Past Workshops

Sunday Workshop: How to Paint Clouds (Sept 10)

Levels: All Levels Welcome!

Instructor: Toaa Dallo

Offered: One Sunday Workshop: September 10th 2:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Fee: $80

This fun one-day painting session is for everyone. Beginners are welcome, and more advanced painters will increase their skills. You can use acrylics, oils, watercolors, pastels — whatever you like. Toaa will provide several great Cloudcapes for you to choose from, or you can bring your own.

Cloud scenes are a great lesson in color theory, composition, and brushwork. We will explore key issues of painting and art-making, including value and contrast, volume and light source, style and storytelling — with an emphasis on fun.

Toaa will be painting along with the group, demonstrating and explaining methods and techniques. And everyone will receive individual attention and guidance also. Students will focus on one or two paintings, and everyone will be invited to share their work with the group, for friendly feedback.


Meet the Instructor:

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.


 

How to Paint a Seascape: Sunday Workshop (Aug 27)

Levels: All Levels Welcome!

Instructor: Toaa Dallo

Offered: One Sunday Workshop: August 27th 2:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Fee: $80

This fun one-day painting session is for everyone! Beginners are welcome, and more advanced painters will increase their skills. You can use acrylics, oils, watercolors, pastels — whatever you like. Toaa will provide several great Seascapes for you to choose from, or you can bring your own.

Seascapes are a great lesson in color theory, temperature, value, and contrast. We will explore key issues of painting and art-making, including composition, brushwork, style, and storytelling — with an emphasis on fun.

Toaa will be painting along with the group, demonstrating and explaining methods and techniques. And everyone will receive individual attention and guidance also. Students will focus on one or two paintings, and everyone will be invited to share their work with the group, for friendly feedback.


Meet the Instructor:

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.

 

Plein Air Painting at Lighthouse Fields (August 19th)

Levels: Some Experience Preferred

Instructor: Christine Crozier

Offered: One Saturday Morning Workshop August 19th 9:00am to 1:00pm

Location: Lighthouse Fields, Santa Cruz

Fee: $80

Painting en plein-air has about it a freshness, an opportunity for spontaneity that is like nothing else. The essence of plein-air painting is to find what captivates you, edit out the superfluous, and capture your vision quickly and with confidence.

The workshop will focus on simplification of shapes, discovering and maintaining focal points, and coordination of values, temperatures, textures, and color. You will learn how to identify what is important in the scene, lay out the image on the canvas, undercoat the canvas for clarity and interest, and paint a fresh, loose painting. We will strive to understand and practice these concepts on canvas rather than create “perfect” paintings.

 

12×16 oil on canvas

 

12×12 oil on linen

 


Meet the Instructor:

Christine Crozier’s oil paintings are noted for their confident, expressionist brushwork, and rich color. Collectors in the US, Canada, Europe, and South Pacific have sought her award-winning landscapes, figurative works, and portraits.

“I look for the extraordinary in a seemingly, ordinary moment. I invite my viewers to share in the magic and majesty of small, quiet moments.”

Crozier has taught art workshops in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas, at Monterey Peninsula College, and in the Fiji Islands. Her current work can be seen at the Carmel Art Association where she has served on the board and as board president. She is a founding member and past-president of the Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters Association.

 

 

 

Sunday Workshop: How to Paint Mountains and Rocks

Levels: All Levels Welcome!

Instructor: Toaa Dallo

Offered: One Sunday Workshop: August 13th 2:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Fee: $80

This fun one-day painting session is for everyone. Beginners are welcome, and more advanced painters will increase their skills. You can use acrylics, oils, watercolors, pastels — whatever you like. Toaa will provide lots of great mountain landscapes and scenes with rock formations for you to choose from, or you can bring your own.

Mountains and rocks are a great lesson in brushwork and technique, perspective, light source, value and contrast. We will explore key issues of painting and art-making, including composition, color theory, style, and storytelling — with an emphasis on fun.

Toaa will be painting along with the group, demonstrating and explaining methods and techniques. And everyone will receive individual attention and guidance also. Students will focus on one or two paintings, and everyone will be invited to share their work with the group, for friendly feedback.

 


Meet the Instructor:

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.

 


 

 

 

Hike and Sketch at the Pogonip (July 2023)

Levels: All Levels Welcome! (Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult)

Instructor: Sami Chang

Offered: Saturday Workshop on July 22 9:00am to 12:30pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League, and Pogonip Trail Santa Cruz

Fee: $85

In celebration of our 92nd Statewide California Landscape Exhibition, join us on a creative expedition through the Pogonip Trail in Santa Cruz!

Through this workshop, we will be exploring one of the many beautiful trails that Santa Cruz offers and learn how to translate our observations into sketches and notes. Join Science illustrator, Samantha “Sami” Chang, in bringing nature to life in your own work!

You will learn:

  • How to draw with better accuracy and precision
  • How to use quick field sketching techniques
  • How to incorporate various layouts to fit your field sketchbooks

Itinerary:

We will first meet at Art League for some treats and a look at the Landscape show. Then, we’ll head over to the entrance of the Pogonip Trail (Precise location TBA). Our group will follow the trail, stopping along the way to see and sketch our surroundings. You will receive some field guides to help you practice observational sketching. You will end the day with a page(s) in your sketchbook full of drawings and notes commemorating your journey: You will have gained a skill that will follow you wherever you go!

 


Meet the Instructor:

Samantha (Sami) Chang is a proud East Bay Area Native. Growing up, she explored her jungle of a backyard, sketchbook and pens always in hand, and drew everything she saw. Though art was one of her first loves, she became passionate about marine sciences when she was 12 years old. This passion drove her to pursuing a Marine Science degree from California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) and allowed her to focus her studies on a large range of marine organisms, from the Humpback whales that visit the bay during the summer months to feed on schools of sardines to the black abalone that hide deep within the rocky crevices of the intertidal to avoid being eaten by sea otters. Combining her love of art and science, she went on to gain her graduate certification in Science Illustration at CSUMB in hopes of educating large audiences on various marine organisms and ecological processes as well as how they are impacted by human interactions.

If you would like to see more of her work, please visit https://www.schangstudios.com/.

Sunday Workshop: How to Paint Water (July 9)

Levels: All Levels Welcome!

Instructor: Toaa Dallo

Offered: One Sunday Workshop: July 9 2:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Fee: $80

This fun one-day painting session is for everyone. Beginners are welcome, and more advanced painters will increase their skills. You can use acrylics, oils, watercolors, pastels — whatever you like. Toaa will provide several great Waterscapes for you to choose from, or you can bring your own.

Water scenes are a great lesson in perspective, light source, color theory, value, and contrast. We will explore key issues of painting and art-making, including composition, brushwork, style, and storytelling — with an emphasis on fun.

Toaa will be painting along with the group, demonstrating and explaining methods and techniques. And everyone will receive individual attention and guidance also. Students will focus on one or two paintings, and everyone will be invited to share their work with the group, for friendly feedback.

 


Meet the Instructor:

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.

 


 

 

Sunday Workshop: How to Paint Clouds

Levels: All Levels

Instructor: Toaa Dallo

Offered: One Sunday Workshop, June 4th 2:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Fee: $80

This fun one-day painting session is for everyone. Beginners are welcome, and more advanced painters will increase their skills. You can use acrylics, oils, watercolors, pastels — whatever you like. Toaa will provide several great Cloudscapes for you to choose from, or you can bring your own.

Cloud scenes are a great lesson in color theory, temperature, value, and contrast. We will explore key issues of painting and art-making, including composition, brushwork, style, and storytelling — with an emphasis on fun.

Toaa will be painting along with the group, demonstrating and explaining methods and techniques. And everyone will receive individual attention and guidance. Students will focus on one or two paintings, and everyone will be invited to share their work with the group for friendly feedback.

 

 

 


Meet the Instructor:

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.

 


 

Plein Air on the Santa Cruz Wharf

Levels: Intermediate and Experienced Painters

Instructor: Barbara Bailey Porter

Offered: Friday October 14 9:30am to 12:30pm

Location: Santa Cruz Warf

Fee: $65

This class meets towards the end of the wharf across from Stagnaro’s deli window. Barbara will paint along with students as demonstrations are needed. There is a variety of subject matter to choose from. Color mixing, paint application, composition, brush control, value choices, and much more will be discussed. This class is for those that have some painting experience.


 

Meet the Instructor:

Barbara Bailey-Porter holds a Masters of Fine Art, has been an Open Studio artist and has maintained a professional painting studio for well over 20 years. She has taught at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, through Cabrillo and DeAnza Colleges, and in the elementary schools in the past. She works in her studio as well as en plein air. Barbara’s work is in various private and corporate collections in the US and abroad.

ON SITE Art of Pillow-Making, African style

Levels: All levels

Instructor: Donna Thompson

Offered: 2 Saturdays, March 12 & 19 12-4pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Fee: $125

In this workshop you will create  a unique patterned cloth  inspired by the Yoruba people, Nigeria, West Aftrica.  The process uses a starch resist technique and tie dying.

The class will  introduce the dyeing technique of Adire Elecko  ( hand painted with indigo dye) In the class we will use a contemporary dyeing agent instead of the traditional indigo. To complete the fabric for the pillow, Adire Oniko cloth (term for tie dyed fabric) will be used for the back.

The Adire Eleko cloth is a personal piece of art.  It represents the artist and their family through the creation of patterns using symbolic and geometric designs.

Step by step instructions on the design aspect will start the class followed by the resist process, think batik with no heat.  First session will make the design and paint the resist. Second session will be dye painting on the resist fabric and  tie dye for the pillow back.  We will also be able to sew the pillow and stuff it.  When you finish the workshop you will take a special, meaningful piece of art that your created home!

Workshop is designed for all, no prior experience necessary.

Donna Thompson is a professional art educator and practicing artist, with twenty five years teaching art with an emphasis on world culture.

(ON SITE) Creative Concertina Sketchbook

Levels: All levels

Instructor: Seana Mallen

Offered: Saturday February 19th & Sunday February 20th From 1-5pm

Location: Seana Mallen

Fee: $150 non-members

A joyful 2- day workshop creating a vibrant mixed-media concertina sketchbook. Learn to face the blank page with enthusiasm and gusto, working quickly and freely.
Inspired by the Landscape and the garden, we’ll  use  all sorts of mixed media techniques, ink, paint,  pencil, pen, acrylic,watercolour,  rubbings,  gelli-printing and collage to freely fill page after page to create a  concertina sketchbook.
Class will be limited to 8 people – small class size with lots of one on one tutoring!
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At full stretch, the concertina is 8 inches high and over 15 feet long! 
This exciting format invites experimentation and letting your imagination run free. 
Starting with a loose and abstract background, you’ll  learn:
  • Loads of exciting ways to make marks and mix colour.
  • That you don’t have to be a great draughtsman, or even draw at all!
  • How to make botanical gelli prints and incorporate them into your design
  • How to transform 15 feet of blank paper into your own garden song!
$150 includes:
 an A5 concertina sketchbook  & a set of anilinky brilliant watercolors for you to keep and all the materials for gelli-printing, and loads of other fun stuff to use and share.
Materials List:
pencil, pens, white acrylic,  a couple of favourite colours of acrylic, watercolours and brush, india ink, masking tape,
Optional:
anything you love to use!
-Posca pens, graphite, other acrylics, oil pastels,watercolour pencils or blocks,
-Collage materials  in an A4 envelope, maybe sheet music, maps, stamps, book pages, menus, newspapers, wrapping paper… (Just don’t go too crazy, space is generous but still limited!)
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To see more of my work, please visit @seanamallen on Instagram, or my website, www.seanamallen.com

(ON SITE) Gelli-Printing and mixed-media Collage on Canvas

Levels: All Levels

Instructor: Seana Mallen

Offered: Saturday January 29 & Sunday January 30th 1-5pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Fee: $150 non-members

Indulge yourself with a fun, beautiful & creative weekend! 
Day one: Gelli-printing and Watercolor: creating our materials
Inspired by the garden, we gather and create our materials from scratch ,  first working collaboratively to watercolour the tissue paper that will become layers of colour and light   and then individually gelli-printing directly from grasses and foliage to make evocative impressions for collage. NO drawing necessary! (Unless you want to, of course!)
Day two: Collage and acrylic on canvas
With all the beautiful sheets of colored tissue and array of botanical prints  ready, today we will play and experiment with compositions and combinations, layering the tissues and prints into your personal interpretations, your visual poems and songs that capture your response to the gardens.
Class limited to 8 students due to classroom space.
Materials:
Materials fee: $20 includes
All the materials for the gelli printing. 
All tissues, glues and mediums
1  20cm x 50 box canvas.
When you enroll, I’ll send you a short materials list, and optional list of things that could personalise and enhance your artwork, but all you really need to bring  are watercolours, a few acrylics, an open mind and an enthusiasm to play!
Seana Mallen is an internationally acclaimed artist who loves to share her passion for  print-making, watercolour and generally playing with paint.
She has exhibited her work in galleries from California to the Middle East, including the Royal Academy. She has over 30 years teaching experience at university and adult education level. Her favourite thing in life, along with painting, is watching her students blossom and thrive.
To see more of her work and read students’ testimonials, please visit her website, www.seanamallen.com,
 or find her on instagram @seanamallen
 and feel free to get in touch with  her there  or by email at seanamercedes@gmail.com if you have any questions.

(ON SITE) Creative Acrylic Painting

Levels: Beginners and Intermediate

Instructor: Heejin Lee

Offered: One Saturday session, August 28, 2021 1:30-4pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Participants will enjoy a class where they will be introduced to basic techniques, experiment with the acrylic medium, and create an art piece in their own unique style!

In this class you will learn:
1. How to use acrylic paint and how to use water to make it as thick as oil painting or as thin as watercolor.
2. The advantages of working with acrylic paint
3.To play with Acrylic paints

Materials list:

  1. 2 canvases 16×20 (additional bigger and smaller size canvases are optional )
  2. Optional: 3 pieces of Acrylic or mixed media paper 11×14
  3.  Palette knives, brushes, palette or palette paper
  4. Acrylic paint – unlimited palette (the more colors the better! Bring what you have, or colors you like)
  5. Permanent and/or water-soluble markers, pens

Heejin Lee is based at the Tannery Arts Center and has an undergrad in Fine Arts, graduate work in Art History, and an Art Education certificate. Originally from Korea, Heejin fell in love with art as a kid and has since cultivated a lifelong life passion for creating deeply expressive paintings and teaching others how to do the same. Heejin enjoys to share art experiences with others: it’s satisfying to her to encourage and inspire people in their creative experiences.

(ONSITE) Painting Abstract Watercolors

Levels: All levels

Instructor: Robert Regis Dvorák

Offered: One day workshop, Sunday, 8/15/21 10am-4:30pm

Location: Santa Cruz Art League

Fee: $150.00

Have fun creating rich, colorful, abstract paintings. In this creative workshop you will learn the most important criteria for any successful painting. This could be the most valuable watercolor workshop you will ever take. It will make you see all your painting endeavors as abstract compositions, full of energy, drama, light, and color. Using a variety of creative watercolor techniques you will paint beautiful abstract paintings. You will learn:
  • how to create new ideas for paintings
  • exciting ways to experiment with watercolor
  • a variety of composition secrets
  • how to exaggerate your colors
  • how to create drama
  • masking, brush techniques, and alternatives to the brush
  • the correct use of sprays and spatters to create colorful textures.
You will watch step-by-step painting demonstrations, try them, and come away from the class with many new ways to create your own abstract watercolor paintings. Beginning students as well as those with previous watercolor instruction will find this class new, valuable and exciting with more content in one day than you have experienced before.
With a series of easy exercises you will paint beautiful abstract paintings. Painting in watercolor is easy when you trust your ability to create and find opportunities for personal discovery, expression, and invention. In a relaxed safe painting environment you will learn to use your imagination to deliberately paint abstract watercolors.
Bring your watercolor painting materials.  A materials fee of $15 will be collected when you register for the workshop for your watercolor paper, a mouth atomizer, a color handout, and other materials to be supplied.  Bring a cotton rag and a water-container to class.
MATERIALS
Required:
Binder clips—at least two medium size to hold watercolor paper steady.
A 9” x 12” backing board. I will have some for those who don’t have them.
Brushes–Watercolor brushes–recommend a small round and a large round and a large flat (A number 10 or 12 or a Chinese calligraphy brush. I will have some of these for $6)
Hake brush or a flat watercolor brush, 1” or larger. I will have these also for $4.
Two HB No. 2 yellow pencils that are sharp.
All your watercolor supplies
Watercolor palette filled with watercolor paint.  Ready to paint. Bring the colors you like to use.
Rag–absorbent cotton to control the amount of water on your brush. Don’t use a tissue for this.
Spray bottle for misting water onto a painting
Tissues for lightening colors or removing paint from the paper. Don’t use your rag for this.
Tooth brush for spattering paint
Water bottle for drinking.
Water container for painting—wide top with a water tight cover full to the top with water.
Watercolors—Robert will use: Permanent Rose or Quinacridone Rose, Vermilion, Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna, Aureolin or Azo Yellow, Viridian Green or Hookers Green, Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue or Phthalo Blue, Burnt Sienna. You do not have to use the same colors unless you want to. Have your palette ready. Bring colors you like to use.
Watercolor paper not be furnished—have one sheet 22” x 30” 140 lb cold press paper. You will tear the full sheet down to 7.5 x 11 inch sheet sizes.
Working clothes–please don’t wear white unless they are your painting clothes. Watercolor stains clothes.
Suggestions—not required:
Hair Drier–Only if you have one and would be willing to share it with the class.
Brushes–other brushes you might have such as different sizes of Hake brushes or Chinese brushes.
Support local business: purchase class supplies at Lenz Arts.

(LIVE ONLINE) Cityscape Painting With A Palette Knife

Levels: All levels

Instructor: Barbara Bailey-Porter

Offered: Saturday, May 15th 9:30am-12pm

Location: LIVE ONLINE

Fee: 45.00

In this workshop you are welcome to use oils or acrylics.
In this Zoom class students will paint a San Francisco cityscape from photographs along with the instructor. The use of a palette knife is encouraged but not required. Instructor will demonstrate each step of painting a cityscape in a loose and painterly style. Perspective,  atmosphere, color, brush strokes, paint application, composition and so much more will be discussed. Barbara ‘s class is guarenteed to be fun and informative.  Students have the opportunity to complete a small colorful painting in oil or acrylic.

(LIVE ONLINE 4YOUTH) Anatomy Sketching in Ink

Levels: Teens & Young Adults, Beginners and Intermediate

Instructor: Malisa Suchanya

Offered: One Saturday session, January 23 2-4pm

Location: LIVE ONLINE

Do you feel afraid of drawing in ink? What if you make a mistake? What if the drawing doesn’t turn out the way you wanted? These are all real struggles between experienced and novice artists alike, but there are ways to gain more confidence in drawing. And to acquire that strength, you need to take a plunge!

In this class, you will learn to:

  • Draw with more fluidity and expression
  • Abandon the dated notion of perfection
  • Start a drawing without the fear of starting
  • Draw from observation with more ease

In this hands-on class, all you need is a pen and paper. Of course you can bring in other types of ink media. Brush pens, fountain pens with different kinds of nibs, even brush and ink is acceptable. You will draw from a range of reference images provided by your instructor and practice drawing at different time intervals and build your confidence in drawing quickly and without fear.

This class will help you break out of the fear mentality and to embrace imperfection.

Beginners and more advanced students are welcomed. We will engage with a range of drawing exercises that acts as great practice for all stages.

Materials:

Canson XL mix media sketchbook, 11” by 14”. Available on Amazon

Sakura Pigma Micron 6 count pen set

Pentel

Pocket Brush Pen, Buy Local at Lenz Arts  or online if you are not in Santa Cruz County.

Instructor: Malisa Suchanya is an illustrator and teaching artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her love for drawing and painting blossomed when she was a young teenager living in Singapore. She learned to draw by copying and practicing for many years before studying art formally. She has a Bachelors Degree in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Masters in Art Education from the Academy Of Art University in San Francisco.