Facilitators

Stewart Cubley is founder of The Institute for Art & Living, dba The Painting Experience. His work has carried him throughout the world to work with groups in a process of inner exploration using the tool of expressive painting to access the potential within the human heart and imagination. For more than two decades he has taught his unique approach to literally thousands of people at growth centers such as Esalen and Omega Institutes, multinational corporations, programs in prisons and countless other public forums. Stewart lives in Fairfax, CA. He is co-author of Life, Paint & Passion, Reclaiming the Magic of Spontaneous Expression, Tarcher/Putnam 1996.

Read Stewart's articles on the painting process:

Art & The Challenge of Change 2001
Saving the World One Painting at a Time 2004
The Thread 2005

Sarah Oblinger has been teaching in a variety of settings since 1978. In 1994, she started the Paint or Die Studio In Lawrence, Kansas, dedicated to using painting as engaged meditation. Sarah's philosophy centers on learning how to be present for each moment while keeping the brush moving. She believes painting is a profound way to experience one's feelings without being overwhelmed by them. In her classes and workshops, Sarah integrates her interest in creativity, psychology and awareness work into her down-to-earth teaching style.Sarah Oblinger lives in northern New Mexico and continues to facilitate the creative process in personal residential retreats at her home. She has been working with Stewart Cubley leading workshops since 2001.

Read Sarah's Statement: "It is all very simple, so simple, you see..."
Read Sarah's article Healing the Creative Heart

See her website at www.sarahoblinger.com

Annie Danberg discovered the curative powers of art making during childhood, where painting and drawing became her solace in the midst of physical and emotional pain. She pursued a career in fine art as a young adult only to find it lacked the aliveness and joy she experienced as a child. In seeking a way of painting that felt resonant with her longing for untamed expression, Annie attended a Painting Experience class with Stewart in 1999 and a few years later began teaching with him. Annie resides in San Rafael, Ca and teaches weekly classes in the San Francisco Bay area, as well as leading workshops and residential seminars.

It is Annie’s abiding experience that painting for process, like dreaming, is a river that carries one into deep, wide and astonishingly wild territory where the heart can be found and life informed by the voice of the soul. Her compassionate presence brings great clarity and insight to the rich territory of process painting.

Read Annie's article Where Wildness Dwells

See her website at www.artdance.com

Annie Rousseau has always been fascinated by art and psychology. She has many year's experience as a workshop facilitator, training coordinator and advocate for families who have children with exceptional needs. She is also a Personal Life Coach and brings considerable experience and skills into a relationship with a person who wants to make meaningful life changes. Annie has her own painting studio called The Painting Journey….Following the Intuitive Path. She has several small studio locations in central Vancouver Island, B.C. and travels for workshops of her own and to assist Stewart at The Painting Experience.

Read Annie's personal statement and see her website.

Betsy Vingle
Born and raised in South Florida, Betsy was known as an artist until she enrolled in "art school". After a rough start at the University of Georgia majoring in Painting and Drawing, she did an about face and changed her major to Biochemistry and Nutrition. She became a Chiropractor and had a very successful practice in Fort Lauderdale for ten years before having a daughter and seeking for a slower pace in the mountains of North Carolina.
Betsy first experienced the Painting Experience at a workshop held in Asheville in 1999 and it was there she realized why she had abandoned her art and her creativity - she had connected art with the vulnerability of her first year in school and no longer felt secure in her self-expression. The weekend workshop gave her a completely safe environment to restablish the connection, and she was hooked. Betsy currently lives outside of Asheville with her fifteen year old daughter, practices Chiropractic, conducts painting classes at her studio in Brevard and co-facilitates workshops with the Painting Experience.

Sarah Pattison
Sarah Pattison, BFA, has been teaching classes in creativity and process in a variety of settings and to various age groups in and around Athens, Ga. since 1997. Sarah began painting with Stewart in 2002 and started facilitating her own process painting groups in 2004.
She facilitates painting groups at The Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support; offering cancer patients and the staff a format to freely and safely express the stresses they feel while undergoing treatment and follow-up care. She also offers similar classes at the Athens Mind-Body Institute and the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
Sarah is currently expanding a private practice for individual work and groups called "Wild Eye: Guided Creative Exploration"™- a playful and sensory approach to greater self and body awareness through the exploration of the creative energies using an assortment of art materials, movement and sound. She also maintains a personal art-making practice for sanity and well- being.

See her website at www.sarahpattison.com.

Matthew Belay
Raised on a farm in southwestern Virginia, Matt developed many skills and practical understandings at an early age. During and after university at Virgina Tech he traveled extensively throughout the world for both work and personal study, widening his perspective of art, culture and diversity. While pursuing his degree in Landscape Architecture at Virginia Tech, he specialized in community design, culminating in the development of the first co-housing community in the region. For a number of years he worked as operations manager for Hui Ho’olana retreat center in Molokai, Hawaii, which is where he first came in contact with The Painting Experience. Matt currently lives on a 45 acre rural property outside of Blacksburg. His primary interest is in continuing to live in a community setting and supporting the personal growth of himself and others through facilitating The Painting Experience in a retreat center atmosphere.

Other Staff

Kelley Busby is our Programming Director and Marketing/PR person extraordinaire.She hails from the East Coast and now lives in Sausalito, CA. She teaches yoga and has extensive experience in film-making. Her first daughter, Sophia, was born on May 19th, 2006.