MECAC's "Featured Artist" for the month of June is Sandra Hayen who is temporarily residing in Pine Valley, and she brought a lovely collection of her oil paintings for the MECAC audience to enjoy. Primarily a studio artist, Sandra prefers oils because they are the most "forgiving" of artistic media and because of their "juiciness." Calling herself a "slow painter," she classifies her work as "between realism and impressionism" and finds inspiration from the Hudson River Valley painters and the early California Impressionists. Sandra refers to herself a "tonalist" rather than a "colorist."
Two of Sandra's paintings of the backcountry have appeared in Land of Sunlight by San Diego author James Lightner, including "Pine Creek Crossing" pictured in the topmost photo. She belongs to many art associations including the Foothills Art Association, Oil Painters of America, San Diego Museum of Art Artists' Guild, California Art Club, and The "San Diego Seven" as well as hanging her art in two galleries in Julian, the Helga-O Art Center and the Pine Hills Lodge Gallery.
Sandra considers herself to be 50-75% self-taught. She has gleaned her techniques from reading, taking many painting workshops, observing works in museums and galleries, plus she spent three years copying the Old Masters. Sandra mentioned that her training has been "very traditional" and believes that one "must know the 'rules' of art before breaking them." She also states, "Every painting calls for a different approach." Sandra considers her artistic strengths to be composition/design, values, color mixing, and critiquing. She told the audience, "I paint because I can't imagine not painting!"
After painting, Sandra's next love is teaching. Since 1990, she has taught public classes through Grossmont Adult Education and the College Avenue Community Art Center and now holds private classes in Coronado and Lemon Grove. She teaches her students, "Artists have the power of making the viewer look where the artist wants them to look." We all very much enjoyed Sandra Hayen's informal presentation as she discussed her background and work as well as answering several questions from artists in the audience.
Please join our next monthly Featured Artist meeting on July 15 at the Pine Valley Library at 7:00 PM as MECAC presents Pine Valley resident Dianne Holly who will be demonstrating the art of theatre design. Whether or not you are an aspiring thespian, don't miss it!
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