Accomplished artist Breezy Schallheim is the instructor for the Landscapes/Seascapes, Basics of Acrylic Painting, and One-Stroke Decorative Painting Workshops, all geared for beginners. She helps her students feel comfortable working with the brushes and paint media, while teaching them a variety of paint application techniques with which they can confidently create their own original works of art. The Landscape and One-Stroke courses allow students to quickly learn and apply those methods to their painting, which they can finish in just one 3-hr. session. On the other hand, over the course of the 4-week-long Acrylics class, Breezy teaches her students about the different landscape elements. and at the end they're able to combine everything that they have learned.

At Oxnard College, Breezy had the opportunity to take college-level art courses, whereby she ended up specializing in ceramics, especially since she initially was averse to the odor of oil-based paint, thinners and brush cleaners. Subsequently, she went on to study under Donna Dewberry, who developed the one-stroke painting method. By putting different colors of paint directly on the brush, as opposed to mixing them together, highlights and shading are created concurrently by manipulating the brush in various ways. A floral painting using this technique resembles a bouquet design element for fabric or a Japanese watercolor. After mastering the methods taught by her mentor, she was certified in 2000 to teach these techniques to others.

Seven years later, Breezy started working in oils under Darrell Crow and John Heinrichs, two artists who resided on the East Coast. John eventually referred her to the Alexander Art Studio program. She was drawn to the wet-on-wet oil application methods that were taught, especially that a painting could be finished in one-day's time, instead of over a lengthier period. In working through their independent program of study for some 1½ years, Breezy will soon achieve instructor certification. Prior to coming to the Adult School in 2004, Breezy's teaching experience began with art classes conducted at Michael's, Joann's and community centers in both Northern California and around Ventura County.

Teaching art to a classroom full of students is Breezy's passion and where she is in her element. "The students who come here are fantastic," she says. Some of them are first-timers and several others constitute an established following from when she first started teaching at the Adult School. "They'll just keep repeating the classes," Breezy reports, because being in a creative environment is like therapy for them. "During the holidays they like to use one of the paintings they've done in class to create their Christmas cards." Some of her Adult School and private students even go on to paint independently. In addition, she really enjoys her relationships with the wonderful people on the staff and appreciates the advertising campaign via the website and catalog, designed to draw students to the course offerings.

Breezy's husband Mark is an electrical engineer. They have 4 grown children, 2 who reside locally and 2 who live in Sacramento. Family gatherings allow them the opportunity to enjoy visiting with their twin granddaughters and 2 grandsons

Besides painting in her leisure time, Breezy enjoys scrap-booking, knitting, crocheting and sewing, both making new clothes and doing alterations. Utilizing her stitchery skills, she has made clothes for her children and grandchildren as well as blankets for her 2 dogs.

Northern California and Yosemite are frequent destinations for visiting family members as well as camping trips in their motor home. Breezy brings along her painting supplies and crafts projects, activities which she says gives her the "thinking time" which inspires further ideas and even thoughts of scenes in faraway places like Hawaii, where she and her husband have traveled. Communing with and observing nature via her "plein air" painting, she immerses herself in capturing the landscapes and seascapes of her travels. This provides the creative wellspring from which Breezy can return to her classroom and share her experiences with her enthusiastic students.