Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild members share expertise at recent workshop
Members of the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild, Pat Beck, Suzy Schaefer and Ron Spelman recently volunteered their time to conduct workshops for local artists. The full-donated tuition allows the Guild to support and encourage visual artists in the community and county. Each instructor brought their individual expertise of painting and teaching to the students.
Pat Beck is a founding member and past board member of the RSF Art Guild. She is a nationally published artist who has been painting for over 35 years. Beck’s workshop concentrated on the execution of a still life oil painting. According to Beck, “A good foundation is the relationship between color and set up.” Beck taught how to arrange flowers, artifacts, vases and rich fabrics to create designed balance on the canvas. Beck said “Color catches the eye to lead the viewer into the painting.”
Suzy Schaefer is a founding member and past president of the RSF Art Guild. She has been painting for 40 years. Her paint workshop at her studio focused on teaching how to select a photograph with good composition and transform it to canvas. The image required the balance of light and dark to set up a strong painting. She encouraged her students to enjoy the process of painting and said, “I felt the class was enjoyed by all who attended, but I had the most fun because they were such a lovely group of artists.”
Ron Spelman, a RSF Art Guild past president, paints portraits and figurative art. Spelman’s paintings capture the personality and the unique features of the figure. He taught painting of the human form through the relationship of eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Spelman commented “Many of us have not taken the time to study this ‘relationship’ and without it we always fail to get a likeness or the study of a mood.”
He begins the process of painting with quick sketches and encouraged his students to create five-minute drawings on paper pads in pencil or pen. Spelman continued his teaching by demonstrating his strength in clarity of color.
You can view their art at the Rancho Santa Fe Art Gallery, a non-profit Guild, at 6004 Paseo Delicias, Rancho Santa Fe, 92067, Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone: 858-759-3545. Visit
- Union Bank provides the gallery space.