2-Day Plein Air Mini-retreat with
Visual Storytellers' Collective
&
Trupti Karjinni
Deep Cove, North Vancouver, BC - August 6 & 7 2026
Come as You Are
You're a beginner?
No experience needed — with a brush or a paddle. Trupti will remove every barrier between
you and the painting you didn't know you had in you.
More experienced?
Plein air is its own discipline. The light moves. The scene shifts. You will be challenged and you
will grow.
Strayed from Art?
Come back. The brush will still be there in the morning
The sadness you feel on the drive home on is not a problem. It is proof something real happened. That ache is the evidence.
This experience was made for you.
What past students have said
I feel Trupti is a wonderful teacher and her most important trait is to ensure that the students are having fun and learning from their mistakes instead of being perfect and this is perfect for beginners like me. The lessons have been organized well and explains the part of the painting really well.
FANTASTIC! This class is very well taught by a calm and encouraging teacher. Trupti walks her students slowly through each and every step reminding us to let the paint and paper do the blending and work for us. I can't say enough great things about this teacher-all of her classes are worth investing your time in. Well done!
I have worked with William for several years now both as an instructor and aparticipant, he really works hard to bring lots of value and fun to all his events. It's a perfect learning environment. He's a very good host and photography instructor.
My Story
MY JOURNEY
William Speake
on location Gros Morne National Park, NL
Airline pilot. Watercolour artist. Photographer. Lifelong outdoorsman. I picked up a paint brush for the first time in my life during COVID with no background and no talent — just need. I had nowhere else to put the fear. I painted every day for two years. I disconnected from the outcome, I just put paint and water on paper and looked at the pretty colours, until my soul began to appear. I sold paintings. I built something I didn’t know I was building.
I spent a career in service. Military. Airlines. Arctic communities where a plane landing was the best thing that happened that week. Nobody needed to know my name. They needed to receive what the moment made possible.
That’s what I do here.
I was born of fire, not abundance. So was The Visual Storytellers' Collective.
I was sitting in the Calgary airport the day I almost didn’t sign up for Trupti’s watercolour community. I agonized over it. It wasn’t expensive. I did it anyway.
I don’t know where I’d be if I’d gone the other direction.
I built Paint & Paddle so you don’t have to wander.
My first EVER art set
My first few paintings
My first painting where I saw myself — and was surprised I’d made it.
Painted from somewhere I didn’t know I could reach.
Proof the soul was still showing up
©2026 Visual Storytellers' Collective
Vancouver, British Columbia
CANADA
