Intuition Painting® Retreats
Come remember what it feels like to be fully alive, wildly creative, and completely yourself.
Intuition Painting® is not an art class—and these are not ordinary creative retreats.
For 26 years, Montine Blank has guided thousands of people through Intuition Painting®, a proprietary six-phase creative methodology that uses painting as a portal into intuition, emotional expression, creative freedom, personal insight, and meaningful change.
Participants have called the experience:
“Life-changing”
“Liberating”
“A lifelong gift”
“Profound”, and
“Unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”
Some arrive believing they aren't creative at all. Others are accomplished artists. Again and again, people leave surprised by what appeared on the paper—and by what opened inside themselves along the way.
Whether we gather for seven days in the hills of Tuscany, Italy, five days beneath the vast skies of Joshua Tree, CA, or two days in the heart of Asheville, NC, each experience combines this one-of-a-kind creative process with movement, beautiful surroundings, meaningful connection, laughter, and plenty of room for the unexpected.
Every experience pairs Intuition Painting® with movement, while each destination adds its own delicious sense of adventure.
Depending on where we are, you might forage and cook together, hike extraordinary landscapes, melt into a sound bath, wander farmers markets and antique shops, taste local wines, linger over lunch in a tiny Chianti town, or stumble into a local art tour or celebration. We leave room for the unexpected—because discovering the people, flavors, beauty, and hidden treasures of a place is part of the magic.
But Intuition Painting® is at the heart of them all.
“Montine is an amazingly gifted, wise guide who facilitates alchemical healing by combining Intuition Painting®, movement, and delicious cuisine within a supportive environment.
The process opens me to new wisdom and insights every year — it’s become my annual soul exfoliation.
”
A One-of-a-Kind Creative Process
Intuition Painting® invites you to paint from intuition rather than instruction.
You don't paint what you know.
You don't plan where you're going.
You follow the brush.
There are no techniques to master, no critiques, no artistic ability required, and no pressure to get it “right.” Instead, you'll learn to quiet the inner critic, loosen your grip on control, and follow color, sensation, curiosity, and spontaneous imagery wherever they lead.
And something remarkable can happen when you do.
Images emerge. Emotions move. Connections appear. New perspectives reveal themselves. What begins with paint and paper can become a vivid dialogue with parts of yourself that ordinary thinking doesn't always know how to reach.
Many participants describe it as “dreaming onto the canvas.”
The process is structured enough to support you, free enough to surprise you, and designed to honor your own inner authority every step of the way.
Why It Works
Intuition Painting® engages your whole human system—body, brain, emotion, intuition, and perception—all at once.
We spend an awful lot of life relying on what I playfully call the “pea-brain”—the prefrontal cortex—to plan, analyze, control, and figure everything out. Intuition Painting® teaches you how to connect with the intuitive super computer that is your whole brain, so that you can let go of control. I like to say we help you take the oars out of the water, and let yourself simply flow creatively.
When you paint without a plan, something fascinating begins to happen: you create imagery outside of the box of your knowing… and you can’t create imagery outside of the box and then use the same box to decode it. So we use spontaneous writing, embodiment, visualization, and other decoding practices to let the painting speak back to you—often revealing connections, insights, and possibilities your thinking mind couldn’t have planned.
It’s less about driving and more about receiving—moving beyond the “pea-brain” and opening to the deeper intelligence available through the whole human system: body, emotion, imagination, intuition, and perception—and ultimately, to something larger than ourselves.
That mystery is not incidental to the process. It is part of the magic.
There’s science behind some of that magic. Research into neuroplasticity, creativity, insight, vulnerability, and perception—including work by Brené Brown, John Kounios, Mark Beeman, George Land, Dr. V. S. Ramachandran, and many others—helps illuminate why novel, embodied creative experiences can be so powerful.
Take the oars out of the water. Get outside the box. And see what wants to emerge.
26 Years. Remarkable Stories.
For well over two decades, participants have described Intuition Painting® as “life-changing,” “liberating,” “a lifelong gift,” “profound,” “a miracle,” “hopeful and brave,” and “so much more than I anticipated.” Read our amazing reviews.
This work has also been shared with United States Veterans, where we have witnessed powerful experiences and received extraordinary feedback about the impact of the process. Learn more.
And Yes—It's Also Really Fun.
This work can go deep. But these are not solemn retreats.
We laugh. We paint wildly. We move. We eat wonderful food. We explore. We make ridiculous messes. We have extraordinary conversations. We notice beauty. We sometimes cry. We surprise ourselves.
There are quiet moments when you need them and joyful ones you never saw coming. There are discoveries on the paper and adventures beyond the studio. And somewhere between the painting, movement, meals, laughter, beauty, and shared experience, strangers have a remarkable tendency to stop feeling like strangers.
Over and over, participants describe leaving feeling freer, clearer, braver, more creative, more connected to themselves—and wonderfully alive.
Choose Your Adventure:
EAT.PAINT.LOVE! — Tuscany, Italy
7-Day Intuition Painting® Yoga, & Foodie Retreats
Seven delicious days where creativity, beauty, food, movement, and la dolce vita come together in the Tuscan hills, with spectacular views stretching toward Florence.
Along with immersive Intuition Painting®, we'll forage and cook, linger over beautiful meals, celebrate together, swim in our large private pool, and venture into a charming Chianti town for shopping, lunch, and a taste of local life. Ayurvedic and craniosacral massage and Reiki are also available when a little extra nurturing calls.
Come hungry—for beauty, creativity, connection, and Italy. Learn More & Register.
FREE YOURSELF! — Joshua Tree, California
5-Day Intuition Painting®, Yoga, & Nature Retreats
Five vibrant days of Intuition Painting®, yoga, wild desert beauty, nourishing food, laughter, exploration, and connection on a private five-acre ranch bordering Joshua Tree National Park and nestled within a wildlife corridor.
Beyond the studio, we'll hike extraordinary landscapes rich with Indigenous history and ancient petroglyphs, roam vintage shops and food markets, catch spectacular sunsets, and dip into local happenings such as the Highway 62 Open Studio Art Tours when the timing is right.
It's spacious, soulful, wonderfully quirky—and unmistakably Joshua Tree. Learn More & Register.
FIND YOUR FLOW! — Asheville, North Carolina
2 1/2-Day Intentional Creativity Workshops
A juicy creative immersion weekend weaving Intuition Painting®, Intentional Creativity, movement, and meaningful connection inside Asheville's historic Masonic Temple, right in the heart of this colorful mountain city.
Step outside and Asheville is waiting. We're within walking distance of galleries, shops, cafés, and the city's creative treasures, with delicious meals at nearby restaurants folded into our time together.
2 1/2 days. Plenty of paint. A beautiful chance to shake things loose and find your flow. Learn More & Register.
Different places. Different rhythms.
One extraordinary creative process.
“I highly recommend this retreat to anyone who is looking for a fun, powerful way to connect more deeply with their own inner wisdom and creativity and do it in an awesome community! I loved your retreat!”
No Art Experience Necessary
These experiences are for artists and non-artists alike.
You don't need to know how to paint. You don't need to consider yourself “creative.” And you certainly don't need to arrive knowing what you're going to discover.
In fact, not knowing is part of the adventure.
Bring your curiosity. Show up as you are. Pick up the brush—and see where it takes you.
Giving Back
For every person who joins a Life is an Art retreat, we offer a “PAINT IT FORWARD” Scholarship for a free online Intuition Painting® course from our pool of applicants.
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