Create, Connect and Renew guided by experienced artists
The St. Marys Creative Retreat is envisioned and organized by a small group of local artists and business leaders from Stonetown Arts, Riverwalk Commons, Zenfire Pottery and MacPherson Crafts. We are partnering with our local Stonetown Quilters Guild, St. Marys Poetry Circle, and Stonetown Arts to tap into the creative expertise that abounds locally.
Our mission is to create a memorable retreat for attendees where you experience the transformative power of creativity in a community that celebrates it every day.
Join us to learn a new skill, meet some new creative friends, reconnect with your creative spirit, or simply recharge in the unique beauty of St. Marys.
Meet your Instructors
Anna Koot
Anna is an encaustic artist residing in St. Marys, Ontario. The rural setting in which she lives continues to influence her art. After many years of studying a variety of mediums, she has fallen in love with encaustic art. The ancient art form of encaustic uses natural beeswax, mixed with resin and pure pigment. The aroma of beeswax fills her studio, as tins of coloured wax are melted to begin another painting. Heat is a very important element in her process. The wax is melted, allowing it to be painted onto the surface with brushes, and then repeatedly reheated using her favourite tool, a propane torch.
Al Cote
Albert Cote has a BA in Visual Arts and a BA in Education. He has travelled extensively with his art , presenting lectures and classes throughout Canada and the United States. He teaches at Haliburton School of Art in the summer and has taught the Design portion of the Fiber arts Certificate program at Haliburton as well. His art has been shown in Italy, Taiwan, and Greece throughout the years. He is a member of Connections Fibre Artists, Cloth in Common as well as SAQA.
Jess Blackmore
Jess has a life long love affair with textiles, colours and patterns. She has worked in both the Shaw and Stratford Festival Wardrobe departments for over ten years. During that time she fell in love with knitting, tatting, lace-making, crochet, quilting and embroidery. Jess is a member of C.E.G. (Canadian Embroidery Guild) where she is a frequent instructor.
Sheila Thompson
Sheila Thompson is a Guelph-based fibre artist and woman in science whose long-running practice focuses on social justice, and ecological awareness. Sheila situates much of her work in the year 2050, creating sculptural wet-felted vessels and aerial topographies that warn about human impact on future landscapes and habitats. She uses colour, map symbols, embroidery, lichen imagery and scale to draw attention to the vulnerability of “unseen” lifeforms. She is a published author, exhibition collaborator, and active member of Connections Fibre Artists, International Feltmakers Association, and several ecoart/science organizations. She endeavours to maintain an ecofriendly art practice.
Debra O'Connor
Debra O'Connor is a professionally trained, award-winning artist, having studied fine arts at the University of Windsor, ultimately earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honours from Wilfrid Laurier University and continued on to post-graduate study as one of the first graduates with an MA in Creativity from Union Institute & University, Vermont. Debra's artwork was held in Wilfrid Laurier's permanent collection, and she was previously chosen to join, and accepted membership in The Portrait Society of Canada. Over the course of her many years as an artist, Debra has also had extensive experience sharing her work as a lecturer and instructor. Now, she marries her distinct professional art training with floristry seen daily in her floral design work, floral installations and artwork.
Heather Meakin
An accomplished vibrant professional with a distinguished academic background and extensive expertise and experience in written and oral communication tailored to diverse audiences in both business and academic settings. Driven by curiosity to “think different” and thus to develop innovative strategies that have resulted in highly successful outcomes. Heather operates with a collaborative enterprise mindset, maintaining respect and integrity in all interactions. She demonstrates a proven track record of original research projects and publishing, as well as presenting at national and international conferences.
Angela Patterson
My goal is to create work that connects with you, uplifts you and comforts you as you use it. There is raw emotion that goes into the hours of hand labour involved in each pot. Always, I set positive intention before a long day in the studio that each pot will bring joy to any hand that touches it. Pottery is a way for me to use my love of working with my hands to pull together everything I stand for; family, grounding, simplicity, strength, patience, collaboration, perseverance and peace.
Krista Beckett
Krista’s love for art is rooted in her faith. She believes that creativity is part of our nature; a gift to be valued in all. Using watercolour, she enjoys the challenge of developing an ordinary, everyday scene into a visually effective and meaningful painting. “I want the viewer to connect in some way to the visual story, perhaps by a memory or emotion, as well as to its presentation and overall unity.” Krista has worked in watercolour for many years. This translucent medium allows her to create the sunlit layers and details of her inspirations, often found close to home.
Louise Patterson
Louise is the Creative Director and Instructor for the fibre arts workshops at Wildflower Wool. Over the past 18 years, she has facilitated workshops across the province at fibre festivals, knitting guilds, and local yarn shops. Her workshops focus on a range of knitting and crochet techniques for both beginners and experienced makers, as well as dyeing wool using both commercial and natural dyes, and most recently, spinning and peg loom weaving. Louise has a passion for supporting Ontario fibre farms which has led to her role as the in-store yarn dyer for Canadian Yarns in St. Marys, Ontario, where she helps make local, natural fibres accessible to the fibre community.
Rebecca Turner
After retiring from a long career as an RN I joined the St. Marys Quilt Guild and never looked back. Quilting has many benefits including the fellowship of other quilters, keeping our minds and bodies functioning as we decipher or make patterns, calculate yardage, decide on colour combinations and then put it all together. Over the last few years, quilting has become for many a way to explore their artistic side by creating art quilts in fabric. Through our guild, I’ve been able to take classes that have expanded my abilities to be more creative using fabric. I love trying out new ideas but also appreciate the traditions of the past.
Nikki Luscombe
Nikki Luscombe is a Toronto-based adult educator, creative facilitator, and mixed media workshop leader who brings warmth, enthusiasm, and decades of experience to every session. Her workshops blend artistic exploration with inclusive, hands-on learning—perfect for adults seeking a fun, lowpressure creative outlet. Nikki has worked extensively with corporations around Ontario.
Patsy Day
Patsy Day, an Indigenous educator and member of the Turtle Clan of the Oneida Nation. She teaches that art is a bridge that can help people better understand Indigenous culture. As a result of Bill C31, she was able to regain status with her Haudenosaunee/ People of the Longhouse family and community. She attended Longhouse ceremonies, studied the language and has earned a Masters of Education Degree with a focus on Indigenous Curriculum Development. Patsy is the co-chair of Kaswentha Two-Row Now (the only Indigenous Led group in Huron Perth). She also teaches beading and Oneida language classes throughout Southwestern Ontario and is a sought-after speaker.
Rosemary Radcliffe
Rosemary Radcliffe is a Canadian actor, writer, and composer. An original member of Second City, she worked with Gilda Radner, John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Catherine O’Hara. In recent years she has become a voice coach.
Kathy Blake
Kathy is Co-Chair of Stonetown Arts in St. Marys. She is a community leader known for her extensive service with the Avon Maitland District School Board and her vibrant contributions to the local arts scene. Her work—ranging from public art like the town’s painted picnic tables to intricate hand-carved basswood panels—often celebrates local heritage. Deeply committed to lifelong learning, she has recently expanded her community involvement by facilitating Art Journalling workshops through the Stratford Third Age Learning (S3AL) program at the Falstaff Family Centre, where she leads meditative sessions in drawing, collage, and watercolour.
Fran Cook
Fran Cook is a textile artist and active member of Artel. Her work encompasses both hand stitching and machine stitching. Fran works initiatively letting the materials lead, responding to the ways in which the fabrics shift and textures emerge. Appliqué techniques with an overlay of stitching to add depth and contrast are prevalent in her work. For Fran, process is as important as outcome. Slow stitching and repetitive mark-making become a way of paying attention, of noticing small shifts and subtle details. Her work invites a closer look, encouraging a quiet, tactile connection between the piece and the viewer.
Sheree Schlote
Sheree is an artist who expresses her creativity in fibre. She enjoys the freedom of making unique pieces with interesting fabrics and textures allowing a story to be told. Sheree has exhibited in several fibre-related exhibitions throughout Ontario as well as traveling exhibits with SAQA. (Studio Art Quilts Associates)
Cathy Liptrot
Cathy Liptrot has been involved with arts and crafts since she was a young child but just lately she has become more inspired by creativity! She is a retired school teacher and for the past 3 years has now been teaching needle felting classes and designing needle felting kits.
All people are creative! Cathy’s vision for her needle felting workshops is to provide a fun and welcoming atmosphere where everyone can show their creativity, artistry and be inspired by those around them!
Ev Scott
Living a creative life from the get-go has been my mission and my passion. Mixed media, sculpting, wood working, fiber arts, encaustic and every medium going has kept my hands busy. Writing has kept my head busy. Often I marry the two.
I have been journaling since the ‘Dear Diary’ days. I’ve published five books, the first being an autobiography for my 98 year old Aunt. If she could do it, I could do it, and did. Three anthologies grew from that.
I currently lead five week writing courses with Stratford 3rd Age Learning. They are designed to inspire and motivate to capture their thoughts and words in every genre. It’s been a delight to share the energy and love of writing with creative people.
John David Anderson
Born in Orillia, Ontario in 1954 and like most kids, drawing and painting were wonderful forms of expression. I just never quit apart from practical interruptions like school, university and making a living. At my high school, A Y Jackson Secondary, named after one of the great Group of Seven, pushing paint around was central to my wellbeing.
A Y came to our high school at its official opening and I met him then. That might have been one of " those" moments". Painting is pretty much like breathing for me now. Northern and southern European impressionists along with some of the French and Dutch painters as well as North American impressionists all have left their mark on me. The quality of light in anything I see becomes the focus of my thoughts when a painting begins. Light has an emotional statement to make as it touches things, passes by them, floods over them...it creates a colour field that allows me to enter in. It's always exciting.