All inclusive creative retreats, painting vacations & art getaways
Allison Luci
August 3 - 8, 2025
Make Your Own Happy Art Retreat
Medium: Acrylic, Watercolor, Inks
Level: All Levels
Location: Studio
Status: Open for Enrollment
Deposit is $450, balance due 30 days before arrival
Day Student Tuition: $975 + Materials fee & Ct Sales Tax
5-Day Package*: $1,950 - $2,650* + Materials fee & Ct Accommodations Tax
* Your 5-Day Workshop Package includes:
Workshop Tuition, lodging, dinner 2 nights (welcome and farewell), breakfast and lunch each day, daily snack breaks, unlimited coffee, tea & seltzer.
For your independent dinners, there are many restaurants with a wide variety of cuisines and price points, within comfortable walking distance of the Inn, plus Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s.
You can choose a room to yourself (single occupancy) or double your fun, bring a friend and split a room (double occupancy).
To Learn more about your options or to register, click the Register button.
Rates & Enrollment
About This Workshop
Make Your Own Happy Art Retreat
A playful and colorful exploration of animals, heart-shaped art, and other whimsical things that create joy!
It’s no secret that I love color - and animals! And so you might understand why I would also love to get together with you and combine these two as we dive into our own personal styles and whimsy. Using a variety of mediums including acrylic paints, Posca pens, watercolor, inks, and even oil paints, we will get loose and let happiness flow onto our canvases!
How does a cheery color-coordinated theme party sound for opening night? (e.g. - we dress up in our favorite pinks!) We’ll live, laugh, and… eat! There will be plenty of time to unwind, relax, chat, tell stories and/or listen to others’, and just get to know each other. Perhaps one or more long-lasting friendships will be made! The slow pace of a summer week will be ideal for it.
Even if you don’t believe that you have it in you to paint complicated images, I’ll demonstrate for you some techniques that will make it easier for you to try. Whether it be a pig, a chicken, or a flower, the trick is to break it down into multiple easy steps, and I’ll show you how!
We will use color in new and unexpected ways — don’t believe anyone who says there’s no such thing as a purple pig! I’ll show you “how” to see color, and how you can see it in your own way too.
From total beginners to those who might already have experience creating, I will strive to make us all walk away smiling, and filled with our own brand of happiness; not to mention a few pieces of artwork and some new skills to create more in the future.
My favorite part of past art workshops was seeing how each participant blossomed into their own style. Just as the same words written by two different people will never look the same, so it is with art. I love that, and it never gets old!
Let’s explore together and create something that could only be created by you!
About Allison Luci
I am grateful to be a full-time artist, proficient with many mediums including oils, acrylics, watercolors, and even chalk, and I love to instruct others in their use. My motto is “Make your own happy,” meaning find the things that spark your joy in your life and make it a point to do those things more often.
Over a span of two decades, I have left my “happy mark” on canvases, walls, windows, and sidewalks at the private homes and businesses of countless clients, from bars in Times Square to animal sanctuaries as far away as Hawaii! I have also helped others discover their hidden artistic talents, from children to seniors — it’s never too early and never too late!
Color, kindness, and whimsy are the three ingredients for my recipe for happy art. I feel lucky to have realized my passion in life, which is to use that recipe to help rescued farm animals living at sanctuaries. To date my artwork has raised nearly $100K and counting for that cause.
The door to the wonderful and compassionate community that I belong to today actually opened for me at the age of 17. I was grounded by my parents, which was a rough thing in the pre-cellphone, pre-internet days of the early 90s, and so I hopped onto my dresser and painted a mural! The feedback was positive and super inspiring. And so began the unapologetically whimsical and colorful entrepreneurial journey that I continue on today.
As a two-time breast cancer survivor, I am proud to be an ambassador for the Susan G. Komen Foundation — I once even rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in that role. That was surely a “Make your own happy” moment! Other moments include being an honorary bat girl for the New York Mets, painting a piggie barn at Arthur’s Acres Animal Sanctuary, and being a Sullivan Catskills Dove Trail artist!
I am a native New Yorker currently living in Queens. I enjoy spending time with my family, including my husband, our cat and pigeon (yes, I foster an injured pigeon), as well as visiting pigs and other rescued animals!
Materials
Sample Agenda
Will I receive a confirmation in the email?
You will receive an email confirmation and, as time gets closer, more email full of info and goodies.
Here is the payment schedule:
$450 deposit is due at the time of registration.
Remaining balance is due 30 days before your retreat start date
Pay in Full at time of registration and save $100
Please read our full cancellation policy HERE
2025 Workshops Now Open for Registration
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