This was an amazing day. We toured 4 artists and met them in person. Johnnie, our guide was attentive and answered many questions about the cultures of both... read more sides of the island. He is also involved in the art scene as a professional dancer and dance instructor. We met artist, Christiane Ladeon with her beautiful nature works. Also the daughter of Alexandre Minguet, who keeps her father’s art work alive. We were fortunate to be able to spend time with Ruby Bute, artist, writer, poet and storyteller, who had just been honored by the entire island for her contribution to the arts. She read some of her latest poetry and told us more of her background. It was such a wonderful day and yes, we did make some purchases but there was no pressure. We would recommend this tour to anyone interested in the arts and culture. Johnnie was on time and excellent company.

  Our tourguide Nascha took me, my sister and 10 year old daughter on a great trip to visit different gallery's and local artists on the island. She took all the... read more time to let us ask questions and listen to the stories of the artists and let us experience a great variety of work. We went to the Minguet Art Gallery, Ruby Bute's gallery and saw the great aquarelles from Christiane Ladéon. All artists have their own style and quality and each of them were very friendly. Nascha is a very enthousiastic guide and at Ruby Bute's place we sat down for a while to enjoy tea and bananacake and listen to Ruby Bute's great stories. At the Minguet Art gallery the daughter of Alexandre Minguet (passed away in 1996) Catherine showed us his impressionistic work of beautiful islandviews and flowers but also a great variety of other artists which made it very inspiring to look around in the gallery. The final artist Christiane showed us how she works with aquarel in quite a different way than most people work with aquarel. Very bright colours and beautiful blendings. So thank you Nascha for this great tour...we could not leave without purchasing some art to keep the memory of this day even more alive.

  We had a wonderful time with our guide David visiting 4 local artists. We had an opportunity to talk with the artists and enjoyed banana bread and lemon grass... read more tea with Dame Ruby Bute. As we traveled around the island, David shared with us the history of the island and pointed out many points of interest. I would love to return and do his history tour. This tour was the highlight of our vacation.

  If you haven’t had the pleasure of walking through Max’s gallery garden, perusing Zdenka’s pearl creations at the Art Box or having Dame Ruby Bute read you her poetry while... read more you savour David’s own banana bread and lemongrass tea...you haven’t truly experienced this island’s gifts.
David is not only your guide to these amazing artists and others but an awesome historian who will tour you around the entire island in 3 hours and provide access to places you would never find on your own.

  We booked tour for our October cruise as we had been to St. Maarten/Martin on several occasions, and had seen much of both sides of island. We were... read more looking for something a bit different an this was. We could not have visited the 4 widely spread out artists studios on our own. We particularly enjoyed Ruby Bute's gallery and bought several prints which now are on our wall. Also gallery and classroom of Tess Verheij. What was different in her studio was the adjacent "Waste Factory" where numerous items are crafted from waste materials. I bought several coin purses made of milk and juice cartons, very inventive. I was particularly interested as I have worked with some of the materials myself and learned some new uses for recyclable items like plastic bags, can rings, newspaper and the already mentioned containers.
We saw 2 other galleries as well. A very enjoyable day and saw much of the countryside as we went from to St Maarten to St Martin.

Right length of tour for us too, with a very friendly guide.

  We had a wonderful tour of four artists studios with David. He drove us over both the Dutch and French side of the island to make our visits, and gave... read more us great history along the way. The artists were great, and we did end up...More