The Enso Circle is an international online artist residency where artists in residence connect and collaborate from their studios worldwide, sharing their creative journeys and supporting each other across borders.

After five years of planning, Lyn Belisle and Michelle Belto created the Enso Circle. Engaging and acclaimed from its first term, we are opening our tenth term for new Residents in 2025. We look forward to welcoming you!

We invite interested artists to our website to view the final exhibition catalogs, read what our past residents have said, and get more information about what we offer in this three-month artist residency. 

Applications close on February 24. Orientation begins the first week of March, and the term ends in early June. 

The Enso Circle Artist Residency 

Pattern is an underlying structure that organizes surfaces or structures in a consistent, regular manner.

Description: This workshop offers the opportunity to explore in detail patterns, rhythm and symmetry. It can help our personal narratives, emotional responses and the creative art making processes. Pattern is a combination of elements that are repeated, symmetry in art is when the elements of a painting balance each other out and rhythm involves using intervals or spaces between elements to give the user an impression of flow or movement.

Cost $495.00 Tax  and materials included

On the first day we will cover the equipment, tools, materials, safety, color sticks application and paper lifting techniques and the advantages of masking, plus the monotype finishes.

The second day is all about patterns, rhythm and symmetry and how we as artist can use or arrange these elements in a painting to create harmony and unity which is this workshop’s objective.

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Registration: Class size maximum of three (3) people

Theoretical ideas behind abstract art: The idea, derived from the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, that the highest form of beauty lies not in the forms of the real world but in geometry, is also used in discussion of abstract art, as is the idea that abstract art, since it does not represent the material world, can be seen to represent the spiritual.

Description: This workshop offers the opportunity to immerse in the world of Abstract Art Painting through colors, shapes and forms while doing  encaustic monotypes, which is easy, fast and lots of fun and allows for the exploration of personal  narratives, emotional responses and the creative art making processes.

Cost $495.00, Tax and materials included

On the first day we will cover the equipment, tools, materials, safety, color sticks application and paper lifting techniques, the advantages of masking plus the monotype finishes.

On day two we will dive into geometry, color, shapes, forms, negative space, contrast and composition. 

Group or personal art critiques is offered identifying areas of opportunities as well as strengths.

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Registration: Class size maximum of three (3) people

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"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” - Leonardo da Vinci

Description: 

This workshop is about a better understanding and implementation of  simplicity and negative space in art. Simplicity is the philosophy and practice of creating only what is necessary within a work of art and Negative space is the empty space around or between the subject of an image.

Cost 495.00, Tax and materials included

On the first day we will cover the equipment, tools, materials, safety, color sticks application techniques, paper lifting, the advantages of masking as well as the monotype finishes.

On day two the workshop focus is on Simplicity or the artist intentionality with the content of their work.  Furthermore, the use Negative Space to convey a sense of scale and a sense of inclusion or exclusion. This encaustic monotype painting workshop  will explore personal  narratives, emotional responses and the creative art making processes through simplicity and negative space. 

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Registration: Class size maximum of three (3) people

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A tale is born from an image, and the image extends and creates a network of meanings that are always equivocal. - Italo Calvino

Description: This workshop’s aim is for each participant to explore creative channels and painting ideas based on city life or urban living.

Cost $495.00, Tax, materials included

On the first day we will cover the equipment, tools, materials, safety, color sticks application and paper lifting techniques, the advantages of masking plus the monotype finishes.

On day two, the goal is to make art based on, a town, city or a place travelled or visited, that left us yearning to return. We often hear the phrase "capturing a sense of place." What does that mean to you? To me, it means much more than just recording the physical attributes of the location. A "sense" of the place, must express emotion. It is an opportunity to explore personal  narratives, emotional responses through  the creative art making processes. This workshop’s aim is for each participant to explore creative channels and painting ideas based on memories.

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Registration: Class size maximum of three (3) people

“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward, you can remove all traces of reality.” —Pablo Picasso

 Description: This 2-Day workshop offers the opportunity to learn or fine tune the many painting techniques and possibilities the encaustic monotype can offer, but the emphasis will be for the participants to become acquainted and develop the Landscape abstraction guidelines  and most importantly the exploration of personal  narratives, emotional responses and the creative art making processes.

Costs $495.00 Tax & materials included

On the first day we will cover the equipment, tools, materials, safety, color sticks application and paper lifting techniques, the advantages of masking plus the monotype finishes.

The second day is dedicated to the landscape painting by addressing: Ultra-simplification, reduction of detail, Expressive and/or textural mark-making and Color alteration. 

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Registration: Class size maximum of three (3) people

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The key to abstract art making is to look inside, not out. Instead of turning to our surroundings for images to depict, we concentrate on our own feelings and experiences and see what they suggest.

Description: This workshop offers the opportunity to learn or fine tune the many techniques and possibilities the encaustic monotype painting can offer and most importantly the exploration of personal  narratives, emotional responses and the creative art making processes.

Cost $495.00, Tax and materials included

On the first day we will cover the equipment, tools, materials, safety, color sticks application, paper lifting techniques and the advantages of masking plus the monotype finishes.

The second day we concentrate on the Abstract Art foundation: Form, color, line, tone, and texture. Likewise, we will demonstrate that by embracing constraint and the unknown we open-up to the many surprises and possibilities to creativity and a visual representation that will speaks of your artistic intention. There will be lots of painting time.

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Registration: Class size maximum of three (3) people, 

Description: This 2 Day Workshop offers the opportunity to learn and or re-fine the Cold Wax/Oil, basics techniques, but more importantly it will cover the essential elements of art—such as lines, shapes, textures, and colors which are considered the "building blocks" of visual art.

Cost $495.00  Tax & materials included

On the first day we cover the basics:  Mark-making for structure and expression, color mixing, substrate preparation, tools and paint applications,  the foundational layers, texture, collage significance and placement, the stages of dryness, working wet-in-wet, mechanical and solvent reductions and finally the best practices for finishing your work

On the second day the focus is on the fundamental elements that through manipulation can convey emotions, ideas, and experiences without directly representing recognizable objects, with each element carrying significant meaning depending on how they are used, 

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Requirements: Class size maximum of five (5) people and three (3) minimum. 

Description: This two-day Workshop offers the opportunity to learn and or re-fine the Cold Wax/Oil, basics techniques, but more importantly we look at how geometric shapes can be arranged in nonrepresentational spaces and bring up ideas or “real life,” which is often called constructive or concrete art. Abstract geometric art is about hidden meanings, analogies, protests, deliberate simplification to prove that everything complicated is simple. 

Cost $495.00 Tax & materials included

On the first day we cover the basics:  Mark-making for structure and expression, color mixing, substrate preparation, tools and paint applications,  the foundational layers, texture, collage significance and placement, the stages of dryness, working wet-in-wet, mechanical and solvent reductions and finally the best practices for finishing your work.\

On day two we center on abstraction and geometry. We start by looking at the work of the most famous representatives,  Kandinsky, Malevich, Kupka and Mondrian. The method of abstract constructions that they developed was an expression of internal laws and entities comprehended by intuition, which are hidden behind the transient phenomena of the visible world. We will discuss how by looking inwardly we can create personal narratives through lines, shapes, forms and colors. 

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Requirements Class size maximum of five (5) people and three (3) minimum. 

Description: This 2 Day Workshop offers the opportunity to learn and or re-fine the Cold Wax/Oil, basics techniques, but more importantly the relevance of line, shape, texture and color while abstract painting… We will look at soft-edge vs hard-edge implementation and how geometric shapes can be arranged in nonrepresentational spaces and bring up ideas or “real life,” which is often called constructive or concrete art.

Cost $495.00  Tax & materials included

The first day we cover the basics:  Mark-making for structure and expression, color mixing, substrate preparation, tools and paint applications,  the foundational layers, texture, collage significance and placement, the stages of dryness, working wet-in-wet, mechanical and solvent reductions and finally the best practices for finishing your work. 

On the second day the focus will be on abstraction, simplification and constraint, (simplicity is the philosophy and practice of creating only what is necessary within a work of art) keeping in mind that the fewer cues to objective reality there are, the more abstract we say it is.

There will be plenty of time for action-filled painting and personalized attention.

For class registration email request to jorgeluisbernal@gmail.com

Workshop Requirements: Class size max. of five (5) people and three (3) min