Can anyone learn how to paint a work of art?
According to Los Alamitos resident, Doris Van Zutphen, yes, anyone can. It’s all about trying.
Can anyone learn how to paint a work of art?
According to Los Alamitos resident, Doris Van Zutphen, yes, anyone can. It’s all about trying.
Van Zutphen has grown through adult art classes and has amassed dozens of pictures from the six years that she has been seriously painting. She hangs them in her art studio – a little room adjacent to the garage.
Van Zutphen paints pictures of flowers, birds, landscapes, portraits and the like in her home of 40 years. It’s a peaceful pastime that she relishes.
“It was the hobby that I wanted to take up when I retired,” said the Dutch native, who is part of the Cypress-based Village Art Group – a class of mostly Cypress residents. “It’s the most relaxing time because there’s nothing else to think about when you’re painting that artwork.”
The Village Art Group had paintings on display in the lobby of the Cerritos library for the month of September and someone offered Van Zutphen $600 for her “Innocence” portrait of a Mexican girl – but she refused.
“That was my first big portrait and I didn’t want to sell it,” she said. “I like it myself.”
The exhibit entitled “The Artful Journey” featured original paintings in transparent watercolor, opaque watercolor, acrylic and water-based oil paints of landscapes, portraits and still life arrangements, explained Village Art Group instructor Pamela Clauss.
The display hopefully inspired others to begin their own artful journey and maybe even start their own painting group, Clauss said.
“The Village Art Group formed in 2010 at the height of the budget cuts to adult education programs in many school districts. We were all so sad when the adult watercolor class was cancelled,” Clauss lamented.
“We made a choice to continue on our own, in the Salon tradition of the French impressionists, volunteering through mentoring, encouraging perseverance and also encouraging the students to paint what they are personally interested in and subjects they really like,” she added.
Clauss said she recommends her students save some of the first artwork they create, sign it and date it. “This would always provide a starting place and anything else they create would show their improved skill level and their growth as an artist, through practice and observation, beginning a lifelong artful journey.”
Other artists who participated in the month-long display included Irene Hart, Marlene Ackerman, Norma Echt, Mary Lee Milner, Marilyn Reyes, Marilyn Oropeza, Paul Wood, Ann Stoffers, Susan Rapske, Carol Redhead, Margie Conway, Chloris Paggiogalle, Penny Daegneaut and instructor Clauss.
All Village Group class members are active in the Cypress Art League as well – a non-profit incorporated in 1969 that is dedicated to celebrating the arts.
“My grandma inspires me in the works she does because she can turn any subject into a beautiful painting,” said Van Zutphen’s grandson Christopher Keller.
However, Van Zutphen considers herself an amateur and said other students are much better than she is. The bottom line: Keep trying.
“I’m still trying, because there’s always something to learn.”