Mesa Artists Studio Tour Returns for Its 22nd Year in Santa Barbara

Twelve Santa Barbara artists will open their home studios to the public, free of charge, on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15. The Mesa Artists Studio Tour (MAST) marks its 22nd edition this year, running 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days across the Mesa neighborhood.

The event claims a lineage of nearly a century of fine artists living in the Mesa. MAST itself has existed for 21 years. What the claim rests on — beyond the tour's own account — the announcement does not say. What is verifiable is the roster: the 12 participants are selected by their peers, a detail that distinguishes MAST from open-studio events that admit anyone who pays a fee.

The tour is self-guided. Visitors download a studio-location map at sbmesaartists.com and set their own route. Organizers say all studios are reachable within a single day, with walks up forested hillsides and down ocean-view avenues.

Who is showing?

The 2025 participants are Karin Aggeler, Wendy Brewer, Helena Day Breese, Poppy Jewett, Myla Kato, Brian Kuhlmann, Jim Martin, Misa Art, Chris Owen, Meg Ricks, Wanda Venturelli, and Ellen Yeomans. Five of the twelve will exhibit together on the grounds of one of the Mesa's oldest homes, adding a shared outdoor stop to the itinerary.

The work spans media:

• Oil and watercolor painting
• Sculpture in stone and steel
• Photography
• Metal art, mosaics and collage
• Glass and textiles

The natural world recurs across all of it — the one theme the announcement ties together.

Ricks paints expressive landscapes in pastels, oils and acrylics. Yeomans also paints landscapes and builds her own frames as an experienced woodworker. Kato combines painting and figure drawing in an impressionist style. Jewett paints and lives in the former home of painter Carl Oscar Borg, a documented thread to the Mesa's artistic past that gives the tour its most concrete link to that century-long history.

What does the photography add?

Three photographers frame nature from different angles. Owen centers on desert landscapes and the ocean. Kuhlmann shoots ancient trees, skies and wild horses. Day Breese works on the theme of ephemerality, using unexpected angles to reframe familiar subjects — the closest thing to a stated critical position among the twelve.

Martin sculpts in stone and steel, taking a minimalist approach to the tension between ancient objects and industry. Venturelli works across glass, textiles and other mediums, addressing nature and community connection. Brewer and Aggeler appear in the roster without description in the announcement — a gap worth noting, though both are peer-selected participants.

Artists will be present at their studios to discuss their work, which is the tour's practical draw: conversation in an informal setting rather than a gallery transaction.

What does it cost and where do you go?

Nothing. Admission is free, and the brochure and map are downloadable at sbmesaartists.com. The two-day format has held steady for 22 years, every November weekend. Whether a peer-selected, neighborhood-scale event can keep drawing audiences as Santa Barbara's art economy consolidates around larger institutions is the question the 22nd edition will quietly test.