• Additional and Past Teaching Staff •
Paradise Art Center has a history of quality art instruction representing a variety of media and art styles. Many of our instructors have been forced to relocate; we thank them for helping us build our program, and welcome them to continue to provide workshops and support to our Art Center.
 

Christie Beebe • Acrylic Explorations
From a young age, Christie Beebe has been interested in art.·She began taking art classes in seventh grade, which was the beginning of her love of creating colorful art. Christie was a Fine Arts Major at Southern Utah University, and holds Associates Degrees in Graphic Design and Art Education. She has studied many different art mediums, including pottery, ceramics, oil, acrylics, watercolors, sculpture, pencil, pastels and printmaking. Christie has shown in several different galleries, and has won awards in printmaking and sculpture. Recently, she has taught drawing, linoleum block printing, oils and acrylic painting. She loves color and likes to communicate her art feelings in a more abstract fashion.

Erv Clark • Drawing, Acrylics, and Watercolor
Erv Clark is an experimental artist who started creating art to entertain himself as an only child. His family moved to Walnut Creek, California from Indiana in 1953. Erv maintained an interest in art all through school. In high school, he was mentored by a teacher who encouraged his work both in and out of the classroom. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, and years later a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from Chico State. Erv’s life has been a journey in art. He has lived, studied, and worked in several states and in other countries, including Amsterdam and Italy. His volume of commissioned work includes a large mural at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas. He has also owned galleries in Carmel and Mendocino. Erv says he has been very fortunate that he’s had so much help along the way. For years he worked in realism, but more recently he has moved into abstract work, primarily with acrylics. Erv believes that art, like life, is problem-solving, that it’s all about the process. He is not interested in competition, believes that every artist has their own voice, and that art should be fun. This belief is evident in Erv’s classes, where he encourages students to experiment, to play, and to enjoy themselves.

Edward Kicking Horse • American Indian Plains Art
Edward Kicking Horse Buie is of French and Lakota (Sioux) heritage. He was born in St, Paul, Minnesota in 1937 and graduated from California State University, Chico with a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology and an Interdisciplinary Masters Degree in Anthropology and Art. He was a Professor of Anthropology at Butte Community College. He is currently working as a cultural consultant at Four Winds Indian Charter School in Chico. He studied intaglio printmaking under Patricia Babcock. He has been, and still is, a traditional Pow-Wow dancer for many moon-disks. He is currently writing an American Indian historical fiction novel that takes place in the 1830’s.

Cathy Hales • Watercolor and Alcohol Inks; Facilitator, Watercolor Studio
Cathy fell in love with watercolor painting while taking art classes in middle school. While completing her degree at San Jose State, an Art for Children class renewed her interest in art, but she was not able to pursue it at the time. After retiring, Cathy finally was able to engage her interest in watercolor by studying under several excellent teachers. She has studied under Flo Barnet, the founder of Paradise Art Center; Robbie Laird, a signature member of the American Watercolor Association; and Valery Payne, a teacher and professional artist, who taught art to teachers in Chico. In addition to those teachers, Cathy has had lessons from teachers at our own art center: Evonne Cramer and Sylvia Sisley-Smejkal (watercolor) Vera Rodgers (colored pencil) Christie Beebe (drawing) and Jan Walker (Chinese Brush Painting). ·Over the last ten years she has developed an interest ·in many different media, most recently working with alcohol inks, but watercolor is her passion.

Gary McHargue • Watercolor
Gary McHargue has worked with and learned from numerous artists. He has an impressionistic painting style that makes his work instantly recognizable. Gary is primarily a landscape artist, a master of bold color and distinctive brush strokes, and he is our resident expert on painting incidental people. His watercolor compositions have a dramatic flair that is unmatched. Gary has been a member of Paradise Art Center for many years. He is also a member of and student at Chico Art Center.

Rob Milberg • Plein Aire
Rob Milberg is a native of California, growing up in Lakewood just north of Long Beach. Rob obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Art from Brigham Young University. While his degree emphasis was graphic design, photography and illustration, he studied jewelry design, oil and watercolor. He worked as the Assistant Art Director for the University for 4 years as well as teaching classes in the art department. He was hired away from the university to create the corporate identity/branding for an oil company headquartered in Canada. While working on this project, he was introduced to commercial interior design. In 1981, Rob open Designpoint, a graphic design and commercial interior design firm in San Diego and is today still the President of the company. From 1977 to 1996, Rob taught part time in the art department of San Diego State University. While in San Diego, to force himself to paint more regularly, he joined Foothills Art Association and became a board member for many years as well as president for two years. He paints in oil, watercolor, and gouache, and dabbles in sculpture.

Diane Moore • Mixed Media
Diane Moore has painted all her life. She started her art career in Southern California and took classes at Laguna Art College. Diane teaches occasionally at the Friday morning Creative Water Media Workshop.·While she uses various media, she prefers acrylic. As a person who doesn’t like to follow the rules, Diane loves taking chances with her art.·She loves to experiment with all kind of water media and collage and revels in the freedom she finds in her art. Diane says that the need to create·has always been a part of her. Although she experiments with diverse things, painting with acrylic or water color is her constant favorite. Diane says that as often as not, she has no image in mind when she begins a painting. Many times she paints just because she needs to put paint to·paper.·As she connects with paint and paper, things begin to happen, both to the painting and to her:·an image,·an emotion, a direction, a focus ... the painting has begun and she is happy.·At other times a thing of beauty·or interest will intrigue her and she feels she must interpret it. All of these things cause Diane to have·joy and expression.

Ben North • Photography
Ben North has spent the better part of the last eighteen years shooting commercial photography and videography for a variety of clients in the tourism and outdoor lifestyle industries. He is equally at home shooting a five-star resort in a famous destination or a quaint bed and breakfast in a small town far off the beaten path. He enjoys highlighting the intriguing details that make a destination unique and exciting, and he considers it a great honor that his photos and videos have played a small part in people’s travel planning and product purchase decisions. Over the course of his photo career Ben has had the privilege of collaborating with many talented creatives from a variety of advertising agencies and companies including Hilton Hotels, Cholula Hot Sauce, Catalina Island Company, Capital Records and many more.

Kathy Presentati • Watercolor Exploration
In all the stages of her life, art has provided Kathy with both joy and solace as well as freedom and obligation. Kathy has a degree in Liberal Arts but considers herself a self-taught artist. Before retirement she was the Administrative Secretary for the Paradise Unified School District Special Services Department. She has served as both board member and President of·the Butte Community College Board of Trustees. Since moving to Butte County in 1973, she and her husband have lived in Oroville, Chico, Paradise and, currently, Magalia. Kathy’s early artistic interest was in realism which she explored with both oil and acrylic. With the passing years and eventual retirement, she found myself wanting to experience the medium of watercolor and develop more freedom in my artistic expression. For six years she received instruction from former local artist Evonne Cramer and with her guidance and input from other teachers, fellow students and personal study, she has been able to begin to explore the endless possibilities of watercolor. In her watercolor classes, Kathy’s goal is to provide instruction in techniques rather than to teach a particular 'style.'·She encourages students to explore their own self-expression while receiving·instruction in color mixing, the various methods of applying paint to paper, creating strong compositions and understanding the basic tools of the watercolor medium. In the past few years Kathy’s work has been displayed in many local gallery shows and venues, including·the Sacramento Fine Arts Center's January 2016 show and the Chico Art Center’s 2016 Contemporary Woman Show.

Cindy Price • Mixed Media: Driven to Abstraction
Cindy Price, a longtime member of the Paradise Art Center, has resided in Chico for fifty-three years. She loved art in school and did many art projects at home, taking art classes in high school and college. After a work injury in 1994, art became Cindy's rehabilitation to reclaim the use of her right arm. She started art classes with Flo Barnett, Sylvia Smejkal, Ann Pierce, Valerie Payne and others at Paradise Art Center. Now she paints when she can and she says the subjects usually choose her medium, be it watercolor, acrylic, collage or all. Cindy is known for her free and loose style, strong colors and great composition.

Caryl Quinones • Mixed Media: Driven to Abstraction
Caryl was an art history major in college, which began her love of art, but she did not start painting until the 1990s, in a watercolor class at Chico State with Jerril Dean Kopp. ·A few years after that she and her husband took a Butte watercolor class from Julie Shaw that was held in Paradise. There they met a number of Paradise Art Center members who invited them to visit the center. They felt very welcomed and have been members ever since.·Caryl has studied painting with Julie Shaw, Jerril Dean Kopp, Flo Barnett, Sylvia Smejkal and Diane Moore. She feels that her ability as a painter has grown tremendously through the classes she has taken at the art center and the people she paints with. Caryl painted gentle watercolors for many years.·Recently, through painting in acrylics, she has found a “wilder” side to her painting and is enjoying bright colors, abstracted subjects and even some non-objective abstract.·Often she uses photographs she has taken as inspiration for her paintings. As she paints she experiences a conversation between her subject and her heart.·She hopes that people who view her art will also have such a conversation.·It is the process—the journey—of painting that is important to her, more so than the painting itself, or whatever the end product might be.

Barbara Anne Ramsey • Oil, Acrylics, Drawing, and Colored Pencil
Barbara Anne Ramsey is an artist who lives the life she creates in her art. Born in Susanville, California, she spent her formative years growing up in the ranching country of Northern California in the small town of Adin. During her early teenage years, Her family moved to Paradise, where the rest of her family has resided since 1932. Barbara had work published in the Best Of Colored Pencil II (1993). Her most recent awards include the Heritage Roundup Award at the Annual Western Art Roundup in Winnemucca, Nevada (2007); Second place in painting at the Red Bluff Bull & Gelding Sale (2013); the Third Annual Western Art Show (2013); and first place in colored pencil at the Draft Horse Classic Art Show in Grass Valley, California (2015). She has spent the last thirty-five years as a professional artist, participating in many juried Shows in the U. S. and winning several awards. She has much of her artwork in private as well as corporate collections with several limited prints. Barbara has taken workshops with wildlife artist Greg Beecham, Chad Poppletion and Julie Chapman. She has been teaching at Paradise Art Center since 2005. Barbara says her love of nature and the western way of life will keep her drawing and painting as long as she can. Visit Barbara’s website at www.barbaraanneramsey.com.

Vera Rodgers • Drawing
Vera started drawing at age eight and has been continuing her art journey for seventy years. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Art Education from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. Vera has taught elementary, secondary and college art for thirty years. Currently, she devotes her time to her own art and to holding workshops for adults in watercolor and colored pencil.She has worked in oils, watercolor, graphite, colored pencil and is currently learning the Renaissance art of silver, gold and metalpoint medium. Her favorite activity is creating pet portraits commissioned by people to memorialize their pets. Her paintings are in homes across the United States. Vera’s home is in Metropolis Illinois but she loves coming to Paradise to visit sister and friends, often spending winter and summer here. She is a member of the Paradise Art Center and is a member of The PAPA Gallery in Paducah, Kentucky, where her work is exhibited year round. The magic of seeing an image develop from a blank paper/canvas keeps her happy and eager to create the next one. Examples of Vera’s work can be viewed at www.verarodgers.com.

Adele Sheets • Oil, Acrylics, and Drawing
Adele holds a BFA from CSU, Chico. She also studied painting at the International University in Florence Italy. Since college, Adele has continued to participate in a plethora of workshops and classes from many artists she admires. Through the years Adele has had the honor of working with many talented artists such as Sal Casa, Ken Morrow, Ruben Heredia, Elizabeth Mowry, Erica Fielder, to name but a few. The experience of working with interior designers in creating client guided wall murals and paintings for homeowners and community events contributed to Adele’s growth as an artist. This experience led her to the experience of creating several original large scale murals both interior and exterior. Other large scale murals include the restoration of the 1931 Colusa Theater facade, and interior murals located in Colusa California as well as the west interior wall of the 1939 Senator Theater in Chico California. Adele has taught both children and adult workshops in drawing, and pastel painting. She finds sharing knowledge of her artistic adventures to be rewarding and appreciates the growth they offer to the making of her art.

Sylvia Sisley-Smejkal • Mixed Media: Driven to Abstraction
Sylvia Sisley-Smejkal is an experimental artist who will use any technique or media to convey her message. Her colors are subjective and her paintings are generally abstracted. There is rarely a preconceived plan. Although Sylvia is mostly self-taught, she has enjoyed seminars and workshops with national artists including Don Andrews. Barbara Nechis, and Bob Burridge. A natural born teacher, she began teaching art in the mid-seventies in private schools, the local art center, and her own studio. Her intent is to express her emotions through the work in such a way as to inspire and encourage the viewer and yet allow for their own interpretation, always giving thanks to God for the gift of creativity, knowing that it is part of her destiny. She is happiest with her favorite critic, best friend, and husband of forty-two years, Richard.

Tony Slocum • Acrylic Collage
Tony Slocum is a retired engineer who loves the opportunity to focus on art.· He earned a Doctor of Engineering degree from Dartmouth College in structural engineering and computer science.· He moved to the Bay Area in 1976 and spent most of his working career in Silicon Valley living in Los Altos.· He moved to Paradise, CA in 2000.· Since retirement, he has taken art courses at Foothill College, Butte College, and Chico State University.· He likes all disciplines in art with curiosity of how they work and how they are used.· He respects good drawing and seeks to achieve it.

Reality Thornewood • 3D Mixed Media / Wearable Art
Reality Thornewood is a 3D artist and Jewelry Artisan. She teaches a series of ‘wearable art’ classes using a variety of 3D media. Reality has lived in Paradise since 2011 when she brought her family here to start her new career in teaching. Reality currently teaches high school students 3D art and Jewelry design in Yuba City. In addition to her teaching she has also shown her sculptures and jewelry in various galleries through out Northern California. SInce the fire Reality has focused her efforts on making art and jewelry that allows her a chance to make something to wear and provides a sense of accomplishment in creating something beautiful. Reality is excited to be able to share with Art Center members her passion for creating art. In the series of classes that she’s exploring, she would like to give students a chance to work with materials that they may have not had a chance to try. In an effort to limit the cost for students, she will be providing the supplies for each class for a small materials fee. She hopes this will encourage students to try something different and will allow them to take home a piece of wearable art to enjoy for years to come. Reality is excited to be joining the Paradise Art center as a teacher and working with her community in a way that helps to encourage the arts.

Amy Tomczak • Acrylics
Amy's teaching and methods are based on the students needs. She have had much success in the past and currently in communicating with her students, parents and family in what their needs are and being able to accommodate them appropriately. She is able to modify some of the techniques taught while still accomplishing the same effect in the painting. It could be as simple as holding the paint brush a different way, or loading the paint brush with multiple colors while creating the same desired goals.

What she would love for the students to take away from her classes is FUN! Creativity...Confidence! How to think outside the box! That painting with acrylics is very forgiving, that there are no mistakes, only creation! and to open their heart and minds to all the possibilities that painting has to offer! and most importantly...that anyone can paint!

Jeanne Van Nostrand • Pottery
Jeanne Van Nostrand has always enjoyed the arts. She grew up in San Diego with her photographer father and her art teacher mother. Her parents were avid archeology and art students who took their family to Mexico every summer to study at the University of Mexico. Jeanne started out as a music major and sang with the San Diego Opera Company and the Civic Light Opera Company. At about age forty she discovered the world of pottery when a friend who was under a deadline thrust several clay masks at her and ordered her to “just decorate them.” These were so successful that Jeanne then wanted to learn to make the clay masks herself. She has studied pottery for many years with many known artists at various studios in southern California, and she had her own mobile pottery business for over ten years. Jeanne came to Paradise in order to take care of her ill mother.·Jeanne says that she thought she’d died and gone to heaven when she discovered Paradise Art Center!

Jan Walker • Chinese Brush Painting
Jan was born with a crayon in one hand and a book in the other.·She studied art, art history, and foreign languages at San Jose State, and says she has more unfinished graduate degrees than anyone on Earth. The first time she picked up a Chinese paintbrush in an Adult Education class in 1974 she was hooked, and has followed that brush around the world. Jan studied with master Chinese painters in San Jose and San Francisco, and spent four years studying Chinese brush painting and Chinese culture in Taiwan (Republic of China). She also enjoys acrylic painting, and is writing a historical fantasy novel set in ancient China.·Her writing is published under her pen name of· J L Walker in Parabola magazine and other journals specializing in ancient myth, symbolism and story.

Past Instructors and Facilitators