At Château de Borie, nestled between forest and limestone cliffs, the days follow a quieter rhythm. Morning light shifts across stone walls, birds call at dawn, and time feels less hurried. Here, artists of all levels come together for a week devoted to light and color—learning to see more clearly, to work with honesty, and to share the simple rhythms of meals, walks, and painting side by side.  Here, you’ll immerse yourself in a transformative art retreat where light and color become your guides—beyond labels, beyond habit—toward honest, vivid seeing.

Under the mentorship of Michael Ryan, you’ll learn to perceive the world as it truly is: not “trees,” “grass,” or “eyes,” but colored shapes in relationship. From short morning walking meditations to afternoons composing figures and portraits in the landscape, the week connects your practice to the pure beauty of the French countryside—and to a supportive community that shares meals, laughter, and inspiration at day’s end.

What You Will Actually Learn

Before I wrote my memoir, I did courses, read widely, and sat with other writers. Here is what changed everything for me — and what we will work on together:

• How to mine your memories. We start here, on day one. Not with the story — with the raw material. Small, specific exercises, ten minutes at a time, designed to surface the moments you have stopped noticing because you have lived with them so long. What emerges in those ten minutes usually surprises people.

• How to find what your story is actually about. Most people arrive with one story in mind. Often by day two they have found the real one underneath it — the thing the surface story was pointing at all along. Helping you locate that is one of the most important things I do.

• How to find your entry point. Not at the beginning. Not at the end. Somewhere precise and charged — the moment that contains the whole story in miniature.

• The difference between memoir and journaling. A journal records what happened. Memoir asks what it meant — and it needs an arc: a before, a middle, and an after. Understanding this early saves months of confusion.

• How to handle time and memory. Memoir is not entirely chronological. Learning to compress, slow down, and move through time is one of the core skills of the form.

• How to write from inside the emotion without drowning in it. There is a difference between feeling something and rendering it on the page. We will find that line.

• What to leave out. The story you are telling is not everything that happened. Knowing what belongs on the page — and what belongs only in your memory — is a skill, and a significant one.

Arrivals

12:00 Charcuterie

5:00 Welcome Mtg/Ice

breaker

6:00 Aperitifs

7:00 Dinner at Borie

8-8:45 Meditation Walk

9:00 B'fast

9:30 Check-in Grand Salon

10:00-1:00: Painting

1:00 Lunch at Borie

3-5 Painting

6:00 Aperitifs

7:00 Dinner at Borie

8-8:45 Meditation Walk

9:00 B'fast

9:30 Check-in Grand Salon

10:00-1:00: Painting

1:00 Lunch at Borie

3-5 Painting/optional massage

6:00 Sommelier

7:00 Dinner at Borie

8-8:45 Meditation Walk

9:00 B'fast

9:30 Check-in

11:00 Depart for Pujols

11:30 Arrive at Pujols

12:00 Lunch on own

2:00 Depart Pujols

3:30-5:30 Painting

6:00 Aperitifs

7:00 Dinner at Borie

8-8:45 Meditation Walk

9:00 B'fast

9:30 Check-in Grand Salon

10:00-1:00: Painting

1:00 Lunch at Borie

3-5 Painting/optional massage

6:00 Aperitifs

7:00 Dinner at Borie

8-8:45 Meditation Walk

9:00 B'fast

10-12: check-in/Sketching

1:00 Lunch at Borie

2-4:00 Agen Art Museum

4:30-7:00 - Free time

7:00 Depart for Restaurant

7:30-Dinner at Restaurant

8-8:45 Meditation Walk

9:00 B'fast

9:30 Check-in Grand Salon

10:00-1:00: Painting

1:00 Lunch at Borie

3-6 Painting/optional massage

6:00 Aperitifs

7:00 Dinner at Borie

9:00 B'fast

Retreat Over