UNEARTHING PICTURES
Exploring analog materials and tools to create unexpected images
July 9-12, 2026
Join Sophie Blackall and Deborah Stein for four days of creative play and picture-making. Exploring analog materials and tools, we will write and paint and draw. Gathering and collecting, imagining and reimagining, conversing and sharing stories, we will dig into our histories and memories and intuitions to create unexpected images. Together we will unearth a mountain of irresistible ideas and uncover new ways of working to build upon in the weeks and months ahead.
This Workshop accommodates 10 people and is open to any and all creative adults, in and outside the children’s book community.
Prices include accommodations and all meals from Thursday dinner to Sunday lunch.
Single rooms are $1,800. Two bedrooms offer the possibility of double occupancy, at $1,450 per person.
Sophie Blackall is the author and illustrator of Things to Look Forward To and Missed Connections: Love Lost and Found, and has illustrated over 60 books for children, including the New York Times best-selling Ivy and Bean series, the 2016 Caldecott Medal winner, Finding Winnie, and the 2019 Caldecott Medal winner, Hello Lighthouse, which she also wrote. She is the five-time recipient of the New York Times Best Illustrated Picture Book Award and has worked with UNICEF and Save the Children UK on global health and literacy initiatives. Originally from Australia, she now splits her time between Brooklyn, New York, and the Catskill Mountains.
Deborah Stein, based between New York City and Northern New Mexico, is an artist and writer known for her visual storytelling and free-wheeling watercolor workshops. Her work is shown in Santa Fe at LDBA and Hecho A Mano and her words and pictures have been published by Khôra and Royawat journals. Deborah’s perspective was shaped by studies at the Museum School in Boston, the University of Iowa, and a year with a family of toymakers in Northern India. She was Artist in the Schools through the Museum of Arts & Design, and has taught workshops, salons, and retreats for artists and illustrators about seeing and translating the world with art and pictures at Milkwood, Boyds Mills (formerly the Highlights Foundation), and her own rogue art school, the Storycamp Disco.
DAILY SCHEDULE for WORKSHOPS
Thursday
2:00-6:00 PM — Arrival and check-in
6:30-7:00 PM — Appetizers and cocktails in the library
7:00 PM — Dinner in the dining room
9:00PM — Introductory assignment
Friday
7:00-9:00 AM — Breakfast in the dining room
9:00 AM-12:00 PM — Workshop
12:00-1:00 PM — Free
1:00-2:00 PM — Lunch in the dining room
2:30-5:30 PM — Workshop
5:30-6:30 PM — Free
6:30-7:00 PM — Drinks in the open-air pole barn
7:00-9:00 PM — Cookout dinner in the garden
9:00 PM — Dessert around the fire pit
Saturday
7:00-9:00 AM — Breakfast in the dining room
9:00 AM-12:00 PM — Workshop
12:00-1:00 PM — Free
1:00-2:00 PM — Lunch in the dining room
2:30-5:30 PM — Workshop
5:30-6:30 PM — Free
6:30-7:00 PM — Appetizers and cocktails in the upstairs bar
7:00-9:00 PM — Dinner in the hayloft
9:00 PM — Show & Tell by guests in the hayloft
These Show & Tell presentations are short, informal, and voluntary. This is your chance to preview new work, sing a song, tell a story, entertain or amaze your fellow retreaters. We have a projector, a screen, and a speaker.
Sunday
8:00-10:00 AM — Breakfast
9:00 AM-12:00 PM — Workshop
12:00-1:00 PM — Free
1:00-2:00 PM — Lunch
2:00 PM — Check-out and farewells