My last full day at the spa… The property here is beautiful, built around a belle-epoque mansion called Bellefontaine surrounded by woods of maple, pine and birch, and just a few miles from The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home. Canyon Ranch’s resident artist and outdoor guide Cathy Palmer is incredibly knowledgeable […]
Sketches, Paintings & Projects
Lessons From House Party of Painters
The nicest notes came last week from a group of gals from North Carolina who came to Rancho La Zaca to visit and to paint. I had long wanted to organize a workshop here for my awesome Aunt Gray and her painting buddies. And by dern we finally got around to […]
Yayoi Kusama at the Whitney
I have been meaning to write about this for weeks, though I confess to a certain reluctance about people and things I cannot pronounce. But I have been practicing: Yayoi Kusama. Just like it’s spelled really. I don’t know why I go so worked up about it. I was walking […]
Fabulous Rooms #2: Victorian Writing Room at the Greenbrier
This second Fabulous Rooms post is in response to the first (Living Room at Lyford Cay), wherein I solicited favorite rooms from readers. Paige Ward wins a nickel* for submitting the Victorian Writing Room at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. Originally decorated by the legendary Dorothy Draper and carried […]
Deviled Eggs for Lunch
I don’t know why it has never occurred to me to have deviled eggs for lunch. I was trying to think of something funny to say after that but I couldn’t. Deviled eggs aren’t that funny I guess, but they’re good. And it seems they have acquired a certain glamour. […]
David Hockney Landscapes
Someone just told me about a gorgeous new book on David Hockney, and I wish I could remember who, but thank you so much, whoever you were… and presumably still are… I’ve raced ’round the corner to Archivia Books to fetch it. Actually a catalog of the just-closed exhibit at […]
Bye-Bye Bahamas – Watercolor of Palm Trees
Bye-bye Bahamas. On the way back to New York–and (ahem) more substantive posts. (Thank you for your patience.) Meanwhile, parting shot is a quickie study of the palm trees outside my door. I’ll miss them… Note to self: Resist the tendency to wimp out on the colors. Live and learn. […]
Albert Hadley: In Memory and the Value of Sketching
John Danzer, longtime friend and the beauty and brains behind Munder-Skiles outdoor furniture, had a party for me on the occasion of my first book, Atlanta at Home. It was around 1994, and I was still living in Atlanta then. Well there I was in John’s chic upper east side atelier, […]
Wild Sweet Peas in the Vineyard, and a Painting
As His Grace and I left the ranch last Friday for New York and parts East for a few weeks, I felt a twinge for the days of early spring I will miss there. Here’s an idea: Surely these wild sweet peas came last year, but dawg if I remember […]
A Wedding at Lincoln Center
Well it’s a big day. Our friends Preacher and Partner have flown to New York for Partner to sing Mozart’s Requiem at Lincoln Center. Lincoln Center. And as if that weren’t enough, they are getting married in the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall at intermission. The ceremony will be a […]
How Hunt Slonem Celebrates
When all else fails, looking at something beautiful can put things right again. Or if not to put right, to remind. To remind us that there is beauty in abundance in this sometimes-ugly world, and that it is often created by people who are talented, disciplined, and devoted to using […]
Touched
So many of you have responded to the Sunday Painter post, thank you; and some of you are artists yourselves. Just this morning Jill Steenhuis added a comment to Sunday Painter, and I’d like to comment back by treating you to her work and website, here. Jill is an Atlanta […]