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Our Story: How it All Began
25 years ago Yvonne and I were working stressful jobs as property managers not affording Yvonne time to pursue her wonderful hobby of creating art. I always considered Yvonne to be a natural artist and I wanted to get her back into painting so for Christmas I bought her a Bob Ross Master Paint Kit. She loved it but didn't have the time to use it so it found its way into our closet and there it stayed for a couple years. Every couple months I'd tease Yvonne and ask her how she was doing with that Bob Ross kit I bought her. After a couple years of my teasing, in the summer of 1999, she finally decided to register for a Bob Ross Class and asked if I'd like to attend with her. Thinking she might back out and cancel I said I would go with her. Of course she didn't think I would go either and was pleasantly surprised when I did. So, we went to a class together and Yvonne did a really nice painting...mine stunk…but I was hooked. I loved it and so did Yvonne. She loved that she could complete a painting in a few hours instead of the weeks and sometimes months it used to take her in the traditional way of oil painting.
After our first class and upon returning to the community we were managing at the time Yvonne got a group of residents together for an open art class and, because we had just taken a Bob Ross class, everyone was turning to us for assistance and guidance...so we decided that if we were going to help these people with their artistic endeavors we'd better go to school and really learn how to do this stuff. We did…loved it and brought our newly learned skills to the residents of our community. We learned a lot that first year, especially what not to do and how to make the elements easier for the absolute beginner painter. We taught part-time our first two years until we mustered the courage to quit our lucrative Management job and convert this weekend biz to a "full-time" business giving it our undivided attention.
We went everywhere in the beginning doing demonstrations and presentations at the RV/Mobile Home communities in the greater Phoenix area and Statewide. After utilizing our spare bedroom as our practice area for a couple years we soon realized the need for our own Studio. Fortunately we had enough room on our property to build it right here...and it's been a great asset and a wonderful addition to our teaching careers. Over these past 20 years we've covered a lot of territory and our students number in the thousands. How fortunate we've been to have met so many great people, great friends and burgeoning artists. And now we'll continue to share the knowledge we've learned along the way so everyone can "Xperience The Joy"
Check our Photo Galleries to find our entire portfolio of paintings and you can key into the locations and dates for each painting project on our schedule. All of the paintings in the Photo Gallery are for sale: $90 unframed and $125 framed.
Take me to the Studio
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One of our First Classes at Bonita Vista Resort
Jim & Yvonne Instructing the Group of Avid Painters
We filled the Ballroom - what a great group!
