Rivian Bütikofer earned a BA in painting and printmaking from San Diego State University (SDSU) and an MA in Education from Point Loma Nazarene College. As an artist and longtime educator, Rivian combines her educational experience and extensive background in art, drama, and art therapy with an enthusiastic and encouraging teaching style. She has been an artist-in-residence and a visual arts resource instructor for the San Diego Unified School District and has taught at the secondary level in several area schools. Rivian taught at her own Art School, The Magic of Art, UCSD, MCASD, SDMA, and was a consultant to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Her work is in collections in Germany, France, US, Israel, and Canada.http://rivian-shareart.blogspot.com www.rivianbutikofer.com.

Reed Cardwell received degree BA in Fine Arts from California State University, Long Beach, and studied drawing and painting in Los Angeles with Harold Kramer and painting with Nathan Oliveira at the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico. Reed worked as an animation artist for Walt Disney Feature Animation and other studios in San Diego and Los Angeles. He currently teaches at the Art Academy of San Diego and University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Extension. He has exhibited locally and nationally and has work in private collections. His work may be seen at www.reedcardwell.com.

Alida Cervantes attended the University of San Diego and the University of California San Diego where she received her BA in Visual Arts. An avid traveler she also studied art and art history for two years at La Scuola di Arte Lorenzo di Medici in Florence, Italy and spent an additional year studying classical painting in Montagnana, Italy. From 1998 to 2002 Alida lived in New York City, where she taught as an artist-in-residence in public schools. As an artist her experience and style ranges from purely classical to contemporary to abstract whimsical. Most recently she was included in the traveling exhibition Strange New World: Art and Design from Tijuana at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the Cultural Institute of Mexico, Washington DC; and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Alida’s paintings have won high praise in the New York Times, as well as several awards, including first place at the Festival Mainly Mozart Binacional 2006, Tijuana, Mexico.

Carol Curtis, originally from the South, studied architecture at Auburn University. She traveled with Hyatt Hotel Corporation, using her experience in management, hospitality, and visual arts to open new Hyatt locations around the country. Carol launched a successful catering company and for the past ten years has built a textile design business. Having studied drawing, pastel, oil, and watercolor, Carol always returns to watercolor! Some of her instructors include Burton Silverman, Charles Reid, Daniel Greene, Robert Johnson, Nelson DeMille, Joshua Fallik, David Leffel, and Donna Howell-Sickles.

Ken Goldman studied at the National Academy of Design, the Art Students' League, and New York Studio School, New York City. A recipient of numerous awards, Ken has exhibited widely in various group shows and solo exhibitions in galleries and museums in Holland, Paris, Mexico, New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Diego. Ken is the author of six books on pastels, acrylics, charcoal, and artistic anatomy. In addition, his work has been featured in various magazines such as The Artist's Magazine, International Artist Magazine, and American Artist Magazine. www.goldmanfineart.com

Stephanie Goldman received a BA and MA from the University of Humanistic Studies in Del Mar. She began her professional art training with artist Ken Goldman and enhanced her skills through intensive studies of Renaissance art while living in Europe. Since then, Stephanie has studied with noted landscape colorist Wolf Kahn and nationally known figure and portrait painter Nelson Shanks at Studio Incamminati. The Riverside Art Museum invited Stephanie to exhibit her portrait series I Am a Child, and previous bodies of her work have been published by Frontline, Ramprod.com,and Eastmeetswestco.com. www.goldmanfineart.com.

Catherine Grawin is an award-winning oil painter of plein air landscapes, studio still life, and abstract work. A true colorist, her bold and loose brushwork is the signature style that appeals to her collectors in the United States and abroad. Grawin’s art education includes a BA in graphic design and communication from SDSU, with postgraduate work in architectural design and rendering. Some of her noteworthy teachers include Sebastian Capella, John Asaro, Joe Garcia and Pat Kelly. Grawin's work can be seen in the art book Land of Sunlight (a copy of which is in the Athenaeum's circulating collection). She is one of seven artists featured in the documentary film Plein Air Painters of Santa Ysabel, California. Grawin teaches painting alla prima at the La Jolla Athenaeum and plein air painting at UCSD Extension. Her work is represented at the Santa Ysabel Art Gallery and Cosmopolitan Fine Arts in Los Angeles. Find out more about the artist and see collections of her work at www.catherinegrawin.com.

Irina Gronborg is very enthusiastic about the color pencil medium and uses it almost exclusively to create her nationally exhibited and published botanical works. Her work is exhibited locally at J. Dewers, First Street Gallery, and at the Leucadia Art Gallery. Irina earned a BA and MA in Fine Arts at Stanford University and several horticultural certificates from the State of California. A member of the San Diego Horticultural Society, Irina cultivates a spectacular garden, which continues to be her inspiration. She also teaches at Mira Costa College.

Elaine Harvey paints in watercolor, acrylic, and a mixture of watermedia. A graduate form SDSU, she has won many awards in local, national, and international exhibitions. She studied watercolor with painters, including Millard Sheets, Virginia Cobb, Robert Wood, and Edward Bates, from whom she learned a wide variety of approaches and developed a broad understanding of watermedia painting. Her paintings and writings can be found in publications including Splash, The Artists's Magazine, and several watercolor books. She has taught for the Artist's Council of the Desert Museum, San Diego Watercolor Society, and UCSD Extension.

Prudence Horne received her MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BA in art history from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Prudence studied in London, Vienna, and the south of France. She has exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally and has work in private and corporate collections. She has had painting residencies in Montana, Spain, and Ireland. Her work can be viewed at http://www.prudencehorne.com.

Patricia Kelly graduated with a BA in Visual Arts from UCSD and has studied with David Leffel at the CAAA Montana Workshops. An accomplished oil painter, Pat has been showing her paintings professionally for more than sixteen years. Most recently, she has turned to painting the landscape in the plein air style. She currently shows her work at the Santa Ysabel Gallery. Pat has been teaching painting and drawing classes for Palomar College, The Ramona Art Guild, and Outdoors Painting Workshops for several years.

Jane LaFazio, a full-time artist since 1998, truly believes she is living the life she was meant to live! In that time, she has cultivated a wide range of skills as a painter, mixed media, quilt artist and art teacher. She's known for her fun-loving, creative teaching style, and providing a relaxed supportive environment in the classroom. She teaches workshops online and at art retreats internationally. Jane's artwork has been featured in Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Quilting Arts magazines many times, and in Danny Gregory's An Illustrated Life, and in numerous books. Jane has made 7 appearances on Quilting Arts TV, in season 300 and 800. Her instructional DVDs From Art Journaling to Art and The Small Art Quilt are available on Amazon. http://www.JaneVille.blogspot.com; http://www.JaneLaFazio.com; http://www.etsy.com/shop/janeville.

Linda Luisi, a master of trompe l'oeil, had a rigorous training at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she copied Old Master paintings in the museum atelier. She received her BFA from Tufts University. A professional artist for over thirty years, she has been creating murals and fine art for corporations, hospitals, and resorts across the United States. She is known for the individual attention she gives to each student to build skills, plus to nurture their own expressive approach. http://lindaluisi.com.

Lori Mitchell graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1987, and has been doing freelance illustration ever since. She wrote and illustrated the award-winning children's book Different Just Like Me (Charlesbridge Publishing) featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Today Show. She has illustrated eight books since. Lori is also an accomplished mosaic artist whose whimsical and thought-provoking mosaics are shown at Art N Soul gallery in Encinitas. The gallery features artwork that uses recycled materials and gives all profits, once the artist and utilities are paid, back to the community. Lori teaches drawing and composition at Palomar College, San Marcos. www.lorizstory.com and www.differentjustlikeme.com.

Thia Nevius received an MFA from Colorado State University. She painted sets for the Santa Fe Opera and taught art at Santa Fe Community College. Since moving to San Diego she has taught at The Bishop's School in La Jolla, UCSD Extension and the Athenaeum. She regularly shows at the San Diego Art Institute and her works hangs in international private and corporate collections. www.thiaartist.com.

Susan Osborn has extensive experience as an arts educator, lecturer, and consultant as well as an award-winning visual artist. She received both an MA in visual arts and in education from SDSU. Susan began teaching in 1973 and has since taught drawing, painting, photography, and design at SDSU, Southwestern Community College, and from 1987 to 2005, The Bishop's School in La Jolla. Her grand-scale paintings, colorful oil pastels, and photographs have been shown in more than forty solo, group, and invitational exhibitions, including Artists Guild Presents in 1999 at the San Diego Museum of Art and Small Images at Gallery 21. Susan is listed in Who's Who of American Women.

Elijah Rubottom explores phenomena of light and shadow, the concrete and the ephemeral through his sculptures, paintings, prints and installations. He is inspired by the Light and Space Art movement as well as developments in architecture and science. Elijah graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in sculpture and has expanded his portfolio in ceramics. He has exhibited locally for the past five years, has given lectures, has taught at area schools and has volunteered for several years at A Reason to Survive (ARTS), mentoring youths who face life challenges. When not playing with the light of the sun, moon, or man, Elijah enjoys writing, making music, and healing. www.elijahrubottom.com.

Sibyl Rubottom holds an MFA in Painting from Yale University and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she became a European Honors Student and studied in Rome. For over twenty-five years Sibyl did fabric art for the commercial and residential interior trade. She is currently proprietor of Bay Park Press, in San Diego. Bay Park Press is a small fine arts press specializing in limited edition artists' books and fine intaglio prints. Sibyl's books are in the special collections of the John Hay Library at Brown University, the Sterling Library at Yale University, UCSD's Geisel Library in the Mandeville Special Collections Library, San Diego State University's Malcolm A. Love Library, Occidental College (Los Angeles), Brigham Young University, Dartmouth College, the Athenaeum, and other public and private collections.

Ellen Schumacher received her BFA in ceramics from Ohio State University. A talented, versatile, and knowledgeable ceramic artist, she has been hand-building and throwing clay using the potter's wheel for fourteen years, as well as sculpting in wood, metal, and glass. She has taught a varied art curriculum for numerous children and adult art programs throughout San Diego in both public and private schools and organizations. Ellen also has worked as a professional painter at Liz Jardine Studio in Little Italy, and she has shown her work both locally and nationally.

Jean Shen was the first teacher of Chinese brush painting in San Diego. She has taught privately and at UCSD Extension for more than twenty-three years. Jean continues to train many students, from beginning level to award-winning artists, at her studio. She also continues to paint and show her own work, most recently at the UCSD Faculty Club. Jean is the author of the book His Garden, Story and Paintings and Dance of the Brush, a nontraditional approach to learning Chinese brush painting. She is currently working on her third book. www.danceofthebrush.com.

Neil Shigley is a painter, printmaker, and sculptor. He concerns himself with the abstraction of form, in many cases the human figure. His work has been shown internationally. His one-man show of his woodcut prints at the Earl & Birdie Taylor Library Gallery in Pacific Beach was the focus of the television interview series San Diego Profiles for City TV. Along with his painting, printmaking and commercial work, Neil also teaches drawing and illustration at SDSU and figure drawing at the Art Academy of San Diego.

Christina Snell earned a teaching credential and a BA in art education from Kean University in New Jersey, a Professional Certificate in Art and the Creative Process from UCSD, and a MA in cross-cultural teaching from National University. She is an experienced and devoted art educator of young people dedicated to fostering creative thinking and positive self-esteem through a variety of art techniques. Christina is the founder and operator of Adventures in Art, an art history-based education program for children. She has worked with both the Poway Unified School District and the San Diego Unified School District. Prior to moving to San Diego Christina worked as the assistant to the director of the Bergen Museum of Art and Science and as an art educator at the Newark Museum of Art.

Cynthia Triplett (our NEWEST instructor) grew up in North San Diego County and consequently developed a lifelong affinity with art. She received a BS in Art and a MS in Education from Southern Oregon University, and has taught art education to children and adults since 1987. She is a member of the San Diego Watercolor Society and the Clay Artists of San Diego, and has received awards from juried shows in California and Oregon. She served on the board for Dorland Arts Colony of Temecula, California. Cynthia is known for her energetic instructional style in art classes, workshops and panting demonstrations held in Warner Springs, Idyllwild, Borrego Springs and Hemet, California. A painter since 1978, plein air paintings and contemporary abstracts are part of the body of artwork she has created in the last decade www.cindytriplett.com.

Elizabeth Washburn grew up in Kansas, where she began painting at the age of thirteen. She received a BFA in Drawing and Painting from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Since 1996 her talents as a freelance muralist, portrait and landscape painter, and designer have led her to receive numerous commissions in San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, and Egypt. Her vibrant, narrative work is included in collections at Thunderbird Country Club, Palm Springs; Merck Research Laboratories; and the San Diego Airport Commuter Terminal, as well as several other local sites. www.ewashburn.com.