Santa Paula Art Museum — We Miss You, Plein and Simple

Art projects and resources to inspire you and your family
Plein Air Drawing and Painting
This week we received a lovely surprise from artist and Santa Paula native Andrea Vargas. Vargas has worked closely with the Santa Paula Art Museum as both an artist and guest curator. She now lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Andrea recently created a free, virtual mini-course on plein air drawing and painting for ARTsmart New Mexico, and she wants to share it with you too!
In addition to watching how Andrea creates small studies for her stunning landscape paintings, you can explore landscape art using the projects and resources below.
Ripped Paper Landscape
Learn a few of the fundamentals of landscape art like horizon line and atmospheric perspective. All you need is paper and glue.
Imaginative Landscape
YouTube’s Ms. Artastic is another online art teacher who provides kid-friendly lessons. Her whimsical and imaginative landscape tutorial demonstrates how to create space in two-dimensional art.
“Stained Glass” Landscape
With this video tutorial, kids can learn how to use layered lines to create background, middle ground and foreground. Then use mineral oil to achieve a stained glass effect!
Tree in the Night
Join our very own Curator of Creativity Meg Phelps as she shows you how to paint a tree in the night using several different watercolor techniques.
Art To-Go Bags Giveaway
Friday, May 22, 2020, at 10:00 a.m.
The Museum’s education department is hard at work on another round of free Art To-Go Bags! The bags containing supplies and instructions for fun art projects to do at home will be available via a drive-thru only pick up in the parking lot behind the Santa Paula Art Museum on Friday, May 22, starting at 10:00 a.m. (while supplies last – limit 5 bags per family). Please enter the parking lot from 10th street and follow the posted signs and directions from staff.
Interested in supporting the Museum’s education department? Contact us or donate today.
Watch a Painter at Work
If you’ve never watched an artist at work before, we highly recommend it. Put on some good music and watch Santa Barbara artist Marcia Burtt paint Goleta Beach.
Let’s Talk About Art
Take a crash course in how to talk about landscape art from the Getty Museum. You can also read their quick history of the genre here.
Copy Famous Artists
Imitation isn’t just flattery, it’s a learning tool used by artists everywhere! Imperfect Paintingsoffers tutorials like how to paint landscapes à la David Hockney.
The Art of Moving Free Virtual Yoga Class
Wednesday, May 20, 2020, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
We love how The Art of Moving is giving us a new way to appreciate art, so much so that the Museum is offering another free class on Wednesday, May 20! Join instructor Robin Briceno online for a virtual yoga and movement class streamed live from the Museum and inspired by the art currently on exhibit. The class will feature gentle Hatha yoga poses accessible for beginners and all levels of experience, followed by a guided art activity to untether your intrinsic creative flow. Grab a yoga mat if you have one, plus some paper, pens, pencil, markers or crayons. Preregistration via Zoom is required.
Timeless (Clock on Main) by Shannon Celia, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches. Available for purchase.
Online Premiere of Santa Paula Sojourn, a Solo Exhibition by Shannon Celia
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
While artist Shannon Celia’s solo exhibition Santa Paula Sojournwas originally slated to open this weekend at the Santa Paula Art Museum, we’re excited to announce that we will be sharing the entire exhibit online starting June 3! The show is a true love letter to Santa Paula. All of the artworks in the exhibit will be for sale.
Museum Moment
Fourth Lake by Robert Clunie (1895-1984), 1947, oil on board, 30 x 36 inches. Collection of the Santa Paula Art Museum – Gift of Andrea and COL (R) Howard Gabbert.
Join Santa Paula Art Museum Curator of Creativity Meg Phelps for a Museum Moment: a few minutes to consider the stories behind, and the elements within artworks that we love. In this installment we look at Robert Clunie’s oil painting Fourth Lake from the Museum’s permanent collection.
To learn more about color in art, including definitions of color vocabulary we suggest SmartHistory.org and their section “Looking at art.