El Encanto, a Belmond Hotel, Santa Barbara, in partnership with Santa Barbara Museum of Art, is offering a limited-time “Visions of Vincent Van Gogh” guest package that offers VIP access to the traveling exhibit titled “Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources” from February 27 to May 22. The hotel is also offering monthly activities through “The Terrace Café at Night” series and a monthly workshop, “Painting in the Garden,” to hone a selection of Van Gogh’s signature techniques.
The “Visions of Vincent Van Gogh” package includes luxury accommodation in El Encanto’s California-Craftsman-style bungalows, two tickets for a private, docent-led tour to the exhibit, and a welcome bouquet inspired by Van Gogh’s work to complete the experience. The package includes transfer to and from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Once a month through the duration of “Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources” exhibit, El Encanto’s outdoor Fireside Terrace transforms into “The Terrace Café at Night” from 7-9 p.m. In the intimate setting under the stars, visitors will be inspired by themed speakers, poetry readings, live music, specialty bites such as steamed black mussels, sunchoke soup, aged gouda fondue and themed cocktails such as the Dutch Negroni and Genever Collins. Reservations are required and can be made via email. “The Terrace Café at Night” will feature local harpist Valerie Saint Martin on March 30, 2022. While future sessions in the series are scheduled to be held on April 20 and May 18, the performances are yet to be announced.
Guests and visitors alike can enjoy an alfresco art class, “Painting in the Garden,” from 2 to 4 p.m. under the guidance of well-known local artists. Following the class, guests can take their Van Gogh-inspired masterpieces home. Tickets must be purchased in advance and limited seating is available to honor social-distancing protocol. “Painting in the Garden” will feature Louise Levin Ulrich, locally based artist from Denmark, owner of Oat Bakery, and founder of pop-up gallery, MorMor on March 27, 2022. Jordan Pope, local artist, owner of Portico Fine Art Gallery Montecito will conduct a session on April 10. Loree Gold, teaching artist, gallery educator, and docent at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art will host the class scheduled for May 15.
Presenting 20 works of art by Van Gogh alongside 75 objects selected to reflect the varied art that he most admired, the exhibit “Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources” reconnects Van Gogh to his late 19th-century context. Over 60 artists are represented in the exhibition, including Jules Breton, Anton Mauve, Adolphe Monticelli, Léon-Augustin Lhermitte, Jean-François Raffaëlli besides several names less familiar to most American audiences. The exhibition will also highlight works by Romantic master Eugène Delacroix, the artists of the Barbizon school and the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin. By juxtaposing celebrated artworks by Van Gogh with works by the many artists he admired, the show seeks to foreground both Van Gogh’s indebtedness to and radical departure from the art world of his day. The exhibition also taps into his literary imagination by displaying first-editions of novels by Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Leo Tolstoy and Edgar Allan Poe to conjure up the fictional worlds that enflamed the artist’s inner eye.
For more information, email concierge.ele@belmond.com.
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