The artist's studio at Javier Mina #35, a half block below the carretera in Ajijic, looks unassuming from the outside. The word Galería, written in script above the door of the ground floor converted garage, invited me into the three-story building where unfinished canvases stand on six easels and the walls are covered with paintings in a wide range of sizes, styles, and subjects. This working gallery, with its paint-splattered chairs and cabinets feels friendly, warm and bright. It is the world of noted Ajijic artist, Victor Romero, the Galería de Arte Los Amigos.

Neill James, the American writer and philanthropist who settled in Ajijic more than 60 years ago, planted artistic seeds in Ajijic children through her Children's Art Program, which she unveiled in the mid 1950's. Many of Ajijic's exceptional painters today got their start in that program and their names read like a "Who's Who of Noted Artists from Lake Chapala."