Celebrating Creativity and making meaningful connections to the local community are core values at La Dolce Vita and it is my honour to introduce you to the special guest who will be assisting us in exploring our creativity at La Dolce Vita 2019.

La Dolce Vita will welcome a different special guest each week, so please be sure to take note if you would like to attend the workshop of a specific guest.

May 18-25, 2019 Retreat Special Guest:

I am incredibly excited that Kelly Rae Roberts will be joining us at La Dolce Vita 2019. She is a prolific working artist whose body of work is immense. She is both an innovator and business mavin. From fashion to home decor, she is constantly working on new ways to view her life and home through a creative lens. I know that attendees are going to leave her workshop creatively inspired.

Kelly Rae Roberts is an artist, author, and Possibilitarian. She grew up in rural North Florida, where she lived for eating fried chicken every Sunday afternoon, fishing with a tattered piece of bamboo, and playing checkers with her granddad.

As a grown-up, she attended college at Florida State University, where she decided to major in social work. In 1999, she met her husband John & they set off to begin a new life together in Portland. Kelly’s heart kept tugging & pulling her towards something big, brave & new. And one day, Kelly decided to put paint onto paper & pursue a thoroughly “impractical” dream: to become an artist.

Kelly’s heart exploded with renewed passion & joy, and her artwork spread like wildfire, reaching thousands of fans — and pulling in big licensing deals. She’s the author of Taking Flight: Inspiration & Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings, and the creator of several well-loved online courses.

Kelly’s tender style of truth-telling and possibility-driven approach to life, work, & art has been featured in many books, and in countless magazines, including Spirituality + Health, Where Women Create, Somerset Studios, Cloth Paper Scissors, and more. Her artwork can be found worldwide on all kinds of uplifting home decor, gift, and stationery products. Her significant online presence is a source of inspiration and truthful stories that celebrates the collective journey of our messy, complicated, yet deeply beautiful lives.

In essence, Kelly Rae is an artist who seeks to express a sense of vitality and connectedness in her work. Having spent most of her life in the company of women, her pieces grow out of the kindred support she has felt from many of them throughout her life. She is endlessly grateful for the spirits of these women who walk with her, in flesh or in paint, on her incredible journey into art, love, and life.

Learn more about Kelly Rae at KellyRaeRoberts.com

Visit Kelly Rae’s Instagram here: Instagram.com/kellyraeroberts/

To learn more about her creative workshop, please CLICK HERE to visit our workshops page.

June 1-8, 2019 Retreat Special Guest:

Joining our June retreat will be Wendy Brightbill. Wendy is a painter, stitcher, illustrator, paper artist and instructor who firmly believes that creativity can be a balm to the wounded heart & soul. I am in love with her signature florals and can’t wait for her to share her creativity with us.

Wendy Brightbill is an artist, teacher and creative wanderer. She picked up a paintbrush after a car accident rearranged her brain. She never really planned to build a career from making art and teaching it to other people. But that is the crazy thing about life, it’s often the mishaps, or accidents, that get us to the place that we were always meant to be. Once upon a time, she was a kindergarten teacher. Now, she teaches women to fall in love with the process of making art. Her passion is to see women letting go and stepping into their own creative flow, whatever that looks like.