Aegina Retreats
Online Courses
Have you felt the call to create but time or distance keeps you from joining us in Aegina? Maybe you’ve already walked through a workshop with us and you yearn to keep painting, exploring, reconnecting.
That’s why we decided to offer a new online edition on Creativity, Painting & The Creative Process. A gentle, nourishing invitation to keep your creative flow alive wherever you are.
Our online journey unfolds over 5 consecutive Saturdays, each session lasting around 3 hours, beginning on the first Saturday of the month (January, February, March 2026) at 12:00 PM (Greece time).
All five sessions form one complete cycle and participants book the full series.
How to Book
The online option includes 5 live online sessions on Google Meet, held on five consecutive Saturdays.
You can choose one of the following starting dates:
3 January
7 February
14 March
Booking the full course directly costs €250.
Available Courses
The Water Workshop
Whispering Waters - Fluid Creativity Online
What is it about?
The Water Workshop - Whispering Waters, Fluid Creativity is a 5 Week Online Painting Journey held over five consecutive sessions of 2–3 hours each. They will take place Live on Google Meet on Saturdays at 12:00 (Greece time)
Creativity opens when we slow down, listen and give ourselves permission to explore without judgement.
This is an online version of Fluid Creativity Through Painting workshop on the creative process through painting and beyond.
This workshop is not about technique. Rather, it explores the creative process through the lens of painting, how to tune into the process, how to get to the flowing state. While the focus is on visual art, the principles we explore apply to all creative practices.
We’re often told to “get into the flow”, to create from a place of openness and movement. But what does that really mean? Over the past 35 years, as a craftsman, artist and scientist, I’ve explored this question deeply. What I offer here is not a fixed method but a personal synthesis: insights drawn from the works and theories of many creative minds, combined with my own lived experience.
Together, we’ll enter a kind of alternative reality shaped by the nature of water. We’ll use it as a metaphor and a guide to understand how creativity works, how we relate to our tools and how we engage with the world around us.
This workshop is not about mastering techniques. It’s more about letting go, unlearning or even pretending and stepping into a playful, imaginative state where creativity can move freely and naturally.
January Course Meetings will be held on Saturday 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st at 12pm Greek time.
February Course Meetings will be held on Saturdays 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and 4th of March at 12pm Greek time.
March Course Meetings will be held on 14th, 21st, 28th and Saturday 4th & 11th of April at 12pm Greek time.
Every session begins with a short recap of the previous week, so you always feel supported and grounded.
What we explore each week
Session 1
Introduction to Creativity
The foundation of the creative process
We begin by exploring creativity as a natural human capacity:
What is creativity?
What are the stages and states of the creative process?
How do ideas appear, move and unfold?
How does perception work? How does the brain “see”?
What does this mean for our creative expression?
This session helps you understand creativity from both artistic and human perspectives, reconnecting you with intuitive awareness.
Session 2
Working With Materials
Seeing materials as partners, not tools
After a recap, we continue with:
How to approach materials without controlling them,
Relating to paints through touch, flow, texture and presence,
Understanding water, surface, movement,
Why “following instructions” blocks creativity.
This session helps you loosen up and discover the pleasure of working with, not against, your materials.
Session 3
Tools, Colour & Shape
Understanding the language of painting
This session focuses on the elements we use in painting:
Brushes, surfaces, and simple tools,
Colour as vibration, emotion and relationship,
Shape, form, rhythm and the movement of the eye,
How your inner state expresses itself through colour and form.
A simple and intuitive introduction to visual language.
Session 4
Session 5
The Inner Mechanics of the Creative Process
Why creativity opens and closes
Here we go deeper:
Why some days feel open and others don’t,
What blocks the process,
What supports it,
Understanding your natural rhythm,
Trusting the movement instead of forcing results.
This session is about becoming aware of the “engine” behind creativity.
Time, Mass, Energy & What Makes a Painting Alive
Principles of composition, meaning and creative life
In our closing session, we explore:
Time, mass, energy and how they shape a painting,
Simple tools for creating engaging compositions,
The difference between “painting” and “art”,
Principles of life as creative guidance.
We close with Q&A and reflection
Who is this for?
This online series is for you if:
You feel drawn to painting but don’t want rigid techniques.
You want a more intuitive and spacious connection to creativity.
You wish to rekindle your sense of play and exploration.
You’re curious about how perception, awareness and creativity interact.
You’ve taken our workshops in Aegina and want to continue your journey.
You prefer deep, slow-paced, supportive learning environments.
You want to paint from a place of presence rather than from the mind.
No artistic skill is required — just a willingness to explore.
About Yanis
Yanis’s fascination with water began during his university years, when he first became interested in its hidden properties. Since then, water has remained central to both his personal exploration and creative practice. He has spent years reading, researching and reflecting about it, drawing from scientific studies as well as ancient texts, in an effort to understand the subtle intelligence of water and its role in connecting all living things. In his artistic work, water has become both subject and collaborator, guiding rhythm, movement, stillness and chance.
This retreat is the culmination of that long exploration: an immersive experience that brings together art, awareness and the wisdom of flow. It invites participants to reconnect with their own creative current through movement, presence and attention.
Yanis Zagorianakos (YZagor) is a self-taught, full-time craftsman and painter with a BSc in Industrial Chemistry and Design from City University London. Born in Athens, he grew up between Athens, Johannesburg and London. After 15 years working as a project scientist and designer, he left scientific research and began travelling extensively in India, where he was introduced to arts and crafts. Over the following decades, he studied a wide range of crafts and painting practices while working full-time as an artist and craftsman.
He now lives and works between the Greek islands of Aegina and Amorgos. His practice spans over such varied materials: wood, metal, fabric, watercolours, acrylics, oxidations, collage, mixed media... always guided by curiosity, experimentation and the act of chance.
For Yanis, the process is as important, if not more, as the outcome. Creativity is something to be entered, not controlled. He says about himself that he has failed many times, for different reasons both in work and in life. This is what he considers his main source of education.
See his work at www.yzagor.co.uk
Reviews
Yanis, who runs the workshop, shared his knowledge and artistic insights with tailored guidance and a personalized approach, which
gave me a unique perspective on the creative process and helped me clear some creative blocks.
Ayelet Naveh
Israel
I wanted to spend time immersed in the painting process again. Life is very busy, and I was finding it hard to be relaxed enough to paint.
I loved being able to do this. I also loved Yanis teaching.
Antonia O' Keeffe
Ireland
I learned a lot about the creative process and got to put it in practice. I have lots of life lessons such as the patience needed, the wait period, etc necessary. Everything I learned applied more broadly to life as well as art, and so the lessons felt so valuable!
Irina Fakotakis
Canada
Letting you know how deeply I appreciated the time with you, I could have never entered "dark" into my work. You pushed me through blocks I never knew I had and in your absence the pushing, exploring energy continues.
Nora Nicholson
New Zealand
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