Art of the Soul
Retreat at Rancho La Zaca, March 2022

Light on the horizon at Rancho La Zaca

Your soul’s voice is your True Self speaking. It is who you were born to be, your deepest meaning and your highest purpose. In this weekend retreat we’ll explore a variety of fun, take-home-able, non-woo-woo tools and techniques to access your soul’s voice via mind, body, and spirit.


Can a Mid-Life Conundrum Inspire a Creative Second Wind?

Well why the heck not? It did for me and it can for you too. Just let it. This is an essay I wrote recently for Veranda Magazine, in their special California issue, January/February 2021. Reprinted here with permission, and revised to make sense, since it is me we’re (I’m) talking about and on my website. … Continue reading Can a Mid-Life Conundrum Inspire a Creative Second Wind?


Art of the Soul – Retreat at Rancho La Zaca, October 28-30, 2021

Your soul’s voice is your True Self speaking. It is who you were born to be, your deepest meaning and your highest purpose.  In this weekend retreat we’ll explore a variety of fun, take-home-able, non-woo-woo tools and techniques to access your soul’s voice via mind, body, and spirit. You’ll use your creativity, but you don’t… Continue reading Art of the Soul – Retreat at Rancho La Zaca, October 28-30, 2021


Paint the Splendid Santa Ynez Valley with Tim Horn — June 24-27, 2021

Chileno Valley Road, by Tim Horn

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 the breathtaking backdrop of the Valley… Continue reading Paint the Splendid Santa Ynez Valley with Tim Horn — June 24-27, 2021


iPad Painting Workshop at Rancho La Zaca

iPad painting by Anne Ward, teaching at Rancho La Zaca August 20-22

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 workshop at our beautiful Rancho… Continue reading iPad Painting Workshop at Rancho La Zaca


Travel Sketch: India

Government building in Delhi

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 a recent trip to India.… Continue reading Travel Sketch: India


Coming to San Francisco!

Will be making a mad dash to San Francisco this week to speak at the fabulous de Young Museum. It is their celebrated, annual Bouquets to Art event.   I am pinch-hitting for my friend Carolyne Roehm, who has family matters to attend to. She was, as she always is, very generous to suggest me… Continue reading Coming to San Francisco!


Hopeful New Year!

Hopeful New Year!

Greetings Dear Readers, as we gallop into 2016, I’m still catching up with ’15…Last year’s Downton Abbey for one. Didn’t you love the point-to-point? And how the closed captions said things like: “MAN: FASTER!” The clothes were pretty swell, too.


Need a Pat on the Back or a Kick in the Pants? This 4-Minute Chick-Flick Does Both.

It’s beautiful and inspiring and okay a little schmaltzy. But sometimes I like that, because I am, at heart, a sap. Anway it’s a good way to start the week. A dear friend sent it to me, and I thought I’d share. Watch it here: Today I Rise.  Below are a few of the film’s images, in the background… Continue reading Need a Pat on the Back or a Kick in the Pants? This 4-Minute Chick-Flick Does Both.


Hello Spring, a Toast to Green and Lavender, and a Contest!

Spring began officially on March 20 with the vernal equinox, when the sun appears directly above your bathing suit drawer. Astronatomy* aside, spring is about green, which I love. I’m throwing in lavender for fun, because they are great together.


Sure Cure for Post-Downton Abbey Depression: Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

If you miss Downton Abbey, take heart. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries will have you obsessed anew. Men like it, too. If not for the fabulous clothes, then for the murder, scandal, sex, glamour, good stories, and great characters.


A Texas Antiques Shop and Visual Feast–Vignettes at Every Turn

Rarely do you visit a shop where everywhere you look is an artfully arranged tableau. Except maybe in Paris, where they invented it. But this is Texas, hun, in the charming Hill Country town of Fredericksburg, where I was last week. Carol Hicks Bolton antiques is an acre of heaven for the vintage/rustic/industrial-chic set, and oh, what fun.