“Art has filled my life with never ending joy.”

Leona has always loved art. While raising four boys, she always sought opportunities to paint. She paints daily and has been a very popular art teacher at the Burlingame Recreational Center for 25 years. Her primary medium is watercolor although occasionally she works in oils and acrylics.

She has won numerous awards, including a San Mateo County Arts Award for “Outstanding Contributions to the Cultural Arts Community in Education”, an Academy of Art Scholarship and a Grant from the Peninsula Community Foundation and the Diamond Individual Artist Award for 2004 from the San Mateo County Art share, Inc.

Leona was commissioned to do a series of watercolors of San Francisco landmarks for the San Francisco Hilton Hotel and she she is also well known for her outdoor mural for Towles Café, a local Burlingame eatery. Most recently, Leona was asked to paint the cover art for this year's Artist's Open Studio 2007 event brochure.

She is affiliated with SWA (Society of Western Artists), CWS (California Watercolorists Society), and BAS (Burlingame Arts Society), 30 and One Artists and Millbrae Arts. Her paintings are a part of many private and corporate collections.

Notable Awards:

• Burlingame Art Society "Artist of the Year"
• Society of Western Artists "Signature Award"
• North Light Book Monthly Magazine "Featured Artist of the Month"
• Academy of Art "Scholarship" San Francisco
• Peninsula Arts Council of San Mateo County Diamond Award "Arts Educator" 1995 and "Individual Artist" 2004
• Extraordinary Burlingamer Award 2007
• Gold medal winner SAN MATEO County Fair
• Recipient of Grant from the Pen. Community Foundation
• Winner Capitol Art Program Cannon Rotunda (Wash. DC)
• Designer for many years of Art in the Park
• Illustrated book 'Tunes from a Tuscan Guitar" by Roland Bianchi
• Judge San Mateo County Fair for 15 years
  

Olga is an artist, working in the San Francisco Bay area. She travels extensively, and finds her inspiration wherever she goes as well as at home.

Her paintings, oils, acrylics, pastels and watercolors are both representational and semi abstract, and hang in many private collections.

She is a signature award member of “Society of Western Artists”, and is often called to judge art exhibits, and lecture or critique at various art groups. She does commissioned paintings, restorations (specializing in oil painting restorations), and consults on interior design color schemes .

She was awarded the “Individual Artist Diamond Award” for the year 2005, by San Mateo County ’s “Art Share” Organization, receiving certificates from the U.S. Congress and both state legislatures.

“I paint and teach painting because I find it enriches my life and the lives of those around me”.

Maria was born in San Francisco, CA but grew up in Guadalajara Mexico where she became inspired by the bright colors of her youth. She is a patient painter, working quietly and diligently to obtain “just the right color hue”!

Maria says that her paintings reflect her attraction to color. “I love to create paintings with rich and vibrant hues, which I achieve by applying multiple glazes of color. Flowers are my inspiration. I am drawn to their beauty, color and essence.”

Maria has won several awards for her watercolor paintings. Her work has been exhibited at the San Mateo County Fair and Burlingame Art Society Spring show.

Vera is of Russian descent. She taught Russian language, literature and culture at CCSF and USF for many years. But art has always been her passion and she has been pursuing a serious career as a painter for several years now.

In her painting she is especially fascinated by creating interesting textures and to build up pigments so that colors shimmer across the surface. In her more recent series of paintings she has been exploring various materials to create texture. In the creation of these pieces she frequently begins by covering panels with plaster and sometimes even uses found objects to transmit the idea of time past and the gifts it left behind.

“Experimentation and discovery keep me challenged. I want to explore the endless possibilities of creation. The process of painting is to me as important as the completion of a piece.”

Vera has won several merit awards from the SFWA Gallery in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Lynn began studying photography several years ago at the College of San Mateo in San Mateo , CA .  She became very adept using a 35mm Canon and working in her own dark room to fine tune her artistic expression. 

Currently, she is very passionate about working with digital photography using her Nikon Digital Coolpix 5700. She enjoys the freedom of digital imaging because it allows her to get out of the dark room and be more spontaneous with her art.  

Her photography has appeared in many local shows and in private collections throughout the Bay area.

"I have always enjoyed taking photos. However, it was not until 1985, when I took a class in Visual Perception, that I really began to really look at the world around me. There are beautiful images everywhere just waiting to be captured, one need only to look."