Art Class for a Company Retreat
Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA

Peggy and I taught two short (each 75 minutes) plein air landscape painting sessions to two groups of participants at a company team building retreat in the historic Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA. The class took place in the beautiful Love Temple / Italianate Garden. You can see the results in the two group photos above. Each student painted from direct observation of the scene before them and created their own unique artwork that reflected their individual artistic vision.

We introduced the basics of composition, color mixing, and use of materials. We showed artwork examples by Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse to illustrate the principles and act as artistic inspiration. Everyone had fun and, no matter what their experience or background in art, everyone created wonderful artworks full of life!

I was impressed by the incredible richness and diversity of the results. With about sixty participants in total they created sixty completely different and unique interpretations and points of view. This is the power of paint, whether traditional or digital: the power to give everyone the opportunity to express themselves in a unique and personal way. Big thanks and congratulations to everyone who participated!

One student, who hadn’t painted for many years, shared how excited she was by getting to paint and that this class was a turning point for her and that as a result of the class she was going to continue to paint.

Thank you to Entire Productions and everyone involved in helping make this such a successful art class!