Intro
Dear Reader,
Many of you, who have read my book, Cities of Gold, will remember how it opens. Walter Nelson, who would become my partner in our thousand-mile horseback adventure, insisted that I get out of Santa Fe and see some of the “real New Mexico.”
His idea of the real New Mexico was the spectacular deserts and mountains around Abiquiu. This was my introduction to the landscape that, to me, is the most beautiful and inspiring on Earth, where I now own a cabin, which I retreat to for creative and spiritual rejuvenation.
Now, twenty-five years later, Walter Nelson and I have launched the Abiquiu Workshops. These workshops are the culmination of our spiritual love affair with this land and our desire to share this special place with others.
What, then, are the Abiquiu Workshops? If you are a creative person struggling to achieve a breakthrough, then one of these workshops is for you. The workshops are offered in the areas of poetry, painting, sculpture, photography, and writing—with some special ones combining two disciplines.
They are quite unlike anything you have probably experienced before. You will be part of a small group — never more than ten. The workshops last five days and are intense, full-immersion experiences, engaging mind, body and soul. Each workshop is taught by two or three teachers, who are successful, if not renowned, in their fields. This is a rare chance to work one-on-one with a master. The goal is not just creative development, but a total and complete creative breakthrough. You will dissolve blocks, smash fears and elevate your creative power to a higher level.
They take place in the remote high desert landscape of New Mexico, in the same area, which inspired so many creative people from D.H. Lawrence to Ansel Adams to Georgia O’Keeffe. The workshops are geared for all levels of experience, from those just starting to those well along the journey of creativity.
The Abiquiu Workshops, given in friendship with the Ghost Ranch, the spectacular 21,000 acre ranch that Georgia O’Keeffe once called home, which is now a non-profit education and retreat center focusing on spiritual growth. http://www.ghostranch.org/. The accommodations are at the elegant Abiquiu Inn, http://www.abiquiuinn.com/.
If you are interested in learning more about these workshops, please visit the Abiquiu Workshops website here: http://abiquiuworkshops.com/,
With best wishes,
Douglas Preston
