About Sally
It's 3:30 a.m. on a dark Sunday morning in June. Sally Bookman jumps out of bed and hurriedly gets dressed, quickly downing a cup of tea and bite of toast. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she rushes out to her van, flicks on the headlights and backs out of the driveway. Where is she going at this early hour? Sally is dashing to Sunnyvale to set up her display booth at the Art and Wine Festival, just one of dozens of tasks she performs during a typical busy week. Sally's life is a palette of many colors. In addition to being a successful watercolor artist, she is also a book author, the mother of four, a gourmet cook, an avid traveler, a tennis player, and ...a professional realtor.
Sally was born in London, England, not far from Big Ben and the House of Parliament. As a teenager growing up in London, Sally studied art at St. Martin's School of Art and Design. In those days, she displayed her paintings on the iron railings along the River Thames, hoping to sell them to passing art lovers.
The Travel Bug
Sally was always impatient to experience new places, meet new people, and explore the world. At nineteen, she set sail for Sydney, Australia. Three years later, Sally followed the sun to California where she continued her formal education, earning a doctorate in social anthropology. It seemed perfect for her interests in travel, people, and art.
Sea and Sand
Wherever she found herself, Sally loved life by the sea. From her early summers as a teenager in England and the south of France, to her years of work in Australia, to finally settling in California, she has always needed to live by the coast. She loves to smell the salty air, to hear waves crashing at night, and to walk her dog on the beach in the early morning. It's no surprise that would ultimately settle in beautiful Santa Cruz.
Home at Last
When Sally first experienced Santa Cruz and all that it offers, she was determined to live in this exciting community by the sea. A career in local real estate seemed the perfect profession for someone who loved meeting interesting people, and Sally was a natural. In time, it became her passion to help people achieve their real estate dreams of living the coastal lifestyle. Since 1974, she has worked tirelessly at it, specializing in selling homes near the ocean. Although busy with a successful real estate career, Sally continued to have an interest in art. In 1986 she decided to take up painting again, as part-time recreation, exploring the medium of watercolor. As one might expect, most of her paintings depict her love of local scenes, harbors, old homes by the sea, and colorful gardens. Today, her images of coastal life hand in many homes throughout the area.
A Full Life
Over the years, Sally has been involved in this central coast community in a variety of ways, including volunteer work for Grey Bears, as well as Big Brothers/Big Sisters. She has served as a member of the Capitola Arts Commission, the Board of Directors for Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and as a member of the Dominican Hospital Foundation Guild. Her personal involvement in the community is amply evidenced in her watercolor sketchbook, "Sand Between Your Toes," which is an adoring memoir of the Santa Cruz lifestyle that we have all come to love.
It's All About the People
Sally strongly believes in personal relationships with people. Whether she is doing art or real estate, she feels it's more than just a business. She delights in interacting with the people she meets one-on-one, as a friend and advisor. In fact, many of her art and real estate clients have become personal friends over the years.