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The Mountain Home Ranch Resort (www.mtnhomeranch.com) is located in the heart of Northern California's world renowned Sonoma County and Napa Valley. |
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Mountain Home Ranch Resort is a beautiful haven nestled in a canyon on 340 acres of unincorporated land,
at the end of Mountain Home Ranch Drive.
It feels so remote that it's hard to imagine that it's just a ten minute drive from Calistoga, and an hour and a half drive from the East Bay. |
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At Mountain Home there are a wide variety of comfortable accommodations, a beautiful painting studio with plenty of natural light, hiking trails, and a heated outdoor swimming pool! |
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The ranch is renowned for its gourmet, organic, healthy yet delicious food (lots of protein and veggies, but no skimping on desserts), and meals are a definite high point of the retreat. The cooks at Mountain Home really aim to please, and are very flexible regarding any special dietary needs. Extensive trails for hiking, a vast array of native flora and fauna, swimming pool, lakes and the award winning cuisine makes this painting retreat a truly nourishing experience on all levels. |
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WHAT OUR PARTICIPANTS SAY: My experience at this retreat was life altering. It was a gift to myself at a time when I was reconnecting to my creative life which had long been neglected and was fighting for space. The voice inside just kept getting louder and louder. So I answered it by dedicating time to paint -- paint my emotions, be present for my yearnings and desires and respond to them, and be quiet and reflective through the painting process. I planned to do this on my own yet the magic of life brought me to the Painting from the Wild Heart retreat at Mountain Home Ranch and the supportive environment was a perfect [new] beginning.
The experience was nothing short of divine. I felt taken care of emotionally, physically and spiritually and I adored every minute of it. I felt and continue to feel alive and am showing up in my life with a renewed energy and motivation -- I have already spent time painting every day since the retreat. I am inspired ... I cannot thank you enough for providing me the space to breath new life into my body and soul.
Wow-weeeeeeeeeeeee ... YES!!!!!!
Amidst the natural setting of oak and redwood trees, I felt free to discover my inner self. Through painting with Chris, I also felt safe enough to discover and express my deepest and truest creativity. The natural and bucolic yet almost rustic setting is reminiscent of an earlier time, with a slower pace and wonderfully tasty and nutritious home cooked, organic meals provided in a family atmosphere that welcomes and nurtures the soul!
What a treat to spend a weekend surrounded by the beauty of nature and a community of fellow artists ... to be nourished by wholesome cooking as well as Chris's supportive guidance ... and to have the opportunity to immerse myself in my creative process. I feel that I've returned from the retreat with fresh eyes for the forms and colors in the world around me ... as well as a deeper insight into my own inner landscapes. I've experienced the joy and peace that comes from trusting my own intuition ... and learned a few tricks for recognizing and banishing the critic, at least temporarily! I am amazed and humbled by what shows up on the paper when I am willing to trust the process ... and what a great metaphor for living, too! Just trust ... be bold ... go with the flow. Thank you, Chris!
For me the Calistoga retreat was like summer camp for grown ups, but in the middle of winter. The ranch had a kind of old style charm. Big fireplace in the main room, friendly owners and beautiful country all around. Of course the food was anything but summer camp style! I ate so much! I find that when I am intensively creative, as was the case during the retreat, I am famished by the time each meal rolls around and having wonderfully prepared food certainly encourages my eyes to believe that I need huge servings of everything! Being surrounded by such a lovely place was an added extra plus to the excitement and loving energy that everyone brought. It wasn't planned or expected, it just happened. We all got together the first night and relaxed, got to know each other a bit and shared our hopes for the next few days. Something about having the intention to create consistently with little or no distractions produces so much energy! I wanted to get painting right away. Even though fear mixed in with the excitement, I couldn't wait. Often when I paint with Chris I work through difficult emotions, and of course that's okay. It's all part of it. During this retreat however, I was able to stay in a place of humor and lightness. I don't know if the group energy, the beautiful country side, or Chris's way of encouraging and listening to what I needed and wanted, helped me reach this playful place. Perhaps it was all three and then some. Whatever it was, I felt so much joy and freeness. At one point while painting I looked around and saw that everyone was completely present with their own process. It was inspiring and encouraging. I felt so much love for everyone along with a kind of collective pride. I thought, yeah, look at us! Look at what we're creating! This is amazing! We're creating so much healing energy! I feel transformed! One day during a painting break I went for a walk down the French Toast Gulch. It was very cold that weekend but the sun was out and the colors of nature were crisp and clean. Ice had formed along the path and tiny crystals attached themselves to the thin blades of grass. It was quite something. I felt alone and not alone all at once.
Yes, I loved this retreat. The collective energy, the conversation, the quiet, the beauty, the painting into the unknown, Chris's unending support, the food, the rustic cabins. All of it.
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Please click these links for information about our other retreat locations:
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Please click this link to see the Schedule:
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