The RetreaT Experience

Wild Botanicals: Botanical Monoprinting & Plant Lore

Next Retreat: September 7– 13 2026

The days begin in the landscape. Alongside Julia Behrens, a qualified herbalist, mornings are spent walking through the Umbrian countryside identifying wild plants, native herbs, and overlooked botanical specimens. During the retreat, Julia guides participants in exploring the Umbrian landscape through plant identification and foraging walks, offering insight into the medicinal histories, ecological, and cultural uses of local flora. Participants collect flowers and plants and once back in the studio the flora is separated-some are placed under boards to flatten and dry in preparation for printing, and the rest will be used to make herbal ointments and herbal tea infusions with Julia.

These gathered materials become the starting point for the monoprinting practice, using both a single pass and multi-layered approaches, blend roll-ups, and translucent colour. Through demonstrations and guided experimentation, Megan Hunter, your host and printmaking instructor, encourages participants to explore composition, layering, blending, mark-making, and creating colour palettes to produce richly textured unique botanical prints.

Part artwork, part visual field journal, the resulting prints become a personal record of the plants, landscapes, and observations gathered throughout the week — whether framed individually or later developed into an artist’s book or botanical archive. Balancing studio practice with time outdoors, Wild Botanicals offers an immersive approach to contemporary printmaking rooted in observation, place, and the Umbrian landscape.

Etching & Drypoint Retreats

Next Retreat: May 5 – 11 2027

This retreat combines traditional copper plate etching and drypoint with an immersive creative week in the Umbrian countryside. Working from sketches, photographs, observation or an image brought from home, participants are guided through the development of an original image from initial drawing to finished print. Work moves naturally between the landscape and the studio — from drawing and gathering ideas in the villa gardens or surrounding villages to developing, inking and printing copper plates together on the etching press.

With an emphasis on building a strong foundation, Megan Hunter guides participants through the expressive possibilities of line and mark-making and the fundamental stages of the etching process. Using contemporary non-toxic grounds and mordants, with an approach designed to minimise the hazardous chemicals traditionally associated with copper-plate etching, participants learn how an image is transferred to the plate, etched, proofed, developed, inked, wiped and printed. Rather than trying to cover as many techniques as possible, the retreat allows participants time to understand the relationship between the marks they make, the plate they develop and the image that ultimately appears on paper.

The intentionally small group allows the teaching to respond to individual experience and imagery. Complete beginners are carefully supported through each stage, while artists and printmakers with previous experience can extend their work through additional processes where appropriate. Participants may develop a single image throughout the week, gradually building both their plate and their understanding of the medium before producing finished prints and a small edition.

Alongside focused studio practice, the week unfolds through the broader rhythms of Italian village life, with time for excursions, local markets, shared meals and private wine and olive oil tastings. Participants leave with original prints, new technical understanding and the experience of a shared creative week in Umbria where art, place and people come together.

Part 1of 3-Plate Preparation

Part 2 of 3-Aquatint & Etching

Part 3 of 3-Inking & Printing

Life Inside the Retreat

These reels capture the atmosphere of the retreat - the Villa and grounds, time in the studio, shared meals, the surrounding villages and sights, quiet moments, and the joy of creating alongside others.