This retreat is designed to help you reconnect with your imagination and rediscover the joy of making by hand. Set at Masseria Specula, it offers a welcome pause from the visual noise and constant stimulation of everyday life, creating space to slow down, draw, and create without technology.

Through a range of creative exercises, you will build confidence in making work without digital references and gradually step away from the safety net of search engines. The week invites you to look outward for inspiration, drawing from memory, observation, and the world around you to expand your ideas in new directions.

There will be room for mistakes, experiments, and playful exploration, with an emphasis on letting go of the pressure to make perfect work. By the end of the week, you will leave with a body of work that reflects the freedom, uncertainty, and creative energy of working in this way.

ABOUT LIZ

Liz Rowland is an illustrator and multidisciplinary artist based in Edinburgh. After completing a degree in Illustration in 2011, she worked across a variety of creative roles before establishing her own practice 10 years ago. Since then, she has illustrated three picture books and many editorial commissions, alongside a wide range of other projects.

Liz has also been working with ceramics since discovering a love for the medium in 2015. More recently, she has introduced wood and textiles into her practice. She is passionate about making by hand through traditional methods and encourages work that feels unselfconscious and strongly narrative. For this reason, she is especially inspired by children’s work.

Selected clients include Vogue, The Telegraph, Thames & Hudson AU, Hachette, Faber, Gourmet Traveller, Soho House, The Ned, Flight Centre, The Culture Trip, Good Weekend Magazine, Visit Britain, Melbourne City Council, Sydney Herald, and Country and Townhouse Magazine.

PUGLIA, THE RETREAT LOCATION

Puglia, also known as Apulia, is Italy’s southernmost eastern region. Its coastline — the Adriatic to the east, and the Ionian to the south and west — is among the most beautiful in the country, lined with silvery olive groves that stretch toward long sandy beaches and some of the clearest, cleanest waters in the Mediterranean. It is also an ancient land shaped by many invasions, with historic towers still visible today, built centuries ago to defend against intruders.

MASSERIA SPECULA - THE VENUE

Set into a gentle hill and surrounded by 20 hectares of private land, Masseria Specula offers a peaceful retreat just 1km from the enchanting shores of the Ionian Sea. This exclusive retreat venue in Puglia, Italy, is housed in a beautifully restored 17th-century farmhouse dating back to 1611.

THE ROOMS

Private bathrooms | Wi-Fi | AC & Heating | Double beds or single beds

THE FOOD

At Masseria Specula, five Apulian women prepare authentic Italian recipes passed down from their mothers. Vegan and vegetarian meals are served to reduce environmental impact, and the chefs work with the best seasonal ingredients grown in the surrounding fields, in keeping with the property’s ecological ethos.

THE PROGRAM

DAY 1

Welcome drinks
Relax time
Dinner

DAY 2

Breakfast
We begin the week with sketchbook drawing exercises to warm up. The focus will be on loosening up creatively and exploring how a simple starting point can evolve. Liz will share examples of creative practices that may encourage us to welcome the unexpected.
Lunch
We will continue developing the morning’s work, exploring materials and techniques in greater depth.
Relax time / beach / hikes
Dinner
Bonfire

DAY 3

Breakfast
Workshop with Liz. Building on the previous day’s drawings, we introduce memory and imagination.
Lunch
Workshop with Liz. Drawing development and continuation of the morning’s work.
Pasta making class
Dinner
Bonfire

DAY 4

Breakfast
Day trip. We visit Grottaglie, Puglia’s historic hill town, known for its ceramics and cultural history but often missed by visitors. We will draw on location, keeping the themes explored so far in mind as we make quick visual notes while wandering through workshops and galleries.
Lunch out in Grottaglie
Return to Masseria Specula
Relax time / beach / hikes
Dinner
Bonfire

DAY 5

Breakfast
Workshop with Liz. We draw from memories of the previous day’s trip and add depth to our work.
Lunch
Free drawing time to focus on a chosen area. There will be exercises for those who would like guidance, plus time to talk through your work with Liz. There will also be time to walk and explore the area around Masseria Specula.
Relax time / beach / hikes
Dinner
Surprise

DAY 6

Breakfast
Departures

Health and wellness retreat in San Pietro In Bevagna