June 21-24, 2026

Sunday 5-9pm | Introduction, Dinner and Solstice Fire

Monday-Wednesday | 10:30am–5pm

Tuition: $1,250 — includes materials and meals. Begin each day with morning coffee/tea and nibbles, one dinner around the solstice fire, three homemade gourmet lunches, and social-hour drinks and bites each day.

A truly intimate mini retreat with only 4 students.

$300 Registration to secure your spot.

Kelly Williams Art Studio | Portland, OR

Gather. Ignite. Illuminate.

In this immersion, each work becomes an artifact — shaped by gathered inspiration, transformed in fire, and revealed in the longest light.

The Summer Solstice Creative Immersion is a four-day intimate retreat for artists ready to slow down, reconnect with their work, and deepen their practice — with new inspiration, strong technique, and genuine self-care woven into every day.

We begin on the solstice — the longest day of the year, when light is at its peak and the season pivots. It's a threshold for stepping forward in your work. We'll build the fire together and make vine charcoal and bone black — dark pigments for mark-making and simple handmade inks. Write what you're releasing on bay leaves and burn them to make room for what's next. Bring something personal to char or offer to the fire, and bring water that carries meaning for you — rain, river, sea, or well. We'll share dinner while the fire burns, setting intentions, discussing prompts, and gathering what we need to begin.

Then we work. The next three days we cover a lot of ground. Remnants from the solstice fire become pigments and inks. Plants and natural materials become mark-making tools and nature prints. As a group, we create shared ink and ash collage papers while individual work evolves along distinct paths. Sun, wind, and rain become creative collaborators when conditions allow, and St. Brigid's Holy Well water from Ireland is on hand to add a little Irish magic.

Grounded in strong encaustic technique, we move from ritual into real application. You'll build surfaces with intention, integrate unconventional materials with structural strength, and expand how your work lives on and off the panel. The skills you develop extend beyond encaustic, strengthening your practice across media.

With only four artists, I offer close mentorship and responsive guidance rather than a fixed syllabus — sustained attention in a setting designed for growth and grounded experimentation.

This retreat takes place in my Portland studio, a working space designed for depth, with places to make, reflect, and pause both inside and outside. Each day I prepare a thoughtfully crafted gourmet menu to nourish and support you. Gathering at the table becomes part of how we honor the solstice and the work we're doing together — a time for connection, nourishment, and quiet care. The studio is fully stocked so you can arrive ready to work.

You'll leave inspired, grounded, and well fed — with work that reflects the depth of the process, new tools to seed the next phase of your practice, and a renewed sense of yourself within it.

July 24-26 2026 | Friday-Sunday | 10:30-4:30 | $750—LIMITED TO 4 STUDENTS

Encaustic painting has beautifully unique properties that sing in larger formats. There are particular issues specific to encaustic that require specific consideration and planning to achieve the full impact with less frustration, cost and pain. I have solved and refined many of my approaches after years of painting in a full range of sizes, subjects and scale.

This popular and intimate workshop is designed for those already comfortable working with encaustic paint who want to elevate their skill level and expand in size. We will be covering the many issues inherent to scaling up and tackle the complications of working large. This workshop will walk you through the multitude of challenges with scaling up to ‘large’ works with lots of personal guidance.

We will explore alternative tools, set-ups and substrates as well as compositional issues, large batch paint prep, ergonomics and alternative media to get the most bang for your efforts.