PebbleCreek Art Club – January 2024

Regena Bacon, 2023 Artist of the Year

The PebbleCreek (PC) Art Club is pleased to announce that Regena Bacon was voted the 2023 Artist of the Year.

An active member of the PebbleCreek Art Club for more than 17 years, Regena is talented in multiple art forms, including collage, fused glass, drawing, sculpture, floral design, and jewelry.

In presenting the award, Diane Walenda said Regena generously gives her time and talent, presenting workshops for the Art Club and other PC organizations, including Showtime theater performances, dancing events, gallery designs, parties, and presentations.

Regena has received many awards, including First Place as “Meet the Artist” in 2017 and 2023 and artist of the month three times. Her works have been accepted into art shows in several area cities as well as Arizona State University.

Regena grew up in a very small town in West Tennessee. Retiring early after a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, she found herself dabbling in various art forms. She did everything: contemporary floral arranging, painting walls, cabinets, furniture, glasses, sinks, tiles, concrete. and sweatshirts—almost anything that needed a “special” touch of color or enhancement was at risk of becoming a target for Regena’s paint brushes. Everything was done without specific training; just her eye for design that she credits to an inherited talent from her wonderful mother.

In 1999, she married the love of her life, Dru Bacon. In 2001, they headed west and began the process of buying and building their new home on the barely developed Tuscany Falls side.

During the spring and summer “Art Tents,” she displayed and sold numerous “Everlasting Ikebana” floral arrangements which adorn many PebbleCreek homes.

As Tuscany Falls continued to develop with the construction of the Creative Art Center, Regena began taking classes in fused glassware—plates and pendants—and beading, collage papers, alcohol inks, acrylic pouring, and abstract acrylics. She also displayed her work in the new Expressions Gallery.

In 2013, after attending a Feng Shui Retreat, Regena began a special creative design interpretation of a Kimono collage. This collage design was inspired by and is in memory of her son, David, who had a great appreciation and love of her unrestrained raw talent.

Over the years, the Kimono Collages, her “Everlasting Ikebana” floral arrangements (David’s favorites), and her abstract artworks have sold and are enjoyed in homes in PebbleCreek, in Arizona and in states throughout the U.S.

Regena has given talks on creating a peaceful home environment for design classes, demonstrated her Everlasting Ikebana floral arrangements for the Art Club, participated in the Art Club’s Art Walks and shows, in which she received several awards for her abstract art pieces, and has sold numerous artworks.

Regena’s name has been added to those of other PebbleCreek artists who have been chosen as Artist of the Year. Her works will be on display at the Creative Arts Center in February.

2024 Brings New Classes, Instructors to PebbleCreek Art Club

Emily Grotta

For the first time in more than a year, the PebbleCreek Art Club is offering an abstract art class in January with Carol McDonald, a well known artist whose work is in galleries throughout Arizona. In February, two watercolor classes will be offered, one for those with experience in the medium, the other for anyone interested in the medium.

“Abstract art has no agenda,” McDonald says. “It’s all about what might happen next.” Her class, “Exploring Textures in Abstract Art,” will be held on two Thursdays, Jan. 18 and 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The class is designed to help students experiment with different materials to add texture and interest to abstract works. McDonald says knowing what might work best on a particular painting requires understanding of how each material looks, feels and absorbs paint. The sessions will be casual, designed for play as artists use their creative energy to enhance their artwork. Artists will work in acrylic paint using materials McDonald will bring with her.

Marion Droge, a Silver Signature Member of the Arizona Watercolor Association, will teach how to capture the illusion of reflected light on glass. Her class, “Painting Glass Marbles,” is also a two-day workshop, Feb. 16 and 17, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Working in watercolors, she will show students step-by-step how to master the reflective quality of glass marbles. Her paintings are very detailed in a photo-realistic style.

Then, on Thursday, Feb 22, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Janet Nunn will teach a class with liquid watercolors. Nunn uses Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus Liquid Watercolors to create detail and feeling with bright colors and blending in her paintings of Colorado landscapes and people. She will bring the paints for you to try as you complete a flower painting in the class.

PebbleCreek Art Club classes are open to all residents and renters in PebbleCreek. Membership in the club is $25 a year and includes many benefits in addition to lower fees for classes. For more information and to register for either class, please go to www.pcartclub.org.

Suzy Skolnik, January Most Improved Artist

Suzy Skolnik

I am a born and raised Nebraska girl, growing up in a small rural town about 25 miles west of the state’s capital city. In kindergarten I won my first award as an artist; my drawing of a clown won first-place ribbon in the Nebraska State Fair. I continued to dabble in art, taking classes at school and sketching pen and ink drawings in my spare time, but it would be decades before another award came my way.

In 1970 I graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in zoology and physiology and married my high school sweetheart. We stayed in Seward where he was a pharmacist, and I was a stay-at-home mom for our daughter. I did a lot of sewing, both for myself and others, and took classes at the local fabric store to develop my skills. I made sports coats for my husband, wedding dresses, bridesmaid’s frocks, and cheerleading uniforms, and outfitted our daughter in the cutest little dresses I could turn out on my trusty Bernina.

We moved to Phoenix in 1974, had another child (a boy), and I met one of my all-time best friends. She was an art major in college and inspired me to dust off my dormant artistic side. I incorporated fabric and art into designing and creating appliqued art on sweatshirts, denim jackets, and clothing I sewed and then adorned. I created a line of children’s clothing, which I sewed and personalized with fantastical sea creatures, colorful flowers, birds, and patchwork landscapes, often taking commissions.

In 1986, I earned a master’s degree in secondary education and began teaching high school. I retired in 2004 and was hired as an adjunct faculty at Estrella Mountain Community College. I lost my husband of 44 years in 2014 and moved to PebbleCreek in 2018. I joined the Camera Club almost immediately. I met Glenn Ishibashi, a dear friend, and he urged me to join the Art Club.

At the club’s 2020 ”Paint in the Park” get-together I brought one brush, a cheap set of watercolor paints, and a photograph of some cows taken on one of our trips back to Nebraska. I was shocked that it turned out to look like the cow in the photo. I entered it in the Fall Art Show that year in the Emerging Artist Category and won first place.

I joined the watercolor group and met the wonderful women who inspire me and urge me to keep picking up a brush. I plug along, have turned out very few pieces, but I enjoy satisfying that creative urge when it strikes. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to meet so many kind, talented, and generous people and, to quote another member of the club, “I think I have found my tribe.”

Suzy’s work can be seen in both Clubhouses and at the Creative Arts Center.

Calling All Artist “Want-To-Bes” for Jan. 13 Art Club Open House

Emily Grotta

Did you love drawing and painting when you were a child, but gave it up for more “serious” pursuits as you left high school? Do you think about trying your hand at art, but don’t know where to start? Are you curious about the differences among watercolor, oil, and acrylic paints, or wonder what fiber clay is all about? If so, this month’s PebbleCreek Art Club Open House is the place for you.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 13, come to the Creative Arts Center for an open house for community members who are curious about the fine arts in PebbleCreek. You’ll be able to see artists at work and talk with them about their mediums and what they are working on. It is your chance to see how acrylic, oil, pastel, and watercolor paintings are developed, as well as how drawings in colored ink, pen, and graphite pencils are made. And you’ll see how members help one another and share their knowledge and expertise.

Membership in the PebbleCreek Art Club is only $25 a year, and entitles members to reduced fees on classes, the opportunity to work in the center with other artists during Open Studio hours, and many other benefits. Members can display and sell their work at two art shows and in the windows and gallery at the Creative Arts Center. They can use the equipment in the Coyote Room and borrow books and videos from our library. There are numerous outings to art-related venues in the Greater Phoenix area, and members gain friends and a sense of camaraderie by joining these field trips and the monthly First Friday lunches.

The PebbleCreek Art Club invites you to laugh, learn, and grow with us! We hope to see you on Jan. 13 when members will be available to answer questions about the club and assist you with signing up. For information about the club, please visit www.pcartclub.org.