Another Amazing Venue on the OSA,...and MARTINE!!!

Hello everyone,

                              My amazing partner in everything CostaRica is Ottawa native, Martine Racette. Martine went on vacation to Costa Rica 10 years ago and never came back!! She fell in love with the country, and is a veritable encyclopedia of information. From the animals and plants, to rainforest, politics and economy, Martine knows it all. She exudes so much love and enthusiasm for what she does, one cannot help but be affected.

The famous Duo, M&M, Martine and Margaret

Explosives in action

                               Martine is now managing Laguna Vista, an eight villa resort,  dotting the hillside leading down to the Ocean.  My group enjoyed getting to know our surroundings at the resort, by painting anywhere, having sunset drinks at each others decks looking over the Pacific, doing Yoga around an absolutely spectacular pool, or simply taking our stools to any location that provided a good composition for painting.
                               

Room with a view,...Lagoon, and ocean view from all our decks. 

Best pool ever. We enjoyed cooling down in here and looking up at the stars every night before bed. But the best part of this is the sharing and support of being around other artists. 

Each villa graced with plunge pools to keep you cool in the jungle rainforest. Used whenever you want. Cooling, and lovely.

One of my students using a view finder to create your picture plane

                               Our Casa Grande provided us with some artifacts to paint, flowers of course, but also great vistas of the rainforest, long views of beach meeting ocean, meeting sky and many combinations therein. I did our first demo there, using local fruit and colourful placemats. I find this a great place to start because what we drew was very easy to draw, allowing us to utilize our time with more focus on pastel application techniques, and colour. I found individuals personal statements through colour came out loud and clear. Whether you are an experienced pro or a beginner, we have all been discriminating, and developing our own personal taste in colour all our lives. It is no wonder that it comes out when we truly have enough time to relax and play.

                               The local fruits that we celebrated are so beautiful too- limes (green on the outside, and a beautiful orange on the inside), pineapples, watermelon, papaya and mangos. We ate them in the morning (SOOO fresh and delicious) then painted them in the afternoon. Our paintings were already saying "Costa Rica". We're having fun, and painting becomes a pleasure, because we paint with no fear, and no judgement. That's what I teach, and where we are headed for at least.