On a sunny weekend this past spring, four painters set up their easels inside the courtyards of Lilian Rice's Row Houses and painted the buildings while tour-goers walked past them. Young Jo, Katie Holcombe, Irina Koren and Andrea Bottancino were working live. Around them hung 38 paintings by members of the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild, and by the Guild's own account in its recap of the Historic Row House Tour and Art Exhibit, more than a handful of them went home with new owners.
That afternoon shows how the Guild works now. It has no storefront and no gallery wall of its own, so its art shows up in places the community already shares: a historic courtyard, the Library Art Room, the streets around the Village. The Guild's next public evening is Thursday, Nov. 12, at the Rancho Santa Fe Library.
The gallery that closed in 2013
The Guild was founded in 1998 to support local art and artists. According to a March profile in the San Diego Union-Tribune, it spent its first 15 years in a donated space inside the Union Bank in the Village, where it held gallery shows and receptions.
It lost that space in 2013. Since then, the same report says, the Guild has worked out of a private studio at a member's home in Rancho Santa Fe.
A home studio works for painting but not for receptions, so the shows moved to other places. The Guild's membership page describes virtual exhibitions on its website and physical shows around San Diego County. Its online shows page says it plans a series of exhibitions through the year. Closer to home, the Guild exhibits in the Library Art Room on Avenida de Acacias, which the Rancho Santa Fe Library Guild lists as the venue for its current show.
Thursdays around the Village
The plein air group changes the picture most. Plein air means painting outdoors, on site. With no fixed gallery, the Guild's work starts outdoors in the Village.
Early this year, the Union-Tribune reported, an active group of Guild plein air painters met weekly to paint Village buildings, including The Inn, the Row Houses, the Rancho Santa Fe Senior Center and La Flecha House, home of the Rancho Santa Fe Historical Society. Members have also painted at the San Diego Botanic Garden. The Guild's own paint-out posts add the Village Church to the list, along with a barn visit organized with the Rancho Santa Fe Historical Society.
Laura Wheeler, a La Jolla artist serving her first year as Guild president, told the Union-Tribune what those sessions were building toward:
"I love how our artists are out there painting every Thursday around town to put this show together."
"This show" was the Row House exhibit. The Historical Society had asked Guild artists to paint, draw or sketch Rice's historic buildings for its spring tour, and the paintings went on display during the event. The Thursday sessions became an exhibit, and the exhibit sold work.
The exhibiting artists at the Row House show were Ernest Alvarez, Joli Beal, Andrea Bottancino, Debbie Fitzpatrick, Lisa Haller, Adele Hendricks, Joan Hession, Katie Holcombe, Young Jo, Irina Koren, Galina Ovchinnikova, Grace Schlesier, Jill Treadwell Svendsen and Margot Wallace.
"Cityscapes" in the Library Art Room
The current show takes the Guild's painters a long way from the Row Houses in subject, but not in location. "Cityscapes" brings together original work by Guild members on urban places and architectural spaces. It is on view in the Library Art Room through Friday, Nov. 20.
The reception is the one evening when the show works more like a gallery opening:
- When: Thursday, Nov. 12, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
- Where: Rancho Santa Fe Library, 17040 Avenida de Acacias
- What: a chance to meet the participating artists, with light bites and refreshments
- Live painting: an oil painting demonstration by equine artist and Guild member Kimball Willson
- Music: San Diego flutist and saxophonist Adrienne Nims
- Cost: free and open to all ages, per the KPBS events listing
The Guild's event page invites Guild members, family, friends and the community, and adds, "All are welcome."
The live demonstration follows the Row House pattern. Willson usually paints horses, but at the reception he will paint in front of guests while the city-themed work hangs on the walls behind him. Visitors who saw the spring tour will find a familiar name. The Union-Tribune's preview of the reception features a piece by Andrea Bottancino, one of the four painters who worked live in the Row House courtyards in April.
If Nov. 12 doesn't work, the show stays up during library hours until Nov. 20. The reception adds the artists and the live painting, but the work itself is on view the whole time.
How the Guild teaches without a classroom
Exhibits are only part of the Guild's year. Its Artist Demonstration program, which has run for many years, invites a working Southern California artist to paint in Rancho Santa Fe in front of an audience of artists. Attendees watch the technique up close and ask questions while the work comes together.
The 2026 series had six sessions, according to the Guild's demo roster:
- John Cosby, a plein air painter based in San Clemente, on March 16
- Jill Maytorena on April 20
- Melinda Cootsona on May 18
- Rick Delanty on June 15
- Debra Huse on Sept. 21
- Michael Obermeyer on Oct. 19
The Obermeyer session in October ended the season, which the Union-Tribune also noted in its Nov. 1 preview. The program is open to Rancho Santa Fe residents as well as members. Space is limited, and a grant from the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation covers the cost for interested Rancho Santa Fe residents to attend.
So the Guild has no gallery, but it draws on borrowed rooms, an open invitation to the library and foundation funding that keeps the demonstrations free to residents.
Picking up a brush yourself
The reception is also an easy way to meet the people who run all this. The Guild's membership page says membership is open to artists of all experience levels and media who live in San Diego or neighboring counties, and lists annual dues of $75.
It offers two membership types. Artist members are practicing visual artists, sculptors, photographers or craftspeople and can exhibit with the Guild. Associate members can join without submitting images or an artist statement, but they don't exhibit. Associate membership suits someone who wants to attend the demonstrations and paint-outs before putting work on a wall.
Wheeler told the Union-Tribune that membership applications are reviewed by the board and a committee, and that the answer is "almost always a 'yes' because we're learning artists." The same profile says members also support art events beyond the Covenant, such as the La Jolla Art and Wine Festival.
The Library Art Room at 17040 Avenida de Acacias is where you'll find the Guild through Nov. 20, and the reception on Thursday, Nov. 12, starts at 5:30 p.m.
At The Wright Group, we pay close attention to how Rancho Santa Fe's architecture and Village spaces shape daily life here, and a show of member paintings in the library is a good example. If you'd like to talk about the places in the Village you love, or about a home that fits the way you live here, we'd be glad to hear from you. Schedule a Call.