Menucha Retreat Center in the Columbia Gorge

Shifting Lines: A Creative Path to Abstract Drawing
5 day workshop
August 2-8, 2026 

Discover new ways of seeing and creating as we use Menucha’s landscape as inspiration for abstract expression. Through guided prompts and experimental methods, you’ll explore how to transform a variety of sketches into one cohesive drawing, layering mixed media to build depth, texture, and meaning. Together we’ll balance the real with the imagined, working intuitively to uncover unexpected directions in your art. Along the way, we’ll apply principles of design to strengthen and refine composition. This workshop welcomes anyone eager to deepen their creative process and expand their artistic voice.

See CAC website for registration

A deeper dive into understanding: Shifting Lines focuses on exploring abstract design in a supportive community setting—without the need for prior experience or a predetermined outcome. This workshop encourages curiosity, play, and learning to trust your own creative responses.
Rather than aiming for perfection, participants are guided to experiment freely and respond to what emerges on the page. We practice stepping back, noticing what’s working, what feels surprising, and where curiosity might take us—asking simple, open questions like, “What if I try this?” Challenges are welcomed opportunities for discovery rather than problems to solve.
We begin with multiple, simple line drawings inspired by our surroundings. These initial sketches serve as starting points and are gradually layered, combined, and develop into a single abstract composition. Participants explore color, value, and mixed media to strengthen and bring clarity to their work. The early sketches remain visible within the finished piece, creating a sense of depth and reflects the history of the story within. Shifting Lines is an exercise that can build a greater sense of confidence, flexibility, and trust in your own creative process.
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Excerpts of student work below: