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Celebrating Art Made Easy
Public welcome at opening reception

by Dolores Fox Ciardelli

When Janna Dean was about to retire after many years of teaching elementary school in Pleasanton, everyone asked what she planned to do.

"I said the first thing I'm going to do is take a watercolor class from Charlotte Severin," Dean recalled.

As a teacher, she'd watched Severin mesmerize a room full of children with her art lessons.

"Charlotte was in a multipurpose room with all ages and you could have heard a pin drop," Dean recalled. "That's how much children love art."

As a retirement present, Dean received a gift certificate for classes as well as painting supplies and now she is one of the students displaying their works at the 17th annual "Celebrating Art Made Easy" student exhibit. It runs May 2-6 at the Pleasanton Senior Center, 5353 Sunol Blvd., with a public reception 7-8:30 p.m. Monday.

"The paintings have been done on location or in the studio experimenting with collage and special techniques," Severin said.

The art students focused on the Seward Johnson sculptures that were on display in downtown Pleasanton for three months last year.

Other students in the exhibit are Stephen Bakkarie, Bonnie Bartlett, Jean Bell, Ann Beven-Thomas, Vilma Buhre, Claudia Curran, Cindy Deagen, Kathleen Elm, June Ferreri, Elizabeth Greist, Cindy Juarez, Daniella Karo, Herman Leider, Kathleen Lortz, Bernadino Navanni, Louise McLellan, Toni Purcell, Ana Marie Rodriguez, Maureen Shevlin, Donald Skutca, Kathleen Turner-Meyer and Carole Williams.

The exhibit will be open for viewing from 1-4 p.m. Monday; from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; and from 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Friday, May 6.