Sunshine Palette Mexico Part One: Puerto Vallarta and Nayarit

This March (2025) 12 brave Canadians left the winter behind to adventure ourselves into warm climates on our trip, Sunshine palette Mexico. Here we are outside of our home away from home, Casa Buena art retreat. We were located about 3 hours north of Puerto Vallarta (by bus), right on the Pacific Coast. It was a beautiful blend of established students from the Ottawa area, and a couple of Canadians from as far away as B.C. 

Our adventure began a few days before, when people arrived in Puerto Vallarta, and we all gathered together to enjoy the cultural activities around beach walks, sculptures, gorgeous mosaics, many art galleries, interesting historical architecture, and out hotel, which was a cornucopia stuff to paint! 

Gorgeous mosaics everywhere. 

Our first night out in Puerto Vallarta, eating at a seafood restaurant, PV's speciality.  

Artwork, including sculptures and murals abounded, as well as many galleries. 

Church of Our lady of Guadaloupe, Puerto Vallarta. 

Many streets adorned with flags, or umbrellas, to provide some shade for the many visitors. Pretty, and nice to paint. When you are on the move and can't, or don't have time to paint, a photo reference for after the trip also works. 

And now, on to Casa Buena Art Retreat, Nayarit, Mexico. 

After 3 hours of driving, and stopping to shop at the open air markets of Sayulita, we finally made it to the retreat. Since I've posted the picture of the main building with pool many times, I thought I'd show some other sides to the retreat.

Trees and bushes, flowers were everywhere, which means plenty of subjects to paint, and plenty of shade to create in comfort.  

The absolute abundance of Flowers

Bougainvailleas of every colour imaginable.

Halyconias, also many types.

Morning glories. 

The palm tree were beautiful, but as you can see, we had many multi-coloured floral choices

 as well. 

You didn't have to go far to get amazing views of cliffs, water and sky or mist. This was an early morning shot, which burnt off easily as the day warmed up. the weather could not have been more perfect. 

Potted plants, how much detail? How far away? Many ways to figure this into a painting. 

A few side trips to photo other subject matter. In these instances where there was nowhere in the shade to paint, we'd stop for a photo opp, and keep going. 

The sunsets did not disappoint, nor did the sunset challenges. A lot of learning was had by keen observation. 

Spending all day together, sharing meals, painting or swimming, you get to know the other artists on the trip very well, and in a comfortbale way that you don't get from a weekly class. This, is a shared experience, under very relaxing circumstances. 

Of course, this is just a sampling of what out trip was like. Stay tuned for part 2, where I go into much more details about what was painted. 

Til then, Adios.