Creativity Awakened & Forgiveness Found

An Interview with Ginette Drury

Ginette Discovers Her Creative Magic & Find Long-needed Forgiveness
A Soulful Yogi and studio owner in Alberta, Canada, Ginette and her daughter joined for our EAT.PAINT.LOVE! Retreat in Italy. Her experience led her to sincere forgiveness and tolerance for decades-old tensions with loved ones. In addition, she UNLEASHED her inner artist and is on FIRE!

Transcript

Montine Blank:
Hey everybody, this is Montine Blank with Intuition Painting, and today I am so happy to have Ginette online with me. She’s going to share about her experience at the Eat Paint Love retreat in Tuscany, Italy in 2023. And she brought her daughter, who I have to say was younger than I normally accept onto retreats.

When I called you and said, “I just want to let you know, this work can be pretty deep,” you said—I don’t know if you remember this—“It’s okay. She’s more mature than I am.”

Ginette:
Yeah, it’s true. You probably noticed that.

Montine Blank:
It was adorable. You both were adorable. It was so awesome to have you there. And no, she wasn’t more mature—but you definitely have a silly edge, which was more than welcome. We were happy to have you both.

If you would, please tell us a few words about yourself.

Ginette:
My name is Ginette and I am from Canada, in the Alberta prairie region but near the mountains. I’m a yoga instructor and own a studio here in town called Rebel Power Yoga. I have three children and three grandchildren.

Montine Blank:
Great! I’m excited to have you here. We’re going to share a little bit to help people understand how you found us, what your expectations were, what your experience was like, and what changes it made.

Can you tell us what your expectations were before you came—what you knew or thought was going to happen?

Ginette:
We were planning a trip for my daughter’s senior year to Europe as a graduation gift, and we wanted to incorporate a retreat into our travels—something all-inclusive where we wouldn’t need to plan an itinerary and our meals would be taken care of.

We thought yoga, but it didn’t have to be yoga. We were open. We came upon your retreat and both said, “Yeah, this is the one,” without really knowing anything beyond what the reviews said.

I was nervous because I don’t feel artistic whatsoever. I always saw my daughter, Katie, as artistic, although as she’s gotten older she’s like me—if it can’t be done in 10 minutes, we don’t want it. But the retreat said it was open to everyone, so we decided to go and see what happened.

Montine Blank:
So you were attracted first to the all-inclusive aspect, the location—Tuscany, Italy—the yoga was a draw, and the art was maybe “I probably can’t do it, but my daughter can.”

You arrived, we had our welcome aperitivo by the pool, I told you what the class was about—then what happened?

Ginette:
I was still nervous, and knowing I was in the company of some pretty talented artists was intimidating. But the way you explained that that’s not what this is about helped a lot.

You asked, “At what point in your life did you decide you weren’t an artist—or who told you it wasn’t right?” That somehow relieved a lot of pressure. It opened things up, even in those first conversations. It was still a nervous beginning, though.

Montine Blank:
I often point out that people without an artistic background worry they won’t be able to do it, while people with training often have a lot to unlearn—rules about what you are and aren’t supposed to do.

All of that flies out the window here, because it’s not the fine-art-maker part of us that’s supposed to show up at the canvas. The part invited is deeper. What did that feel like for you once you started?

Ginette:
It took on its own purpose and pathway. You’d drop these little tidbits of wisdom like, “Don’t resist the urge to paint whatever random thing shows up.” So I painted a random frog in the corner.

Then, with the first few strokes, I had no idea what I was doing—I just painted the paper all black—and in that I saw something deep. It was instantly emotional. Whatever’s inside wants to come up and be released. Seeing that on the painting was something I needed to process.

Montine Blank:
Once you get out of your head and let yourself start painting, you get that first inkling that something is happening on the page—but not of your conscious self. At that point it’s easier to “take your oars out of the water” and trust the flow.

There are obstacles and moments of stuckness, of course. What unfolded for you after that?

Ginette:
I didn’t expect so much to be uncovered, processed, and truly processed. I came home feeling different.

Montine Blank:
Say more about that.

Ginette:
One of the biggest things was with my mom. There’s been tension and resentment for years. In the painting, I processed a lot about the ways she saved me—and wished she could save herself more.

When I left and came home, I didn’t feel angry anymore.

It took me a while to tell her—I only told her about two weeks ago what I’d sifted through. When I did, I said, “This is what I processed in the painting, and when I came home I just didn’t feel mad anymore.”

She told me she felt it. Without me telling her, something inside her said, “She forgives me. She loves me.”

I had a couple of situations like that—something connected across the sea and was felt. It’s fascinating and powerful.

Since being home, I feel settled in the present. There are life transitions—kids growing up, the empty nest—but I’m content. And I started drawing. Then I couldn’t stop. I can’t stop painting; I can’t stop drawing.

Montine Blank:
And you’d never been artistically inclined before?

Ginette:
Not really. I love pottery and do okay with that, but this—my husband was like, “What?!” Me neither! For my birthday I received art supplies from my family.

Montine Blank:
Wow, Ginette. In a five-day retreat, through the painting process, you connected with and released parts of yourself that were keeping you from unconditional love with your mom—and found forgiveness that opened your heart for the first time in how long?

Ginette:
Years and years.

Montine Blank:
And you discovered your inner artist so fully your family bought you art supplies for your birthday. Say no more.

Creativity is part of our identity. Painting helps remove what blocks your inner joy, purpose, and ability to love freely—including yourself.

Ginette:
It’s so powerful. I haven’t been able to stop talking about it. I would recommend it to absolutely everyone I know.

Montine Blank:
It was an honor to witness both you and your daughter. Your shared experience—and how it rippled into healing across generations—was beautiful.

Ginette:
It’s almost unexplainable. I keep reaching for words beyond “mystical” or “magical,” but it really felt that way.

Montine Blank:
Thank you so much for sharing your story today.

Ginette:
Thank you for having me—and my dogs!