Ira Yeager: Living In The 18th Century In Napa

Ira Yeager is a world-famous painter, bohemian, raconteur and entertainer from Northern California. He behaves as though he is living in the 18th century. Ira is my mom's best friend and the wildest eccentric I know, with a mad mane of hair covered in flecks of paint and a permanently raised Dali-esque brow. He's always sharing exotic tales from every corner of the earth.

Truth be told, Ira is one of Napa Valley's great treasures and talents: His art is always found in the most eclectic and beautiful homes of Napa. Over the years he has painted everything from magnificent Wappo Indians, Victorian shoes, Marie Antoinette's peasants, teapots and farm animals. His work is often signed under the moniker "Von Yeager, 1786."

His decadent Peasant Series adorn the walls of both the Salon and Sip Shoppe as if they were the jewels of a queen. Between the two rooms, there hang 25 enormous paintings illuminating all the humor, mischief, ridiculousness of life of 18th century agrarian life, as Ira imagined it.