An Artistic and Culinary Journey to France!
June 2025
Appletree Farm in Eugene Oregon, and its shepherdess, Stéphanie Schiffgens, along with Christiane Payton, artist, and Kristina Foley, artist, are inviting you to join us for an art retreat in the southwest of France, June 12 – 19, 2025.
We will take you on a journey to discover the region “du Sud Ouest, dans le Lot et Garonne”, whilst exploring sketching and watercolor techniques, and wool work through felting in the mornings, interspersed with meals highlighting local foods.
This retreat will be hosted on the hills of a small town called Aiguillon.
Domaine Le Baraillot will be our “pied à terre” for a week to create, eat, sleep, relax, lounge and get to know each other.
Daily excursions will happen throughout the week.
You can find a more detailed list of scheduled activities below (subject to a few changes between now and then).
The cost of the retreat is $2,900. It includes teaching time (painting and felting), lodging from Thursday the 12th (mid-day) through Thursday the 19th (mid-day), meals from Thursday evening the 12th to Thursday Lunch the 19th, scheduled transport to and from excursions (see detailed schedule of activities), materials for felting, entrance to Le Jardin des Nénuphars, a meal at a French restaurant, and a French family meal around a big table.
Guests are responsible for their fare to get to and from the retreat center in Aiguillon. Closest airport is Bordeaux. Guests can be picked up at the train station in Aiguillon. There are trains from Bordeaux to Aiguillon multiple times a day.
Guests must bring their watercolor and sketching supplies, and a foldable easel if they wish to. They must bring their own money to purchase anything that is not included in the price of the retreat, as well as any additional foods they might want.
In order to participate in this retreat, each guest must show proof of their own travel/medical/cancelation insurance in case a guest becomes ill and needs to be treated or travel back to the US, or simply cannot go on the retreat. TravelSafe and Faye are a couple of companies that provide such insurance, many more are available.
This trip is nonrefundable and in order to secure all of the activities, lodging and teaching, it must be paid in full by January 15th 2025.
About your hosts and what they will bring to this weeklong retreat.
Christiane
Christiane Payton is a German American artist who draws and paints with a focus on the human experience. She teaches at the High Low Artspace in Portland, Oregon. Her art helps her to understand the world around and within. Drawing and painting are ways to work through the way natural objects are put together, and how they relate to their surroundings. Christiane splits her time between her current home in rural western Oregon and various locations in Germany.
Come and join me to paint the bounty and beauty of the region Lot et Garonne, with watercolors. During the first few days, we will aim to first draw and then paint a variety of local fruits and vegetables. As we get more comfortable with the medium, we will go from sketching to developing a more detailed and nuanced painting of a subject of our choice. Finally there will be the chance to illustrate one of Stéphanie’s regional recipes.
You will learn the principles of drawing accurately from life, a valuable tool when practicing representational art, regardless of medium. The quick sketches of our subject will help us to work on knowledge of color and value. And finally, we will move into the more developed painting and have the opportunity to combine art with our appreciation of the local cuisine. This workshop is designed to help creative individuals feel comfortable with using plenty of water and pigment to create one-of-a-kind watercolor paintings while inspired by our lovely surroundings in an immersive retreat experience.
Kristina
Kristina Foley was introduced to felting wool while completing a BFA in Fiber Structure and Interlocking at Syracuse University (2005) and continued her practice after graduation in Italy. While residing in Tuscany she developed a studio practice tailored to feltmaking and botanical color that reflected the local materials available: European wool varieties, dye plants and vintage textiles. Opting for a slow lifestyle, Kristina lived in a fourteenth-century stone farmhouse and followed the seasonal rhythms of agriculture, food and community. The artisan culture of Florence, along with her professional work for knitwear designer Boboutic, have deeply influenced her craft. In 2018, Kristina returned to the USA and created Food Shelter Clothing: capsule collections intertwining beauty, utility and sustainability. Kristina’s felted pieces highlight the incredible wool available from small farms in the PNW and multi-generation fiber mills across the country.
Over the course of the retreat, I will guide participants in crafting an animal friendly sheepskin using Gotland fleece from Stephanie’s own flock in Denmark. This no harm approach offers a sustainable alternative to traditional tanning, fostering a deep connection with the land, animals and community throughout regenerative design practices.
You’ll learn how to clean and prepare the raw wool, laying it out to create the desired shape and “sheepskin” effect. I will share essential felting and finishing techniques to make a beautiful, strong piece made to last many years. Beginners will receive a comprehensive introduction to felting, while experienced felters and textile artists will explore this unique technique in depth.
In addition to crafting your sheepskin, we’ll delve into advanced design methods using pre-felt and integrating fibers like silk, mohair and flax to express the textures of animal fur through feltmaking. This workshop is an opportunity to nurture your creativity, connect with sustainable practices, and leave with a unique piece that embodies both artistry and ethical craftsmanship.
Stéphanie
I am a 3rd generation farmer; I am a small scale farmer. The heart of my farming experience is rooted in the care of my flocks of Gotland sheep, feeding my family and the aesthetics of farming. My life is split between our farm in Eugene and the EU where I grew up.
I would like to share with you the region of my childhood. I grew up on a farm and the life of my family is very much, and still to this day, anchored in the rhythms of the seasons through agriculture as a way and a means of life.
I am passionate about what I do and I love to work with other people to bring forth our passions of producing food, fiber, stories, lifelong connections, happy animals, and meals shared around a large table.
Here are some of the activities you can look forward to during our time together:
- Visit to the “jardin des nénuphars”
- Lunch au café Marliacéa
- Visit of villages du lot et Garonne: Nérac, Fources, La Romieu
- Dinner at a French restaurant
- Visit of villages du Lot et Garonne: Pujols, Penne D’Agenais, Monflanquin
- Visit Casteljaloux, a town at the entrance of la forêt des Landes.
- A visit of Stéphanie’s family farm in Aiguillon with dégustation de fraises (strawberry tasting)
- A French dinner at our house around a large farm table, to wrap up our week together and exchange highlights.
If you are interested in taking part in this retreat or if you have further questions about the retreat itself, please contact Stéphanie by phone at 541-915-1462 or by email at sschiffgens@gmail.com.
Upon signing up for this retreat, you will receive a contract to highlight our agreement. A first installment of $1000 will be due when you sign up.
The last installment of $1900 will be due by January 15th 2025.
Please sign up quickly, we are only taking 6-8 participants in 2025.
We are so excited to share this with you and we hope that you will join us.
In adventure,
Stéphanie, Christiane and Kristina