ARTnudes Network - Figure Models

October 23 – 31, 2011 marked the 10th annual ZoeFest artist retreat held in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Back in January I went over to A&I Photo Lab in Hollywood to talk to the owner about printing my iPhone photographs and Rex, who works with A&I Books, sat down to tell me all about this amazing little city in Baja California Sur called Todos Santos. He even owned property there named after a vampire… Casa Dracula. So, intrigued, I searched online for every tidbit of information I could find about this little Pueblo Magico. Within 2 weeks I decided this would be the spot. Now off to organize it all!

I decided upon three different hotels that would hold us all but would still be close enough to each other so we could walk to see each other. The first one was The Hotelito a grand place of modern architecture, the second was The Todos Santos Inn which lent itself to more traditional Mexican themed surroundings, and the third was completely built and designed by the owner and lent itself to a mass of whimsy and eclecticism The Casa Bently. We managed to book all the rooms and the house at Hotelito so we all had the run of all the hotels for making art. Perfect!

32 photographers and models with their friends, babies and significant others met up in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico for a week of fun filled evenings, art making and friendship. Our sponsors went above and beyond and lavished us with product to give away for the slide show prizes and all the random drawings we do throughout the week. Thank you to Lensbaby, onOne software, ExpoImaging and Peak Design for all the goodies! And special thanks to Malcolm Smith who donated prizes too. Michael Marlborough was priceless to secure sponsorship for us all this year and he deserves a very warm thank you also.

Our first dinner out on October 24 was at the legendary Hotel California. They say the Eagles wrote the song about this hotel. Myth, legend, truth? I didn’t really care as long as they served Pink Champagne on Ice. The dinner was fabulous, the surroundings and atmosphere superb, the owners festive and accommodating, wait staff Muy Bueno! Todos Bien! A great time had by all. And yes, we heard the Mission Bells.

The next three nights were filled with slide show presentations at Casa Dracula. The first night, October 25th was models slide shows. Tara Liggett won first prize and Brooke Lynne second for their truly artful presentations. They both won Apple Store gift cards. All shows were fabulous and all the  models have amazing portfolios! October 26 – 27 were photographers. Mark Haskins won first prize (a Capture Unit from Peak Design) and Joel Belmont second (an Apple store gift card). Special thanks to Stephanie Anne for being the nightly commentator and for being the VOICE, you are adored.

On the 28th we had an amazingly festive party at The Hotelito. The owner suggested a chef named, Iker who seriously should consider his own television show or at least his own restaurant. The food was delish! He prepared about 15 different dishes for us and just kept bringing them out one after the other. I can’t remember Mexican food EVER tasting this fabulous. After dinner we all did a bit of Salsa dancing and had a few drinks by the pool. It was excellent!

We also drew prizes and names out of our hats to disperse all of the gear lavished upon us by our amazing sponsors.

FestX dinner at Hotelito with Iker (what is Ron doing?)

Sponsor Drawing

The rest of the days were filled with more shooting, a Halloween party at the Hotel California, and a last Hoorah BBQ at the Hotelito House. Seems impossible it was a month ago we were all getting ourselves to Los Cabos Aeropuerto for our final adios. Luckily we have a dedicated blog to keep up with everyone’s images here: figuremodels.org/festx Please subscribe to the RSS feed there to be automatically updated on new postings. The photographers and models outdid themselves this year and produced some really beautiful images.

Till next year Amigos y Amigas!

Thanks to Michael Marlborough for taking all these photographs!

4 people like this post.

Unlike