Painting

A band of pint-sized artists will have a one-day art exhibit in Costa Mesa — right in the middle of nap time. Orange Coast College is showcasing "The Language of Paint," a single-day exhibit of 24 paintings created by the pre-kindergarten students in the college's Harry and Grace Steele Children's Center. The 5-year-old students were given disposable cameras to capture the world around them and asked to re-create their favorite photo in paint. The children had no special arts training, but figured out how to mix the colors themselves and learned through experimentation about different techniques like applying paint with a sponge or Q-tips.

The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum is adding an original art collection of paintings created for the annual Newport Ensenada Yacht Race to its permanent collection. The first painting the museum acquired was the official painting of the 60th anniversary race, the largest international yacht race in the world. The painting, created by Newport Beach artist Carole Boller illustrates the story of the competition. "This new art collection will be a valuable addition to the history of Newport for museum visitors to enjoy for years to come," said Executive Director David Muller in a news release.

Sitting in her Costa Mesa trailer, 76-year-old Teri Horton thinks she would like to buy a car when her $50-million ship finally comes in — an Escalade perhaps, but not a new one. “I don’t think I’ll drive one off of the showroom floor — why would you,” said Horton, a retired truck driver. “You lose about $30,000 in value right off the bat,” she said. Horton hopes to turn a $5 painting she found at a junk store into a $50-million fortune.

Although she said Lake Michigan is beautiful and she enjoyed its scenery while living in Chicago, nothing entranced artist Carole Boller more than the ocean. So six years ago, Boller moved from the Windy City to Newport Beach to open her studio and art gallery just steps away from where the Balboa ferry lands on the peninsula. Boller tries to sail once a week — although she hesitated last week to call herself a sailor — so when Newport Ocean Sailing Assn. Commodore David Garcia approached her about painting the official work for the 60th Annual Lexus Newport to Ensenada Race, she was more than delighted.

Bill Hudson's skill in the most recent annual family talent show was playing Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show's song "Cover of the Rolling Stone" on his five-string banjo, but his genuine flair is watercolor. Family has long been an artistic motivation for Hudson, a father to eight children and grandfather to five. Many of his maritime paintings are inspired by time spent as a young boy with his grandparents in the small fishing village of Greenbackville, Va.; fishing on the Oregon coast with his children; and accompanying his son Luke, a pitcher for the Kansas City Royals, to spring training in Florida.

Though she had badly burned her hand just days before, Sally Jordan said she just couldn't miss painting on a bright afternoon on Balboa Island. "It's too much fun to miss," the Pauma Valley resident said from behind her easel, where she was painting one of the island's several frozen banana businesses. "In all my years here, I've never had anyone be anything but pleasant to me. " Jordan was one of 13 landscape oil painters invited by the Debra Huse Gallery to paint life on the island for one week in the beginning of August.

NEWPORT BEACH — Muldoon's Irish Pub this weekend will revive the old mid-afternoon custom of friends coming together over a piping hot cup of tea. On Saturday afternoon, sisters Lissi Kaplan and Sindi Rae Schwartz will host the first of many Irish Country Tea parties at Muldoon's. They'll serve up home-cooked finger-foods and lead a discussion about the history of tea and porcelain settings. "Tea is very much a part of the Irish culture," said Schwartz, co-owner of the Newport Beach pub. "It's very much about creating a moment, sitting down and taking a breath to enjoy the aromas, flavors and conversation around the table.

Phil Roberts never met Merle Hatleberg, the founder of Someone Cares Soup Kitchen who passed away in May; but by the time he finished painting her portrait, he almost felt as though he had. Roberts, a painter and sketch artist who lives in Corona del Mar, is longtime friends with Hatleberg’s daughter Debbie Pezman and her husband, Steve, the publishers of Surfer’s Journal. When Someone Cares planned an open house in honor of its late founder, Pezman approached her friend and asked him to paint a portrait of her mother.

FOR THE RECORD: In Saturday's Daily Pilot article, "Blue moon over Balboa," painter Jim Wodark's name was spelled incorrectly. The number of painters reported that artist Debra Huse invited to join her in capturing the phenomenon was incorrect. Debra Huse invited seven other artists to join her in capturing the phenomenon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . There was nothing "plain" about the images created on the canvases and displayed on the easels set up by local plein-air artists along South Bayfront on Balboa Island Thursday night.

John Blaich The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum recently received a donated oil painting of the schooner yacht Seadrift. The painting -- by the famous marine artist Caleb Whitbeck, a recognized member of the American Society of Marine Artists -- will be added to the museum's collection of 40 paintings known as "The Famous Yachts of Newport Harbor." This beautiful painting shows Seadrift under full sail about to enter Newport Harbor. Two other famous yachts are also under sail in the background.

When Kate Batstone came home from a service learning trip to Ecuador two years ago, she struggled to re-adapt to Orange County's culture of affluence. "It's really hard to come home when you're leaving behind so many problems," Batstone, 18, said. "You really want to stay. Orange County is so nice. There's unbelievable shopping and spending. I was so angry at the wastefulness. " Batstone, a student at the Jewish community day school Tarbut V'Torah in Irvine, is going on her second service learning trip with 23 other classmates next month.

About 20 Harbor View Elementary School students spent Wednesday afternoon on the Goldenrod Footbridge, using class art lessons and their hands to paint masterpieces that will be auctioned later this month at a parent fundraiser. "It is freeing, far more than in a regular classroom," said Eve Nycz, the school's art teacher, who stopped by to watch the children paint. "I love that this takes kids out of the classroom. I love the sensory aspect of it. " Parent Mark Akhavain, who paints as a hobby, organized the project after working all year with fourth-graders in their Art Masters classes.

The young artists gathered around the gallery, waiting to talk about their framed artwork hanging on the wall. "Oohs," "ahhs" and "cool" could be heard as students walked in single file through Paularino Elementary School's Room 6, admiring the work of their peers. "I especially like that picture of the iguana," said first-grade student Ethan Elvanter, 6. "It would kind of be cool to have my picture up there. " The Costa Mesa campus was buzzing Wednesday after lunch with the grand opening of 5R6 art gallery, a section of fifth-grade teacher Lisa Roberts' classroom that's dedicated to her students' work, which includes paintings, drawings and photographs on the wall and sculptural pieces on a table.

The Western frontier — Southern California, in particular — represented a tableau of possibilities and artistic freedom for women who strived to be painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "Many of the artists who came here got to do things they never could have done on the East Coast," said James Irvine Swinden, president of the Irvine Museum. "The other thing is that a lot of these artists were able to explore their talents much more than men could, and they changed their art style.

Although never intended to be abstract landscapes, works in "Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series" impart a sense of coastal Southern California light and atmosphere. Eighty works are going on display at the Orange County Museum of Art on Sunday in a show that will run there through May 27. It is the most comprehensive Diebenkorn exhibit to hit the art scene to date, OCMA Curator Sarah Bancroft said. "It's his most celebrated series, but very few people have seen it in-depth" Bancroft said of Diebenkorn's pieces, which span from 1967 to 1988 and originate from his Santa Monica Ocean Park studio.

His career started in education teaching at a high school and Juvenile Hall. Then at Orange County Jail, he worked with minors being tried as adults. His mission eventually turned to stopping graffiti, which branched out to extolling the virtues of good nutrition and conserving water. Michael Howard teaches through art. The Costa Mesa resident has painted nearly 800 murals on school campuses over the last 18 years as the founder and director of the Operation Clean Slate.

Despite dark gray rain clouds threatening to let loose Monday morning, students and adults kept painting a colorful mural on the side of a portable classroom facing the playground at College Park Elementary School. The mural at the Costa Mesa campus featured hands holding the Earth inside a raindrop, with a rainbow above and brightly colored flowers on the side. The slogans "Save Water Every Day" along the top and "No Excuses" on the bottom will be added later. "It adds color to our school — [the school's]

COSTA MESA - Dieters will have to look elsewhere for excuses not to follow through on their New Year's weight-loss resolutions with the reopening of 24 Hour Fitness on 19th Street. The members-only club closed Dec. 9 and reopened Thursday after undergoing a remodel to the exercise rooms, pool and locker room areas and various enhancements, including new cardio-training equipment and fresh paint. Club employees stood at the registration desk, welcoming members back by name as they signed in for the first time in three weeks.

COSTA MESA — Family and friends of a Tustin woman killed about two weeks ago by a falling tree have created an online memorial. Visitors to the Dignity Memorial can view a photo gallery of Haeyoon Miller. The 29-year-old died Sept. 15 when a 10-ton, 50-foot eucalyptus inexplicably fell from a median and landed on her car as she waited at a red light. "The photos paint a picture of a wonderful person who truly lived a full life," George Osorio, Miller's longtime boyfriend, wrote in an email.

Newport Coast artist N.C. Swan is proving that art can be as much about sound as it is about seeing. A reception for Swan and her "audible art" will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Artist Eye Laguna Gallery, 1294-A S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach. The idea of audible art came to her while she was painting a group of birds, according to a news release from the gallery. She thought incorporating sounds of birds chirping and chattering would add a new dimension to the painting. She expanded this idea into her award-winning wave paintings, where viewers can press a button on the frame to hear sounds of waves and sea gulls.