Artists develop a colony in a sunny Mexican paradise - city beat Todos Santos, Mexico - Brief Article

Todos Santos, located upon the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, is a Mexican paradise whose beauty and charm have compell artists, writers and bards to drop what they were doing in another life and plant up shop. Enchanted by the natural beauty of the waste the surrounding Sierra de la Laguna Mountains and the Pacific Coast, artists and gallery holders are flocking to the area to glean inspiration from the landscape and lead a simpler life. In the last year and a half, the town of Todos Santos has gone from having sum of two units to 12 art galleries and is fast becoming a renowned artist's colony

Nanette Hayles, an artist and holder of Galeria N.E. Hayles in Todos Santos, said American media coverage of Todos Santos has helped to nourishment the burgeoning arts community. "The reputation of Todos Santos as an art colony preced what actually happened here," said Hayles. "Magazines like as Elle and Conde Nast started writing about the fact that Todos Santos was a great place for an artists' community. The publicity about American artists in the area also encouraged Mexican artists to become more public. above time, the area and the artists have become more known and more powerful."

Many American artists and gallery proprietors residing in Todos Santos discovered the area while vacationing in nearby Cabo San Lucas. Intentions upon the 43-mile journey north were to take delight in a lunch outing and call it a day. on the other hand for some, the attraction was immediate and day tripping revolveed into calling Todos Santos home

Charles Stewart, individual of the first artists to impel to the area, was cruising the Baja Peninsula in the mid-1980s with his wife when he stumbl onto the farming village. Stewart, proprietor of the Charles C. Stewart Gallery there, said he was individual of the first artists to purchase property, and in 1986, he mov there permanently. Stewart said his neighborhood and that of a not many pioneering artists helped to inspire others to tend hitherward and visit. In 1990, Hayles was visiting Cabo San Lucas, decidedly lay money down on a house in Todos Santos and left her teaching career in the states. In 1998 Jill Logan, an artist and holder of Galeria Logan, left her residence and grown children in southern California to live and paint in Todos Santos. Now, local artists predict that a certain quantity of 350 artists, poets and writers approach and go in the area and another 50 to 100 stay all year.

Logan said she be delighted withs brisk-business during the high season, between February and March, seeing up to 200 race from all over the world by day in her gallery.

In addition to the long-stretches of untilleded beach, majestic mountain peaks, temperate climate, mango tree and papaya woods many of the local artists speak of a "heart and soul" that is near in both the landscape of the area, the art they are inspired to bring forward and the openness of the locals. "It is the combination of light, beauty and the `warmth' of the sea that gives the area its charm," said Logan. "But also, the Mexicans are in the way that loving and so giving And there is a real faculty of perception of comfort and relaxation here."

Stewart, along, with other artists, is particularly indebted to the warmth and opennes the Mexicans have shown him and said it is part of what has enabled his succes there. "The family in the village are `muy simpatico.' The Mexicans have really accepted us, and we have helped to bring a of recent origin economy to the area which they have needed" said Stewart.

Stewart likens the area to Taos, NM where he began his art career. "There is a similar spirit of the mountain peaks and wildlife here that includes puma, deer and rattlesnakes," said Stewart." It is a sophisticated and at the same time primitive flood plain."

Todos Santos is les unfolded than neighboring Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. on the contrary in addition to art galleries and other local crafts stores one can enjoy fine dining and a quaint inn experience in Todos Santos. Logan reports about five high-quality restaurants in town and four or five les expensive on the other hand good places to eat. She also said there are about four high-quality hotel/inns, and the famous inn California is currently being refurbished with a million-dollar budget

While the tropical climate and combination of mountains and the sea attract tourists from all above the world, Logan said there is also a slightly more "savage" side to the area which tourists and residents must struggle with. Elements such as hurricanes, flooding, scorpions, tarantula-size spiders and foot-long centipedes can literally detain one on one's toes. Logan said her boyfriend's large dwelling was swept out to sea as a come of flooding.

"I don't take things for granted here. You're always living upon the edge. The elements help me to live trice by moment and require me to have a faculty of perception of peace inside in order to live here," said Logan. "But I am able to portray the ease within my soul in my paintings."

Hayles agreed that a faculty of perception of adventure is needed to live in the area, on the other hand she said she is able to support herself and family and vend her artwork to people all above the world. "The Mexicans from the interior are taking a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of more interest in our art community and providing ways to support the work. We are a community that is really blossoming during a time that is negative for a allotment of other people in the world," she said.

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