Pacific Grove Art Center's 2021 Summer Youth Art Workshop with Art Teacher Dante Rondo

Pacific Grove, CA (April, 2021). Attention Parents! Here’s a great series of art workshops for your family. Artist and long-term PGAC art teacher, Dante Rondo, will teach a series of summer art workshops for youth this summer. Workshops are open to beginning, intermediate, and advanced young art students. Individual expression and creativity are encouraged!

Drawing and Painting

June 7-11 Monday-Friday Time: 2-5 pm   Ages: 9-16   Cost: $180 Members    $200 Non-Members

This class will focus on elements of drawing and painting.  Foundational techniques with graphite & charcoal pencils, watercolor and acrylic paints.

Water Based Painting Workshop

June 14-18 Monday-Friday Time: 2-5 pm Ages: 10-17   Cost: $180 Members   $200 Non-Members
This class will focus on painting techniques using watercolors and acrylics.  Color mixing and application of both painting mediums in the student’s choice of subject matter and expression.

Painting Workshop with Water Based Oil Paints

June 21-25 Monday-Friday Time: 2-5 pm Ages: 10-17 Cost: $180 Member $200 Non-Members

Creating paintings with water-based oils allows students more time for wet into wet blending and techniques, without having to clean up and thin paints with solvents.

Students will choose their own subject matter, working from photographs, 3D objects and sketches. This class is geared towards young art students that have had some experience in drawing and painting.

Drawing Nature, Animals and Wildlife

June 28-30 July 1-2 Monday-Friday Time: 2-5pm Ages: 10-16   Cost: $180 Members $200 Non-Members
The world of nature, landscapes, animals and wildlife are the inspiration for this class.  We will be working in graphite and charcoal pencils, ink and wash, and pastels.

Draw Draw Draw!

July 5-9 Monday-Friday Time: 2-5 pm Ages 12-17 Cost: $180 Members $200 Non-Members

This class will explore diverse drawing media and techniques from Graphite, Charcoal, Conte Crayons, Ink line and wash on white and toned papers. Subject matter will be chosen by each student, 3D objects, working from photographs, imagination, portrait/faces, animals, landscapes, and more! Recommended for intermediate-to advanced art students who want to take their drawings to the next level of refinement, expressiveness and technique.

Mixed Media Design and Color Workshop
July 12-16 Monday-Friday Time: 2-5 pm Ages 10-16 Cost: $180 Members   $200 Non-Members

Expressive use of materials with an emphasis on design and color harmonies. We will work in black and white media, watercolors, acrylics, colored pencils and pastels.  Explore techniques!

Summers End Inspirational Art!  
July 19-23 Monday-Friday Time: 2-5pm Ages: 9-16   Cost: $180 Members   $200 Non-Members

Create from your summer travel and inspiration locally!  Turn sketches and concepts into finished drawings and paintings.  Using any or all materials, drawing and painting

Register online: https://pgartcenter.org/Summer_Camp.php or (831) 375-2208 / email: [email protected] 

For additional information regarding the workshops contact Dante Rondo at (831) 626-4259 or [email protected]

About Dante Rondo

A dedicated artist for over 50 years, Dante Rondo began drawing and painting as a teenager when he moved to Carmel in 1967. Born to an artistic family, Dante’s father was an artist/teacher and his mother was a pianist who taught Dante to appreciate the beauty of nature while his father painted along the banks of the Merced River in Yosemite.

Although Dante holds no formal art degree, he has studied with numerous known local and international artists, including George DeGroat through the Monterey Museum of Art and Robert Lupetti and G.H. Rothe in Carmel. Dante began first formal study of art in 1969 with ceramicist Carol Brown at the Sunset Center Ceramic Sculpture Studio. Dante has also completed studio art studies at Monterey Peninsula College, Cabrillo College and West L.A. College.

Starting out as an abstract painter in the late 1960’s, he worked in relief printmaking, etching, ceramic sculpture and drawing in the 1970’s. In the 1980’s, he turned to impressionism as a natural progression to his painting style. His travels abroad to the South Pacific Islands in the early 1980’s and to France and Denmark in the mid-1980’s influenced his painting and subject matter. In the 1990’s, Dante returned several times to Bali, Indonesia to paint over the course of 12 years there, once again having his artistic style and subject matter influenced by the culture and environment where he was living.

The artist has maintained two studios at the Pacific Grove Art Center since returning from living in Hawaii in 1987 and has been on the teaching staff since then. Dante is currently engaged in working on larger scale studio oil and acrylic paintings that pay homage to the light and color of our local and other landscape regions in California, as well as other global destinations that the artist has traveled to and been inspired by throughout his life. Dante has continued to travel abroad to Bali, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe. He has also explored local landscapes from Tassajara to Big Sur, California landscape, Yosemite and the High Sierras.

Dante’s work has been represented by galleries locally in Carmel, Monterey, P.G., Big Sur, in La Jolla, California, and Maui and Kauai in Hawaii. It has been featured in private and corporate collections in California, East Coast, Hawaii, Fiji, Japan, Denmark, New Zealand and Australia.

Although Dante has taught art to people of all ages, he also enjoys teaching youth, age 9 and older, which he has done during his classes for nearly 35 years at the Pacific Grove Art Center.

According to Dante who begins his upcoming summer class series on June 7th, “I love to teach art to youth because they’re just beginning their artistic journey and they appreciate being able to express their feelings and thought through their art. It is wonderful to see their self-esteem grow as they progress during the art classes, helping them to become more creative thinkers, applying that to all areas of their lives as they grow into adulthood.”

For more information:
Dante Rondo - Phone: (831) 626-4259    Email: [email protected]

About the Pacific Grove Art Center

The purpose of the Pacific Grove Art Center is to cultivate the arts within the Monterey Peninsula area by providing creative experiences that inspire and engage us, touch our hearts, challenge our minds and enrich our lives.

The Pacific Grove Art Center has four Exhibit Galleries: Nadine Annand, David Henry Gill, Elmarie Dyke and Louise Cardeiro Boyer. It features a variety of art forms including Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Encaustic, Fabric Arts, Mixed Media and more.  Exhibits change every other month celebrated with a First Friday Gala Opening (pre-COVID).

The Pacific Grove Art Center also features seventeen Professional Artist Studios, Art and Movement classes for adults, After School, Weekend and Summer art classes for kids 8 – 17, creative opportunities for teens, and music and cultural events are held throughout the year. PGAC is also the home of the Peninsula Ballet Center. The beautiful historic galleries are available to rent for a special occasion.

Since 1969, Pacific Grove Art Center has been a community-based nonprofit seeking to enhance art appreciation and encourage the creation of art. With the desire to have art available to everyone, PGAC has held low-cost classes, free exhibits, and offered reduced rent for artist’s studios for over 50 years. Both emerging and established artists are professionally shown in their historic galleries, and large group shows can provide the first step into the art world for many. Through generous donations, grants, and hundreds of volunteer hours, the Pacific Grove Art Center continues its mission today. 

All donations are deeply appreciated, especially during these challenging times. Become a member and receive the informative newsletter keeping you in the loop of all the community events, exhibit openings and cultural offerings they have to share.

The Pacific Grove Art Center, located at 568 Lighthouse in Pacific Grove, is open Wednesday – Friday from Noon to 5 pm and Saturday from Noon to 4 pm. For more information, call 831-375-2208, email [email protected] or go to the website, www.pgartcenter.org.