Another teaching session completed — this time in the beautiful city of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. A new destination and new adventures for me. It was an absolute treat, and I am returning home with many wonderful memories.
This workshop and tour was organised by the School of Botanical Art and Illustration at Denver Botanic Gardens. Mervi Hjelmroos-Koski, who heads the school and organises all their botanical art programmes, invited me to teach at this year's Mexico event. I said yes immediately — not only because I know how excellent the school's workshops are, but because we were talking about Mexico. A country I had never visited before (shameful!) and had always heard wonderful things about: the landscapes, the people, the culture. An extraordinarily alive country. And from my very first moment to my last, I felt exactly that. There is an energy everywhere; everyone is smiling, everyone seems happy — and it is very hard not to be swept along with it.
I travelled to Mexico earlier than the workshop start date, wanting to see a little more of the country first. Whenever I go somewhere new for work, I try to arrive a few days early, or stay a few days after, to absorb the place more fully. I had the chance to visit Mexico City and the Yucatán Peninsula — and while I won't go into all those memories here, it was simply wonderful. My greatest curiosity, though, lies in the Oaxaca region, and I didn't have quite enough time or energy to get there. That is firmly on the list for next time. After these extraordinary destinations and the warm people I met along the way, it was time to work — and I headed to San Miguel de Allende.
San Miguel de Allende is a designated UNESCO World Heritage city. With its extraordinary murals, festivals, music, history and endlessly smiling people — and yes, an astonishing number of churches and chapels — the city is even more alive than anywhere else I visited. There are constant celebrations throughout the streets, with fireworks beginning at sunrise and barely pausing.
I headed straight to Posada Corazón, where we would be staying, eating, working and enjoying the extraordinary atmosphere created over many years by its owners, Rocío and César. Most houses in San Miguel appear from the outside as simply a plain wall — but step through the door in that wall and you enter a courtyard that can only be described as paradise.
Once settled into paradise, everyone was ready for what lay ahead: many days of painting Mexican plants, and many other days exploring the city and surroundings with our wonderful guide Alberto.
My first morning began with a little excitement. I woke very early, stepped out of bed — and was immediately stung by a scorpion. It was extraordinarily painful. It caught my foot, which swelled almost at once. The lady preparing our breakfast came to my room with a clove of garlic and applied it to the sting. I have always loved garlic — a remedy for everything, even vampires cannot deal with it. As it turned out, the scorpion was not poisonous, though its venom was clearly potent; my foot swelled and stayed swollen for some time. But here I am: alive, no allergies, and perhaps a little tougher for it. As the Mexicans say, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
After the scorpion episode, the day got properly underway — and the tour was wonderful from that point on. We visited El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden and studied a wonderful range of wildflowers with our guide Michael, who has Australian roots, and we were even permitted to collect some specimens for our classes. I taught every day, demonstrating techniques using selected plants while participants worked on their own chosen species. This is how my classes generally work: plenty of demonstration, but essentially a one-to-one education, tailored to each person's level and needs. I think it went very well and that everyone enjoyed it — I certainly did. I hope they did too!
On one of these days, we had the great privilege of being joined by Maestro Antonio Domingues from La Esmeralda Institute in Mexico City, who taught us the fundamentals of siligraphy — waterless lithography. Images are drawn directly onto smooth aluminium plates (originally used in newspaper printing) using a pencil containing gum arabic, then printed onto lithography paper. The results are stunning.
The tour included much more besides: a cooking class, visits to historical sites, time among extraordinary cacti and agaves — and of course we could hardly leave without tasting mezcal, distilled from the very agave we had been admiring. There was even a private bar tour, though that is strictly between us.
To enrol for future tours, visit the Denver Botanic Gardens website. I may or may not be there again, but each time is another beautiful story.
They are also very active on Facebook — well worth a follow.
