Creative painting Workshops

Aegina Retreats

Listening Waters

Fluid Creativity - Presence & Embodiment

with

Rani Khanna & Yanis Zagorianakos

19-26th September 2026

6 days / 7 nights · Aegina, Greece

Listening Waters is an immersive Creative Field Lab shaped by water.

It is not about technique, performance or learning something new.

It is about forgetting and remembering.

Forgetting what no longer serves the creative process.

Remembering how creativity moves when it is not forced.

At the centre of this experience is water, not as a theme or metaphor, but as an active intelligence that teaches through rhythm, movement, stillness and responsiveness.

Water is not observed. Water is listened to.

What to expect

The Essence

This collaboration was born from the meeting of a painter and a filmmaker: two artists working in different mediums, who independently discovered water as a collaborator rather than a resource. Through years of practice, water revealed itself as something that carries memory, timing and intelligence. A presence that teaches when attention softens and control loosens.

Listening Waters offers a space to reconnect with creativity by learning to work with water, allowing its qualities to guide process, perception and presence.

What happens

At the heart of the work lies a simple question:

What happens when we stop trying to create and instead become receptive?

Listening Waters is a combined practice bringing together Yanis's workshop Whispering Waters Fluid Creativity and Rani Khanna's Presence and Embodiment work.
Together, these two approaches form a shared creative field shaped by water and listening.

Through reflection, embodied practice, expressive painting, and direct contact with water, we explore:

how the creative flow arises,

what blocks it and what restores it,

the states we move through,

and how to remain available over time.

Creativity is not treated as personal achievement. It is approached as a current, something we enter and tune into, allowing it to pass through us.

Water as Teacher

The method is inspired entirely by water. Water teaches adaptability without losing essence, movement without force, persistence without aggression, memory, rhythm and responsiveness. Through simple theory, reflection and direct experience, we learn how to connect to water and allow it to guide the way, both in creativity and in life. Water gradually shifts from something we relate to, to something we cooperate with, and eventually, something we embody.

Expressive Painting & Presence

Painting is used as a practice of attention, not as an artistic goal. There is no emphasis on style, technique, talent or finished results. Painting becomes a way to observe how we approach the unknown, notice habits of control, experience surrender and understand timing and flow.

Each morning begins with presence and fluid embodiment practices, gently preparing body, mind and nervous system for the day’s work. As the retreat unfolds, attention increasingly turns towards water and the sacral centre of creativity, sensation, joy and feeling.

This experience is open to everyone. No prior painting experience is needed.

Who this is for:

This workshop is for people who already have a relationship with a creative practice and are comfortable not knowing what will happen. For those of you who value process over output, are interested in place, material and presence and do not need to be guided step-by-step.

You do not need to be an artist/painter. All you need is patience, curiosity and a sense of responsibility towards yourself and others.

Who this is not for:

This workshop is not for you if you are looking for a holiday or an escape; a wellness or healing retreat; yoga, meditation, or therapeutic facilitation; a clear syllabus or learning outcomes certificates with specific results or portfolio pieces; constant guidance or reassurance. Nothing will be fixed for you here. Nothing can be promised.

Group size & rhythm

Groups are small, from 4 to 10 people maximum so as to keep it intimate.

Sessions will be long, with pauses, space for silence and shared responsibility for the field created.

About the Teachers

Yanis Zagorianakos

Painter, Craftsman

I am a self-taught, full-time craftsman and painter. I hold a BSc in Industrial Chemistry and Design from City University London, a background that has shaped me into an artist with a strong scientific curiosity and an investigative approach to materials and process

I was born in Athens and grew up between Athens, Johannesburg, and London. At 17, I moved permanently to London, where I studied and later worked as a Project Scientist & Designer, conducting research. After fifteen years, I returned to Athens, left my scientific career behind, and began travelling to India. There, almost by accident, I was introduced to the world of Arts & Crafts. For the next decade, I visited India regularly and attended a wide range of craft seminars, along with numerous painting workshops in both London and Athens — all while working full-time as an artist and craftsman.

Today, I live and work between the islands of Aegina and Amorgos.

My work is driven by a deep curiosity for materials. Over the years, I have worked with wood, metal, fabric, glass, and I am always exploring new materials and unexpected combinations. In painting, I use watercolours, acrylics, oxidations, oil, collage — almost anything I can get my hands on, as long as it serves the work and the creative process.

See my work

Rani Khanna

Filmmaker

Born in France to Franco-Indian parents, Rani lives in London with one foot in Colombia and the other in Sweden where her children live.

She turned to creativity, painting and storytelling, in order to make sense of life. This path led her to film school & documentary filmmaking. She travelled widely, making films on human rights, health issues and the arts. Her approach is based on trust, understanding, creativity, beauty while paying special attention to culturally sensitive issues and cross-cultural boundaries.

She remains an active documentary filmmaker and has been teaching & lecturing for over 25 years. In parallel she has been working with energy and healing, the natural elements, studying and learning from different teachers and books. She also trained with Michel Odent as a birth doula, marking a deeper engagement with energy work and healing. She has practiced yoga and meditation for over 30 years, has studied chakras, healing and spiritual ecology.

This path took her to La Sierra Nevada, Colombia, where she is helping a shaman build Nikumakunzama university of medicinal plants and ancestral knowledge and traditions. She is equally making a film about a Mamo, a spiritual leader from the Arhuaco community, who is fighting to preserve his culture and land, whilst transmitting his knowledge to one of his grandsons. She sees herself as a bridge and facilitator, bringing a unique approach to workshops, drawing on her experience as a creative, doula, teacher and healer.

See her work at www.youandeyefilms.com

Ways to Participate

Hosted (Residential)

For those who wish to live the experience fully.

Includes:

7 nights accommodation

6 daily sessions Presence & Embodiment

6 daily sessions Fluid Creativity through painting

3 Afternoon sessions Connecting with water

Daily breakfast, lunch, snacks, tea & coffee

Use of a fully equipped studio & painting materials

Transfers for planned excursions

Participation: €1950per person

Independent (Non-Residential)

Includes:

6 daily sessions Presence & Embodiment

6 daily sessions Fluid Creativity through painting

3 Afternoon sessions Connecting with water

Daily lunch, snacks, tea & coffee

Use of a fully equipped studio & painting materials

Transfers for planned excursions

Does not include:

Accommodation & breakfast

Participation: €950 per person

Reservation & Payment

To reserve your place for the workshop or the retreat, a €300 refundable deposit is required, which is fully refundable up to 60 days before the start date. Payment is available via bank transfer or secure online payment. The remaining balance is paid closer to the retreat dates.

After you send your participation request, we will contact you to confirm whether you prefer the Independent or Hosted option.

More details are shared upon reservation.

Hosted Participation: 1950€ per person

Includes Sessions, Accommodation, Breakfast, lunch, snacks, tea & coffee daily, materials, excursions

Independent Participation: 950€ per person

Includes Sessions, Materials, lunch, snacks, tea & coffee daily, materials, excursions

Dates 19-26th September 2026

Size: Maximum 10 people / Minimum 4 to run

Reserve a place

300€ Refundable Deposit · no obligation