness that ever threatens to engulf us,

Next Wednesday, The Sea

LINKS

September workshops  in English and Italian

Cittadella where we work

CONTACTS

Italy: Claudia 351.5042828 claudiarenzistudio@gmail.com

UK: Michael 328.3535358 micermice@gmail.com

What we do on Wednesdays

 Wednesday is our studio day.

We meet, we plan, we make art together .

Usually at my studio in Morrovalle.

Often in the countryside too, when members of our group host us for the day.

We are an international mix of artists which includes poets, authors, photographers and painters, most of whom live in Italy and others in the UK

Our weekends in the Sibillini mountains of Italy are held at Cittadella, our mountain retreat in the Sibillini National Park in September.

Our exhibitions

Earlier this month we had a group exhibition together in Civitanova Alta as part of the 'Rinascita' art celebrations there, first of a series we plan for 2022 where all our hopes are for the rebirth (rinascita) of creative life on our precious planet

Our webinars

Bi-weekly webinars are where we keep in touch with each other in real time, sharing our dreams and ideas about recovery and freedom. Where we share our artwork in poetry, photography and painting

My plan for 2022 is to make Le Marche our creativity hub within Italy, and as a first step, to form a new group (a pod) to exist and run parallel with our current one. And then another and so on and so on. To make Cittadella the energy centre of our activities, where we draw inspiration from its natural beauty and the glory of its setting, high up in the Sibillini mountain range in the lea of the majestic Monte Vettore

                  

Learn more on links below, about...

Cittadella

Our workshops

Michael Eldridge

Listen to an interview with Michael Eldridge here

Contact details;

email Michael: micermice@gmail.com

whatsapp +39 3283535358

In Italian; Claudia Renzi whatsapp  +39 3515042828

Our Mountain Creativity retreat in mid September

Our Creativity Workshop: painting, poetry, writing, adventuring.

Cittadella sits high up in the Sibillini range of mountains under the gaze of the Mt Vettore, the highest of the seven peaks which form a circle and which are linked together by ancient pathways.

It has been our workshop base for the past three years where we have collectively explored our creativity in painting, poetry and adventures in the natural beauty of its surrounding countryside, a magical playground which allows body, mind and spirit a release from the concerns and pressures of life and which gives free rein to the senses. We connect slowly to this world of huge skies, deep forests and mountain glades, gurgling streams and crashing waterfalls; a magical place where there are an ever increasing number of indigenous animals, as its flora and fauna return to their ancient habitats, encouraged by an enlightened re-wilding programme in the Sibillini National Park

Ci Kung morning lesson

Our days began early with Tai Ci and Ci Kung around the pool, where we push away things we don't want in our days, our lives; and then invite in things which we want and desire. Butterflies and honey bees abound in this unpolluted air, and we are all entranced by this symphony of life which abounds at this altitude. It feels as if we too are floating in the sky and it is the very best way to start the day

Then off we trip up the hill to have breakfast, meeting again at 9.30 to discuss the day ahead. 

Mornings were a gentle time at Cittadella. On one we went searching for glades to be alone in; being surprised by rustlings of creatures in the grass and the beauty of deer tearing past us. We spent a day  at Lu Vurghe, an ancient thermal spring near Ascoli, an old Roman resort which has recently been restored to provide hot mini baths above the beach alongside the river Tronto and its rapids. It was a day to dream about and we sketched and painted, wrote poetry and bathed in the hot water pouring from huge rocks. Some of us (one) braved the rapids too.

                                                      Lu Vurghe

Lu Vurghe.........

I lie here.

The river, driven by its own intent,

Fleetingly holds my shape,

Roughly caresses my body,

Rudely probes my secret places.

The future is elsewhere.

The past wiped clean.

Only now fills the void.

A poem by Ruth Dunsby (below)

Most afternoons we devoted ourselves to studio time, sharing ideas and taking time individually to go sketching or painting or writing Haikus and poetry, and dipping into the pool to cool down

Our evenings after dinner (delicious Italian food) were when we would get together to share stories about our daytime adventures. It is a good time, a time when friendships are made and when we relax in the beauty of twilight and the first whispering sounds of the night and the beauty of the stars in this clean mountain air. We were an eclectic group of different nationalities and age groups but so alike in many ways too; in our love of creativity in whatever form, and in our sense of wonder at life's possibilities

La Cena

The Garden at Cittadella

morning get together

Dancing to the end of love (Leonard Cohen inspired)

Click on GALLERY; to see some of this year's work

                     

Michael Eldridge

Tel Michael (whatsapp) +39. 3283535358 to know more about our creativity workshops in 2021

email; michael@starstone.org, or micermice@gmail.com

 

In Italia, chiama Claudia 351 5042828 (whatsapp)

email : claudiarenziart@gmail.com

 

Early summer in the mountains of Italy

Early June in the Sibillini mountains is an exquisite time of year. The winter snows have all but receded from Monte Vettore and her sister peaks, and although the Springtime starts a little later here than along the coastal strip, it bursts through suddenly at this time, in a riot of colour as if celebrating the very rebirth of nature, awakening the animals, the bears from their winter slumber and the wolves who are already nursing their newly born cubs and in the crystal clear blue sky above, the mountain eagles are scouring the fields below for food for their offspring. Butterflies and honey bees abound in this unpolluted air, and we are all entranced by this symphony of life which abounds at this altitude

Our days
We arise early of a morning before breakfast to stroll down to the pool for Tai Chi or Ci Kung

Here, it is as if we are floating in the sky, or at least the swallows and house martins might think we are as they swoop down and around us and falcons glide blissfully high up above us.

Staying at Cittadella, you can't help but become absorbed in Nature, and there are places close by amongst these mountains which are somehow sacred, by the waterfalls, the gushing streams and rivers, the ancient pathways. And our walks and adventures hereabouts allow us to shed ourselves for a while of the strains and stresses of our lives and to allow our creativity to flourish. We paint, we write poetry, we photograph, and we share our experiences with one another, forming new and lasting bonds in our lives.

Many past participants will be returning again this year; the finest of folks who love to share what they have learned....And there will be a places available for newcomers too.

So who would this attract?  I would say, folks who have some experience with art expression; any type at all – photography, music, writing, sketching, painting, handicrafts, gardening,

They would have a love of sharing too and probably be less rational and more poetic by nature.

And if this gives you a tingle in your tummy, well, that's a positive sign,.And if you need to chat about the weekend, don't be shy, just call me on whatsapp +39 328 3535358. 

Or mail michael@starstone.org

Hoopoes have arrived

The Hoopoe birds have arrived from Africa. Here in Italy in Spring they are the heralds of warmth and of the flourishing of nature and are an awakening call to the renewal of life (our species included), with their HOOPO calls echoing across the landscape. I look up and see the swallows are arriving too and within this week I know the first cuckoos will swoop in and I find myself enchanted and totally absorbed by a cacophony of music each morning.

I log in to my daily Guardian fix and there, would you believe is an article on birdsong  and its therapeutic value to those who take time out to listen. And then I check my mail and find a quote by Krishnamurti..

'I do not know whether you have listened to a bird. To listen to something demands that your mind be quiet—not a mystical quietness, but just quietness; just to listen. It is only when you listen without the idea, without thought, that you are directly in contact '

So something is going on! I know that when serendipity conjures events and bowls them at us, that it is a wakeup call, telling us to pull our socks up, and for me to dust my brain; put my mind and attention to things that matter and to discards stuff which is of no use to me.

Things that matter, my painting (unfinished work), photography (editing to do), my creativity workshops (getting publicity out)

Now, talking about things that matter, if you too would like to lose yourself in nature in the magical heights of Monte Vettore in Italy this Spring (where Creativity will surely find you), click right here

And the venue is Cittadella. Bear, wolves, eagles, falcons, marmots, butterflies and wonderful Italian cuisine. There's a Guardian article about Cittadella here 

And, if you are truly interested in joining one of our workshops, you can call Michael on (whatsapp) +39 3283535358, or email; michael@starstone.org 

Ciao for now,

Michael

A tale about happiness

I left England at the tender age of 18 and have lived in other countries since; in fact most of my life now I have lived outside of the UK. I left because I was a working class kid and was offended by the class system in Britain; felt powerless to do anything about it and chose to go and live in New Zealand for few years. And then Africa, America and so on, settling finally in Italy where I have lived mostly now for 35 years.
Why am I writing this today?
Because today is what the press is calling Crunch Day in British politics.
It is the day, the first of April, 2019 when the UK could disappear into the sink hole of history.
It is All Fools Day (such irony)
And it might be sunk by the very class of people I despised as a teenager.
I never write about politics. That world is a nest of vipers and I have always attempted, often with great difficulty, to create a parallel world, if you will, for my life, my family, my friends and artist colleagues. One of optimism and happiness
And today is also the day, almost in contradiction, when I have been collating images for some publicity for our workshops this early summer in the mountains close to where I live in Le Marche.
And looking at them lifts my spirits, because they are of last summer, in a part of Italy, high in the Sibillini mountains, where we were able to cleanse our minds of the cares of the world and instead to live and work together in a carefree atmosphere where we created art together. Where we laughed and walked and talked and gave our attention to those things that matter in that altitude, the sky, the circling eagles and swooping swallows, the waterfalls and mountain streams and the fragrances of flowers and the flowing of myriads of butterflies and bees in the gentle breezes.
But these are just words
I'll leave you with some images from last summer, and they speak more powerfully than words on a day like today.

Feeling a little happier now I've written that


Michael at Starstone

How we start the day

At 7 am we are at the poolside in Cittadella immersed in a majestic arena beneath the magnificent Monte Vettore, at 2,550 metres in altitude, an extinct volcano that contains the twin glacial lakes of Lago Pilato, remnants of an ancient sea which once covered this land before the Appenine mountains pushed themselves up through the spine on Italy.

Here, by the pool we prepare ourselves both mentally and physically for the day ahead with Ci exercises and Tai Chi followed by the creation, each of us individually, of a bubble of abundance, which will contain everything we want of our day and from which we can discard that which we don't.

Interestingly, just this year, I have heard of professional athletes, particularly tennis pros, using this term and we use it to prepare ourselves to be grounded within the very moment of time in which we are breathing, to become aware of the sounds and fragrances around us. The birds singing in the trees , the swooping swallows and the cry of a circling falcon above; the howl of a distant wolf and the snuffling and grunting of a passing bear. The tinkling of a mountain stream, the crashing sounds of waterfalls and then the gentle caress of a light breeze on our faces and the sheer beauty of mountains flowers. And butterflies and bees are in abundance at this altitude because the air and water are pure and clean.

Because, you see, it is in this state of full absorption that Creativity finds us. It is our garden of now if you will. It is where Creativity whispers to us. It is where she gives us gifts of song and dance and music and images and is where she wants to dance with us in this Tango of Creativity.

And she is searching for us every second of the day and how can she find us unless we step into this garden of now.

And we are part of this dance, part of this cycle of creativity

Because Creativity needs us to make manifest these gifts she sings to us

It is where we learn, at last, to create beyond ourselves.

And so, whether we are on a painting retreat or photography or poetry, it is the same.

It is, above all, about Creativity pure and simple, because, you see.....

After all, the object isn't just to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable

And so...

After chatty Italian breakfast, we meet together to discuss the adventures awaiting us amongst these breath-taking mountains.

Our days, from then on, are conducted in the natural wonders which the abound in the Sibillini National Park. We foray out to sketch, to walk, to photograph, to write poetry, to accumulate material during the day to haul back to our studio base at Cittadella. There to disseminate, talk and share and enter more deeply into the realm of creativity with a fuller understanding of its wonders and gifts to us.

Finally, during much of the final day of the workshop, we collate all our work into a process of finality, whether this is a painting, poetry or a series of photographs which celebrate the manifestation of the experiences that we have shared

There are two Spring workshops in May and mid June

The Tango of Creativity

Wild Photography 

And you can find fuller information on our Starstone site, of travel, costs etc