The highly esteemed Art with Larisse studio celebrated its 5TH year in Santee’s Carlton Oaks Shopping Center. Larisse Robinson, owner of two other studios in Kearney Mesa and La Mesa, hosted an ice cream social and art show for the occasion.
The Santee studio had been formerly located on Cuyamaca Street and moved to its current place behind Kaffee Meister last November.
The highly esteemed Art with Larisse studio celebrated its 5TH year in Santee’s Carlton Oaks Shopping Center. Larisse Robinson, owner of two other studios in Kearney Mesa and La Mesa, hosted an ice cream social and art show for the occasion.
The Santee studio had been formerly located on Cuyamaca Street and moved to its current place behind Kaffee Meister last November.
“We chose this location because we could see the growth after Highway 52 came in. Santee has a really great community of people and they really support their small businesses,” Robinson said.
The celebration featured live music, ice cream with all the mix-ins that kids could want, an art show of the students and even some quizzes to test the students’ knowledge in art.
“We study the classics here,” Robinson said, with her 3-year-old Sadie in tow.
Art with Larisse offers a program that is designed for children ages 4.5 up to adult. Robinson said that most students have been successful within this range.
But she did have one student who had barely turned 3-years-old come to class and did very well. Some of her adult students come in having done art for years. Some of them do find group classes that they like, but Robinson usually offers them private lessons.
The same techniques with all of her students, whether they are children or adults, are provided. But with adults, there is usually a wide spectrum of abilities. Robinson always provides techniques to add to and challenge their abilities.
“We provide them with new techniques. So we are really open to most ages,” she said.
Robinson and her seven instructors teach 300 children, focusing on the traditional mediums of the “Masters,” such as Monet, Renoir and van Gogh. Robinson used only charcoal, pastel, watercolor and oil as media during her art training at Mission: Renaissance in Los Angeles.
Jessica Velazquez, the program director for the Santee art studio, handed out free raffle tickets for prizes to the children when they turned in their quizzes.
“It’s amazing to watch the children’s growth in knowledge and abilities in art,” Velazquez said.
Wade Curry, whose 17-year-old daughter has taken classes for five years at Art with Larisse, is also a student at the studio.
“I used to do picture framing at Aaron Brothers for art students, but I’d never had the professional instruction in art until I came here. Now both my daughter and I put our paintings in the San Diego Fair each year,” Robinson said.
Art with Larisse stands out from other art schools in that the program offers students a chance to start where they are and progress as they graduate to each higher level.
“Much like school where you can’t write until you learn your ABC’s, we operate the same way,” she said. “We want to make sure our students are applying the tools we teach them to draw better as well as how to appreciate the tones, the lights and darks, in their art.”
Mixing colors is also another big part of the Art with Larisse program. Robinson works with only the best quality art products and make sure the students understand why. With good tools comes quality of art, she believes.
Curry said that Robinson’s technique is more intuitive than the normal use of the grid-style to teach getting proportions correct in a painting or drawing.
“Larisse looks at your ability to see the big picture,” he said.
New students get their first art class free. The family-like environment of Robinson and her instructors along with the student being given a goal to reach for the next level in their artistic abilities keep students coming back.
“When I walk into a studio to witness the art show at the end of the class and I look around and see so many faces that I don’t recognize, it astonishes me how much we have grown since the days of just being one instructor teaching in a really small studio,” Robinson said.
