Mendocino Art Retreat 2026
For my 41st birthday I decided to treat myself to a weeklong art retreat in Mendocino, an area which we’ve visited several times before and love dearly - especially as a summer escape from the Sacramento heat!
Inspired by the travels of a fellow friend and artist, we stayed at a magical place called Salmon Creek Farm which sits nestled in a forested ravine about 15 minutes inland from the mouth of the Albion River. It offers an array of cabins that have been lovingly preserved since the time of their creation as dwellings for radical communards in the 70s. Our cabin, Moonlight, sits perched like a sentinel at the top of the steep shady property and offers a wall of windows to observe the passing mist or bask in the sunlight as you wish.
I didn't have an exact plan for the art I wanted to make so I settled for bringing a small bag of assorted materials and WIPs and figured I'd let the days inspire me. I soon found that making small works each day came more easily - less pressure than staring at a big blank page! I also really enjoyed drawing again, something I haven't done in a long while, and getting better at using new-to-me brush markers. I ended up making a sort of journal of the landscapes, flora, and fauna that we encountered each day.
I brought a very limited amount of scrap fabric that worked out well for the mini-landscapes I ended up making. There seemed to be two distinct color palettes I noticed, the misty muted blues and creams of the coast and the saturated greens and reds of the forest~
I was also immediately inspired to make a banana slug friend, since they seem to be an omniscient presence in the area and pop up mysteriously in unexpected places, like our cabin’s kitchen sink. I sewed a few scraps together and stuffed it with (clean!) sawdust from the outhouse supplies - I named it Ziggy Sawdust after our chosen soundtrack for the evenings. Since I learned banana slugs are hermaphrodites and Bowie was a pretty fluid guy himself, the name doubly fits.
We made a point not to download any shows or movies to watch, which is our usual evening activity, and it led to much more creative productive time which felt really good! During the last few days I had the idea to mend an old quilt that was in the cabin, inspired by departure instructions to leave the place better than we found it. I invited a fellow guest who also sewed to join me and we had a lovely time chatting, drinking tea, and spotting deer out the window.
While our daily forays into the surrounding landscapes provided ample inspiration, the place we stayed was the real star of the show. The property strives to preserve not only the aesthetic but also the ethos of its historic commune origins, teaching its guests about how to live with the land in harmony and build community together. The entire region is truly so special and I'm so grateful to have had this experience - my cup will stay full for quite a while!
