Winter is breathtaking in the Ely, MN area! It is less crowded and you have the freedom to move about as you like and at your own pace! Come up and stay just 5 miles south of the border for a Wilderness Art Retreat at Northwind Lodge! It’s a great way to explore your creative side either by yourself or with small group of friends or family. It is Art Classes and Vacation all wrapped into one unique experience at Northwind Lodge.
Our forests are covered in white and our frozen lakes are your invitation to explore your creative side in art. Listen to the quiet. Howl for wolves at night. Then, let the thrill of wilderness living be your guide during Into The Brush art session! After classes, round out your vacation by doing outdoor activities like cross-country skiing, ice fishing, snowshoeing, dog sledding, visiting the Fernberg Gallery (on premises), going to town (watch for wolves) or just relaxing. The entire experience is fun and and something you probably don’t do all the time at home. Plus, we are only about 4.5 hours from the Twin Cities (for perspective)!
The retreats are held all winter Northwind Lodge located 15 miles northeast of Ely, MN, 2267 Fernberg Rd. The 2-Day Program includes: 8 hours of instruction, all painting supplies, after-class independent painting time if desired. Meals not included. Class participants may want to bring snacks but can also return to their apartment very easily. Basic kitchen facilities provided in the apartment.
Apartment Housekeeping Unit – Comfortable, housekeeping, apartment-style unit with private driveway and entrance. Sleeps up to 4 in two bedrooms. One double bed in one bedroom, One double and one twin bed in the second bedroom. Located about 150 feet from the art studio building. This unit comes with satellite TV, gas range, refrigerator, microwave, basic cooking and eating utensils, bathroom with shower, toilet and lavatory. Bedding is provided. Please bring your own towels. Many of our guests request this rental year after year.
This 4 day/3 night Art Wilderness Art Retreat is only: $499.00* for up to the first 2 people*
*and $100.00 extra per person up 4 people
*Plus MN sales tax (6.875%) and local lodging tax (3%)
Call now for availability. Mid-week programming is available at 10% OFF the total package before taxes.
1-218-265-5489 or 1-800-280-1078
Retreat Instructor Joe Baltich will be your instructor. He is an accomplished, commissioned artist proficient in acrylics. For a quick sampling of his works of the past 3 years, please visit instagram.com/joebaltich. For more details and other art programming for summer, please visit intothebrush.org.
Tuesday & Friday is just a travel day for guests who are staying here to attend the class.
We are very flexible and will try to accommodate you if the times don’t work.
Class participants are NOT required to stay at Northwind Lodge
During this 2 day class you will:
Learn & apply basic painting techniques.
Finish a painting on canvas.
Relax in the beautiful surroundings of the northwoods.
Have fun and be creative.
This Class will be held at Northwind Lodge located 15 miles northeast of Ely, MN, 2267 Fernberg Rd. 2 Day Program includes: 8 hours of instruction, all painting supplies, after-class independent painting time if desired, discount code for take-home supplies. Meals not included. Class participants may want to bring lunch.
Up to 4 person max for each class
ALL for $150 per person.
Apartment type unit – Comfortable, housekeeping, apartment-style unit private driveway and entrance. Sleeps up to 4 in two bedrooms. Featuring two bedrooms. Located about 150 feet from the art studio building. This unit comes with satellite TV, range, refrigerator, microwave, basic cooking and eating utensils, bathroom with shower, toilet and lavatory. Bedding is provided. Please bring your own towels. Many of our guests request this rental year after year.
Rate is $69.95/night per person plus taxes.
Call 218-365-5489 to reserve a spot in the painting class.
Hey Picasso! Here’s the Into The Brush painting class schedule for during the next 30 days. Come join us for a fun time with brush in hand and paint on palette. (Sometimes people get that mixed up so wear an old shirt when you come.) We are located at the Fernberg Gallery which is 15 miles NE of Ely on a nice, asphalt road. Think of us being on Ely’s main street but only 15 miles out of town. Easy to find. Takes about 20 minutes to get here.
Check out the various painting topics offered and sign up by giving us a call. All materials provided in each class. Reservations are required for each class. If you show up without reservations, please don’t be upset if you can’t have a seat or the class was cancelled and you didn’t know it. If you have a question, you can call us (218-365-5489), private message us in Facebook by searching Into The Brush and hitting the “Message” button, OR send an email to: intothebrush@gmail.com
Into The Brush is the honored to be recognized as the local winner of Minnesota’s Touchstone Energy Community Award by Lake country Power for its work with Stones Of Uplifting Light (SOUL) in providing emotional support for those who become unexpectedly terminally ill. SOUL operations in April of 2017 as a new program designed to share art on stone with people who are suddenly in the final stages of their life by working with an intermediary (family member, friend, acquaintance, etc) to find out some details about the afflicted individual and a more joyous time in that person’s past. Joe Baltich, lead SOUL artist, then paints that moment on stone and sends the art to the individual. No fees are charged for SOUL stones. Donations to Into The Brush are accepted but not required. SOUL recipients are generally not acquainted with SOUL artists and there is no contact between either party. SOUL founder and artist, Joe Baltich wanted SOUL to represent the kindness of strangers through sharing art. Although feedback has been non-existent (neither expected, encouraged, nor required) from SOUL recipients, Into The Brush has been gratified to hear through a few intermediaries that the various recipients were very moved by the gesture-in-stone-art and their families also very appreciative of the lasting mementos. A small, positive effect in a most difficult time is the goal all Into The Brush with SOUL. If you know somebody who is having a rough time and faced with harsh realities, Into The Brush encourages you to contact them at intothebrush@gmail.com
Into The Brush thanks Lake Country Power for their recognition of the SOUL program and is pleased to be a part of the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives!
You heard it right here, folks! Northwind Lodge is the first Boundary Waters Artfitter in the Ely, MN region. Art lessons in the wilderness full of beautiful things waiting right here for you to enjoy?
You also get time to relax, fish, sit by the beach, and just be. You and your friends can make a 6 day adventure an annual event.
Not only can you come up and stay at a really nice resort in housekeeping cabins near the Boundary Waters, you can enroll in the art program sponsored by Into The Brush right at Northwind Lodge!
When you take this “art vacation” at Northwind Lodge, it is completely “artfitted” meaning that your art materials are all provided as well as a guide who takes you into the brush and helps you observe beautiful wild things artistically for a few hours. Then, follow your guide back inside to the art studio where you learn to paint what you saw and get “into the brush”. It’s tons of fun and when your adventure is complete, you will take home with you a new skill set and the confidence to get “into the brush” at home. So, after being artfitted at Northwind Lodge, you can take home more than just some really great memories. You take home exposure and skills.
How about this possibility? You want to paint but your spouse is into fishing? The way we structured our artfitting, you can take the program and the spouse can go out on this pretty lake we call Jasper in search of some really nice bass, bluegills, northern pike and walleyes. It’s a win-win for you both!
Here’s are some of the things we paint: Rock Paintings Canvas
This is a moose on canvas. We strive to
get you to this level but it may take a few tries.
Never give up! You also will be painting on wood
and on glass:
These are some examples of what you can expect to be doing with Into The Brush 6 day programs. Don’t even think for a minute that you cannot do this and think of the fun you’ll have when you return home! Plenty of time to practice and perfect your technique!
So, why not give us a call and book your Art Vacation, right now? 1-800-280-1078. You can also email us at intothebrush@gmail.com
For reasonable rates that include all your gear and discounted cabin rates, Click Here
Through close observation of the elements of the wilderness by a direct, get-your-hands-dirty, experience led by me, students will learn to appreciate what is here and spread the word, not to mention build a foundation for art application and appreciation.
Right now, with the constant push of environmental extremism, traveling and enjoying the wilderness is becoming more difficult and is resulting in turning people away who don’t understand all the incessant rules and boundaries put in place by environmental ideologues and government. And then, there is also the pampered nature of today’s people. Everybody is afraid of everything.
Instead of feeling the wind in their faces and witnessing the brilliance of the sun on their backs while sitting on a rock in silence, I find that people are turning to their artificial world of electronics and man-made experiences which involve the presence of lots of other people (cruise ships and Disneyland are two examples) instead of enjoying the peace, solitude and abject beauty of Minnesota’s northwoods.
As our wilderness exposure declines, silly uninformed notions like nonsensical rumors of bear/wolf/animal attacks rises. (Watch out for Yeti’s- they steal children) Stories of physical exertion on portages bloom into nightmarish tales of woe. And even seeing a mosquito fly past is cause for major alarm. (you might get a disease and never live to see another cruise) The thoughts of attacking animals, horrifying bugs, and grueling efforts over rough, rugged terrain, despite being complete and utter ignorant, exaggerated, baloney, moves more ignorant people away from wilderness. In the last 5 years, we have witnessed a major falling off of customers. You can’t believe how many are SHOCKED that their iphones have no reception here at the lodge. SHOCKED – I tell you! Like they are gonna die a horrible death within seconds because they can’t check the weather or make a call. They don’t want to drive out on our brand new road anymore because they have no or spotty phone reception. That’s INSANE! Ignorance contributes to the vicious, and growing cycle of avoidance and these people turn out in droves to do things that are not rustic in nature but “safe” because they have cellphone signals. They attend car shows, flea markets, flower shows, and the like. (Oh, wow….like that is SO exciting. I apologize for making fun, but the complete wussiness of it all makes me snort with derision. What has happened to everybody in just 5 short years?) This trend of digital defense and reliance simply MUST be changed! You won’t become a Jeremiah Johnson by taking an Into The Brush course at Northwind Lodge, but hopefully you will develop a bit more self confidence and reliance of living without a constant digital safety net. A little common sense applied, pay attention to the weather and have a GREAT time!
Big Buck in the swamp
As a result of false fantasies of doom, our future wilderness visitors simply no longer go especially today with this whole, ridiculous “safe space” mentality. And, as people forget all about wilderness, it will fade in the minds of future voting populations thereby turning it into merely “another usable resource” to be processed for its elements such as its vast clean water and minerals right at the surface as opposed to its beautiful aesthetics. That would be a terrible shame especially since I grew up right here and consider the Boundary Waters Canoe Area my backyard. Having guided day fishing trips for almost 25 years all over the place, the very thought of the future destruction of the Boundary Waters region by today’s disinterested kids and government restriction, kind of makes me ill. I blame people’s wussiness, unbending addiction to electronics, and environmental zealotry for the drop off in visitors to this great northern wilderness. There’s more to life than looking at one’s cellphone and worrying about safe spaces, micro-aggressions and white privilege. That’s all these kids talk about today while forgetting wilderness other than protesting everything outside of the wilderness boundaries to protect the wilderness. By effect, they are doing the exact opposite and bringing about its demise in the more distant future.
I intend to change these ridiculous attitudes and save wilderness via observation and painting. Get in a canoe and go for a paddle. Hop in a boat and go for a ride. Take a walk in the brush and realize that you won’t die a horrible death by animals eating you. Then come home and paint about it. Stop whining about ridiculous, man-made-up problems and learn to do something spectacular. Then show the world what they are missing as they stare down at their iPhones while walking off of cliffs.
So, in my effort to “save the wilderness through all people being welcomed to it for a new-found purpose of learning to paint”, I formed “Into The Brush”. Sure, there are other ways to bring about wilderness awareness, but painting is in my wheelhouse and it actually has long lasting value as opposed to just coming up to take a canoe trip. Tying the two together will have untold, long-lasting wonders for the one doing it.
Real wilderness brings something for everybody, including woodsmen, artists and city folk. If we are going to “save wilderness” it will not be by having select groups controlling stringent, unbending guidelines and rules. When the zealots have died off, there will be no one following their footsteps from the upcoming young crowd. It will be up to an older, more dedicated group to re-sow the seeds for wilderness through observation and paint. Wilderness travel and living is not a risk-free event like today’s college students now have to have for everything they do. In wilderness, you can still drown if you don’t know what you are doing on water and don’t take simple precautions that you will learn in this experience.
Ultimately, saving wilderness will only occur by giving the common man a reason to enjoy and appreciate all the blessings of wilderness through real activity and participation. Into The Brush is not an organization for zealots and pretenders. It is here for ordinary people seeking to truly appreciate everything that wilderness brings to everybody. It’s time we get “into the brush” in more ways than one.
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