Jennifer Stobo-Keats dreamed of going to the world-renowned Mexican artist?s colony at San Miguel de Allende from the time she saw a slide show by a fellow artist.

In fact, she talked about it so much that friends assumed she had already been ? but she didn?t go until earlier this year.

It turned out to be all that she had dreamed of, and then some.

Much of the work she did there is now at the Interim Gallery after her show, ?New Works?, opened last Friday.

?A couple of years ago Bruce Stuart (artist) had a slide show of San Miguel at the Bermuda National Gallery and I remember seeing it and thinking it was really beautiful,? she said.

?I had been talking about it for years, so much so that people would ask me how was San Miguel, and I was like, ?I haven?t gone yet?. Then I thought now is a good time, so I got married and I went down there with my husband Michael.?

The newlyweds put all their belongings into storage and moved to San Miguel de Allende for several months.

While there he learned Spanish, and they also took jewellery making classes, silversmithing, he also took painting lessons while she painted landscapes, flowers and other scenes from the beautiful old artists? town.

While there, she drew inspiration from author and artist Julia Cameron?s ?The Artist?s Way?, which helped her develop a new approach to her work.

?You basically wake up and journal for three pages, but you don?t read it because it is not going to make any sense,? said Mrs. Stobo-Keats.

?I think she (the author) equates it with psychoanalysis ? you are not saying anything that will make any sense, you are just emptying your brain. Then after you have done that you can sit down and get into whatever you want to get into. It is a great discipline.

?It is so true that when you have a lot of time on your hands ? you have a big day to fill and it is a long day if you don?t have a schedule and I suppose it?s the same for retired people, who then say that they are busier now then when they worked.

After writing her journal, she would start her day with a coffee and then do an hour of painting.

?I was working on my commitment and then, as time went on, I was doing little landscapes,? said the artist.

?Sometimes a leaf would just blow across and I?d go chasing after it and that was the leaf for the day and because we were in the desert, there were flowers, bougainvillaea and jacaranda trees and they were really pretty purples and pinks.

?I was sort of communing with nature a bit and it was meditative.

?They reckon that we have about 30,000 thoughts a day and our mind goes to the most dominant thoughts, so you are not controlling your thoughts, but you are not allowing them to control you and I guess that is what meditation is all about.

?I heard someone say that painting is very meditative, and I thought, ?great?, because I have been trying the other type, just sitting there trying to empty my mind with a mantra. But this is really nice that you are doing an activity, whilst meditating.?

Although mostly peaceful and undisturbed, sometimes her morning painting moments were interrupted by the younger locals.

?If the kids saw me painting they would come up beside me,? she said.

?And it wouldn?t just be one, it would be one, then three, then five, then ten.

?They would want to talk to you and I gave one of them a little paintbrush and some paper, then they all wanted it.

?I would see the kids in the distance and it forced me to paint a lot faster.

?It is such a family-oriented place and the children are just so lovely and are such an integral part of the community.?

Mrs. Stobo Keats tried out a new medium while in Mexico ? watercolours.

?I?d never really worked with watercolours before, but I just liked the idea that they were so portable.

?They were great, and I could correct as I went along ? wash it away. I worked in acrylics too, but it was more for the convenience of it.

?I think in just getting the colours a lot of it unfolded, and it was great not knowing what to expect, and also not having any pressure. At the end this will be what it will be. It is like a clearing process.?

Mrs. Stobo Keats also picked up an appreciation for a country where the living is harder than it is in Bermuda or the US.

?San Miguel is set back in time and having a telephone is a luxury, but it slowed the pace down a little and when you have a whole lot of time, you think of spiritual things,? she said.

?We lived really cheaply, but you know when life is cheap, life is cheap. You know, like, there is no security, the value of your life is tenuous, but if we were living in Mexico City it would have been a lot worse.

?Over here we have advertising that tells us that you have to plan for your retirement and get your money tied up.

?But realistically we don?t know if we will be around tomorrow, but they are living it. I think it is the fear factor that makes us live it.?

From Mexico the couple went to Los Angeles, of which she said: ?That was the complete opposite and it was then that I saw where my priorities lay ? it was wrong, but the running water ? you just had to turn the tap on.

?It was great and you didn?t have to get the bottle of water to brush your teeth and to be sure you didn?t open your mouth when you were showering.?

But in spite of some of the hardships, she said: ?I will go back. There is something about it that calls people back.?

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