Join award-winning California artist and virtuoso instructor Tim Horn and me in the stunning Santa Ynez Valley for painting en plein aire and relaxing at Rancho La Zaca. If you are not familiar with Tim’s work, feast your eyes. Our painting locations will include mountains, vineyards, beaches, and Rancho La Zaca itself, all set amid […]
Sketches, Paintings & Projects
Paint the Splendid Santa Ynez Valley
iPad Painting Workshop at Rancho La Zaca
If ever there were a time for creative wellness, it is now. You with us?! Discover the beauty and power of your own creative voice, and join us for this first-time-ever, very small, safely distanced iPad painting workshop at Rancho La Zaca. We invite you to an all-inclusive* iPad painting […]
Travel Sketch: India
Truly, you don’t have to be an artist to sketch your travels. The point is not to create great art (obviously, in my case) but to look and to see in a new way, and then to have a souvenir that is way better than a t-shirt. Here’s mine from […]
Sedona Sketchbook, Sacred Journey, Freezing My Arse Off, and Why It’s All Good
Of course the behind did not actually freeze off (alas), but it got mighty cold. And dark, a little out-there, occasionally woo-woo, at times awesome, and in the end wonderful. Warning: This is not a typical post, but as the dawn of a New Year is a quiet time after the storm of holiday mayhem, it seems a good time for musing about life and one’s place in it. Otherwise just enjoy the pictures. That is every bit as good.
Thanksgiving Decorating at Rancho La Zaca, and a Printable Place Card
Is Thanksgiving your favorite? Mine too. What is that about? Is it what Christmas used to be about? You know, family, friends, congenial gatherings, gratitude? Just a thought. It’s also one of my favorite times at our home, Rancho La Zaca. Here are a few highlights from last year and perhaps some inspiration for you this year.
Printable Thanksgiving Place Card or Menu
Here you go, a a shotgun-toting turkey as printable place card or menu hand painted by moi. Drag the image to your photos, and print on watercolor-textured (or other) paper. It will look like you did it yourself. Wink-wink! This one is probably best as a 4×8 or 5×7. Here […]
Jewelry and Joie de Vivre – Verdura’s Sparkling Exhibit
Oh, there are bigger, flashier exhibits, but “The Power of Style: Verdura at 75” is transporting. No where else will you see such gorgeous jewels alongside such rare period photos of the film stars, royals and swells who wore them.
Postcard From Bhutan No. 1
Turns out there is much to love about a country that measures its Gross National Happiness. The Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, land of the thunder dragon, is between Tibetan China and India, in the Himalayas east of Nepal. It is the size of Switzerland and mostly mountains and woods, hence its legendary natural […]
Tea Towels Make Great Gifts (We Love These Lily O’s)
As we are still in high season for hostess gifts, it is especially thoughtful to give things people actually want. A fresh, pretty tea towel gives any kitchen or bar a lift, and life’s little lifts add up. These “Lily Os” were sent me by a friend and I love ’em. Bright and cheery and based on the charming watercolors of artist Thomas Vieth, who, with wife Susan, founded the company.
Postcard From Provence – No. 3 – Painting in Port, Beginning With Audacity
“Beginning with audacity is a very great part of the painting,” said Winston Churchill, who knew a thing or two about audacity–and about painting, too, it turns out. In the 1920s Churchill took painting lessons in the picturesque coastal village of Cassis, France, where our group also painted during the […]
Postcard From Provence No. 2 – A-Painting We Will Go
Plein-air painting is not for sissies, let’s just get that straight right now. Why sit in a comfortable, climate-controlled studio, with actual furniture and an actual bathroom, when you can freeze, burn-up, blow away, be swarmed by Japanese tourists, trip on a tree root trying to get away, sprain your […]
Thanksgiving Puzzle Giveaway!
Here’s something fun everybody can do at Thanksgiving that does not involve a football, a television, a parade float, a stick of butter, or even an iPad. Seriously! Start a new family tradition! Does not contain trans-fats! Good for you and good for your brain. And did I mention fun… Are you puzzled??? (wink, wink)