Instructors
About Perrin Weston Coman
Carlsbad Art Farm was founded and is directed by Perrin Weston Coman on a 10-acre property that has been in the family for nearly 50 years. Perrin received her fine arts training at the Academy of Arts College in San Francisco (now the Academy of Arts Institute), where she immersed herself in drawing and painting. She worked as an artist for several years before pursuing a second 18-year career as a writer and editor for daily newspapers and as a contract writer for the New York Times Co., Random House Publishers, the Los Angeles Times, and many others. She has also had work optioned for film.
After becoming a first-time mom in 1999, Perrin became interested in how art is taught to children in local schools. Reclaiming her fine arts roots, she has taught enrichment and regular art classes at nearly two-dozen area schools and in other venues during the past seven years. Not surprisingly, her experience confirmed what most parents aleady know: that art instruction in many schools is an under-funded, haphazard affair taught largely by non-artist instructors or volunteer parents doing their best with a shortage of supplies and limited space. Perrin wanted to offer children something better.
Thinking about her own art school experience – and the engaging artist instructors she was fortunate enough to have during her own elementary school years – Perrin conceived of a model art school where the approach is essentially the same as any fine arts institution but tailored to the younger student. Emphasis is on learning how to draw through direct observation and studying the work of master artists, which in turn leads to broader skills across the studio arts spectrum. Artist-grade materials are supplied and the techniques necessary to use them taught.
As students progress, they gain confidence and maturing joy in their own
Perrin was also very influenced by a childhood pre-dating our computer and video-game culture on her family’s 150-year-old pear farm in Northern California (located in Santa Clara Valley, now known worldwide as Silicon Valley). She spent her childhood growing up outdoors with her many animals. She began sketching and painting her surroundings at an early age. Now she enjoys teaching young artists to see and interpret their own worlds with an artist’s eye.
Perrin comes from a family of educators and artists. Her mother, Dannie Weston, is founding director of the award-winning Old Orchard School in Campbell, Calif., established in 1973, which is now directed by her sister, Bonnie Weston. Her brother, Will Weston, a professor of foundation studies and illustration at Art Center in Los Angeles, has worked extensively in feature animation. Perrin’s husband, Chase, worked as a wildlife biologist in the New Mexico wilderness prior to a career as a photojournalist. For many years, he has worked as a fine woodworker specializing in high-end antique restoration and custom furniture design. Perrin and Chase’s daughter, Emerson – soon to be in fourth-grade – wants to be a veterinarian-artist-horseback rider when she grows up.
About Phoebe Bradley
Phoebe Bradley received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1986. She also studied at The California College of Arts and Crafts, The Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at Ealing Technical College in London.
Phoebe's artwork has been exhibited in the San Francisco Bay area and in Encinitas. In the fall of 2007, the Lux Art Institute in Encinitas commissioned Phoebe to paint a 72 foot mural for their Copley Classroom.
Her work explores the relationship between naturally derived forms and the way color and patterns can be used to mediate the transformation of an image.
Since 1985, Phoebe has been interested in teaching art to young children and has taught at the Shattuck Avenue Studios in Berkeley and in Encinitas schools. You can visit her website at www.phoebebradley.com.
