In June 2009, I showed my work at the La Jolla Festival of the Arts for the first time. The festival organizers (the Torrey Pines Kiwanis) seemed to like my work. A few months later, they invited me to submit a concept for the 2010 festival poster. I was thrilled!
To find inspiration, I flew down for the day and had lunch at the La Valencia Hotel with Ronn Rohe, the festival chairman, and Chris Palmquist, a lovely friend I’d met at Sausalito. It was the perfect setting—lobster salad on the balcony, ocean views, and the kindest staff accommodating my every photo shoot whim.
The theme needed to say “La Jolla” yet still feel like my work— intimate. After rounds of composition changes with the festival committee, including swapping in my brother Matt’s pinot noir label on the wine bottle, I got to painting.
That painting put me through it: three drawings, nearly two full paintings, countless Photoshop tweaks. The original was auctioned for charity, with no prints made—only posters. My hope is that it reminds people of vacation days, and the joy of slowing down to enjoy life’s richness.
February 2010 – 22″x30″ – Watercolor on paper
More from the Places Gallery
Bella Serata
Joe and I stayed in the room with this window on two trips to Pomino in Tuscany: 2017, my dad’s last trip to Italy, and in 2022. A few weeks after we came home in 2017, Pop and I were sitting at their kitchen table. “Let me ask you something, have you left Pomino?”...
Home
Several years before painting this, I was hiking when the memory surfaced: I needed to paint that photo of myself—nearly 35, lying on a wall at my mother’s cousin Jacinta’s house in Croatia. No one remembers who took it, and I don’t remember lying down like that....
Lunch on the Terrace
I had lunch with my parents on the back terrace in the place we stayed in Quarante, in Langedoc in France - the same village where Blue Door is. I love the colors in the salad and wine and was intrigued to paint the reflections and shadows in the glasses and plates....
Blue Door
I found this blue door while strolling through a tiny village called Quarante in Languedoc, in southwest France. I was on vacation with my parents. Those 12 days in France continue to be some of the best days I've ever spent on vacation, and I love being reminded of...