Susan L. Brown is a contemporary artist based in Santa Cruz, California. An artist since childhood, Susan won awards as a student in Ohio, including as Statewide Student Artist at age 12. Moving to California in 1978, she continued studying drawing and painting at College of San Mateo, San Jose State and UC Santa Cruz.

Susan has taught painting techniques privately and through various city parks and recreation departments throughout California and teaches painting workshops at Ghost Ranch, NM.

Toaa Dallo has offered classes and intensive workshops at his Santa Cruz Art Studios since 1994 and has also given numerous lectures and demonstrations for art clubs and organizations.

In 2012 he began teaching classes and all-day workshops at Palace Art in Capitola, where he has worked with thousands of students of all ages, interests, and needs.

Toaa’s work is included in many private and corporate collections and has been seen in art shows and galleries principally in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mary Dettle has been enjoying painting with the colorful medium of pastels for over 15 years. She loves them for their versatility and richness in application and rich pigments. 

Mary has shown her work in numerous shows including the Scotts Valley Art and Wine where she was the featured artist in 2009, and the California Landscape Shows.

She has a bachelor's degree in Interior Design and a Credential in Art Instruction. She enjoyed teaching elementary school for 22 years weaving fun, laughter and creativity into her lessons.

Robert Regis Dvorák has been making drawing and painting easy to learn and fun to practice for over 35 years.

A California award winning artist, he has authored: Travel Drawing and Painting, Drawing without Fear, The Magic of Drawing, Experiential Drawing, and The Practice of Drawing as Meditation, The Pocket Drawing Book, and articles on drawing and watercolor painting in American Artist Magazine and Watercolor Magazine.

He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois and a Master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Joan Hellenthal has a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Brown University and a master's degree in Fine Art from San Jose State University.  Her work is exhibited in galleries and corporate and private collections.  She teaches painting at the Santa Cruz Art League.

Hellenthal is best known for her "painterly" landscapes and still-lifes, which feature vivid color and reflections of light.  The serene landscapes and sensual fruits, lovingly captured, remind one of the beauty of nature and the elemental pleasures of life.

Paintings range from realism to abstract impressionism.  Oils and pastels. Occasional use of gold leaf and collage materials.

Heejin Lee is a South Korean–American multidisciplinary artist and teaching artist based in Santa Cruz, California. Rooted in abstract expressionism and conceptual practice, her work unfolds at the intersection of painting, presence, and shared experience. Shaped by life between cultures, Lee explores connection, belonging, and the quiet language of emotion through color, gesture, and form. As a teaching artist and curator, she creates welcoming spaces where art becomes a communal act.

Linda Lord is a self-trained artist and illustrator with over 16 years teaching experience in her studio and via the SC Watercolor Society; an Open Studio artist whose exhibitions include Cozumel, Mexico. Linda also publishes with a decorative art publisher.

Pictured: “Swinging” by Linda Lord

Lanny Markasky is a professional storyboard and concept artist, working in the advertising and entertainment industry for almost a decade.

He received his BFA in Illustration from CSULB, and then continued his education at the Art Students League of NYC, Chelsea Classical Studios, and CG Master Academy, focusing on figurative drawing and painting.

As an educator, Lanny is an instructor at CG Master Academy, and published a book on drawing realism.

Hajra is a Pakistani-American, Author-Illustrator, Fine Artist, Historian and Lecturer from the Bay Area. She has taught watercolor, gouache, and ink in-person and online for over a decade.

She has a BSc in Physics from the Univ. of San Francisco, an MSc in International History from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and a Picture Book Certificate from the MA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

She was a Lecturer in Art History, International History, and Calculus at UC Merced, and has taught at the Santa Cruz Art League and the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Her Youtube channel currently has 2+ million views, her art has been in exhibitions in Union City, Mariposa, Vermont, Santa Clara, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Merced (where it was viewed by First Lady Michelle Obama), and she had a successfully funded online Kickstarter campaign for an environmentalist picture book about the real wolf OR-7. She also collaborates on digital, interactive Data Visualization projects that combine art and information with Elijah Meeks.

Mark took over the role of Art League figure drawing facilitator in the summer of 2021, after Richard Bennett (a renowned landscape artist and sculptor) stepped down from running this session for almost 4 decades. 

“The Art League has had a long tradition of supporting the local artist community with these weekly sessions. They have provided an excellent opportunity for us all to improve the way we see and relate to the human form. Whether you’re a student, new to drawing, or a more experienced artist, our small group setting provides a casual and non-judgmental environment, where you can develop and explore techniques while striving to capture the model in a series of poses. In addition to the Monday night gestures and short pose session, we host two Thursday evening long pose sessions per month, where the model will hold one or two poses for the entire evening. One of these evenings, we work with a clothed model and focus on portraiture, or a study of the head.”

Mark uses figure drawing to enhance his illustration and satirical cartoon skills, and hopes that he — like Dick Bennett before him — is able to continue hosting these sessions into his 90s!

Originally from the UK, Susie spent the early years of her life traveling extensively in Europe, loving to experience other cultures and traditions. She eventually moved permanently to the US in 1991.

Straight from high school, Susie attended the Norfolk Institute of Art and Design in the UK, and initially studied for a degree in printmaking & typography which led to an early career as a commercial photographer. Several years later, after having her children, she returned to school obtaining credentials to teach while she studied Graphic Design Illustration. At this time she began working part time as a teacher of life drawing while she completed her studies.

When Susie arrived in the US, Illustration became the foundation for her business Pommegraphis which offered both fine art and commercial illustration services. She worked for several years with her son Daniel and many clients including United Airlines, Broderbund, Tsunami, Paramount Studios, Discovery Channel, Andersons, Cisco Systems, Seagate, and two major childrens' book projects. She also worked as an illustrator for Papyrus (the public outlet for Schurman Designs, the San Francisco based greeting card company), and published a range of popular greeting cards and a very successful journal and address book, all of which enjoyed international distribution.

Over the past five or six years, Susie has enjoyed building several successful figurative and still life drawing classes through the Santa Cruz Art League, and continues to teach many private classes at her studio in Santa Cruz.