Meet Our Instructors
Try your hand at something new:
Our workshops & classes unite people of all ages and skill levels, nurturing meaningful arts experiences across various mediums. Our dedicated instructors foster a diverse educational program to empower artists at every stage – from novices to enthusiasts to established artists seeking further growth.
Explore the possibilities: click the button below to see our current workshop and class offerings:
Peggy Burkosky
Since 1973 Peggy received training in commercial design and illustration in Vancouver Canada, the Federation of Canadian Artists workshops, travelling to Fabriano in Aquarello International symposium workshops in Fabriano Italy, Croatia and beyond.
She is a member and instructor with the VAWAA (Vacation With An Artist) international organization, the Canadian representative for the International Watercolour Society Museum, honorary Signature Member of the International Plein Air Painters and has received numerous awards from the Federation of Canadian Artists.
Peggy Burkosky has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions, including a recent solo exhibition at Gallery ExaArt in Osaka, Japan.
Janice Hofman
Janice Hofman, a Mixed media artist, instructor and maker of things is known for distinctive mark-making, vibrant colours and unique patterns. She has a playful, thoughtful approach to art-making. She explores a variety of mediums and substrates, often using collage, recycled and alternative materials in her abstract pieces and art journals.
Ionne McCauley
Ionne McCauley has drawn and made art most of her life – in some form or other. First, spending 20 years in Australia and Canada custom-dying fabrics and garments, teaching colour theory and design principles classes to fiber artists across Canada from 1998 through 2018.
Since 2016, Ionne has concentrated on personal art-making on watercolour and have become entranced by its magic and beauty.
Susan Schaefer
Susan Schaefer is a Canadian Fine Artist living in Parksville. She is a professional artist working mainly in acrylic paints. She has a unique painting style.
Susan has been a professional artist for the past 20 years. She has taken workshops from some of Canada’s finest artist. She has been teaching classes for over 5 years and is happy to share her knowledge, tricks, tips and passion for acrylic painting. Susan has a fun and relaxed way of teaching, working with students at their individual level, ensuring a good learning experience for all.
Barbara Callow
Barbara Callow was born in Victoria and earned a Visual Fine Arts Diploma at Langara College in Vancouver in the early 70's.
Working in watercolours and oils, as well as extensive drawing, she now works full time in her studio from her photos, as well as from life. She teaches classes and workshops in all of these mediums as well as doing guest demos for art clubs and schools.
She is an award-winning, a signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, with works in collections in Great Britain, France, New Zealand and over North America.
Teresa Knight
Teresa obtained her BA in Studio Arts and Bachelor of Education in Art at the University of British Columbia.
She loves to teach and to enable others to enjoy the creative process. Many of her students have gone on to become artists themselves. Her paintings are beautiful one-of-a-kind originals, each representing a coming together of creativity, vision and skill.
Katarina Meglic
Born in 1976 in Victoria, BC, Katarina Meglic studied at the Victoria College of Art and Pacific Design Academy. Extensive, gallery-focused travels through Europe and New York following graduation served to inform her practice, and helped establish a maturity in her work.
Katarina considers the human figure to be a vessel of storytelling, and her intimate portraits – whether depicting a salacious kiss, underwater dance, or sleeping child – are compassionate studies of character and experience. Her canvasses are rich with intense colour, expressive line, and thick textures.
Katarina lives, works, and gardens on Denman Island, BC, on what she respectfully acknowledges is unceded traditional territory of the K’omoks First Nation. She is fond of the smell of roses and turpentine, and everything she owns is covered with paint.
Buffy Sullivan
Buffy Sullivan is a proudly self-taught multidisciplinary fibre artist. Her focus is spinning art yarns and weaving with them. Buffy has lived on the coast most of her life with the exception of 12 years as an Albertan. She is endlessly inspired by nature. Currently, she is raising her two little girls as a single parent in Coombs.
Brooke Emily
Brooke has a BFA in Visual Art + Design with a concentration in Creative Writing. She lives and works on Vancouver Island as an artist and therapeutic teacher. Brooke's work as a therapeutic teacher informs her artistic practice, and she is interested in children's literature and picture bookmaking.
Brooke's inspiration comes from all over; from the rugged West Coast, her home in Whiskey Creek, garden, dog, and two cats.
Silvina Lanusse
Silvina Lanusse is a mixed media creative originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina now living in Parksville. Her work is inspired by animals and nature around her. Her painting begins the moment the first drop of colour falls on her substrate. It starts with a swirl, then another. Layers of pure colour dance in rhythm with textures. Her painting varies from colourful abstracts to whimsical stories. Organic strokes held together in a symphony of radian paint bursting like her life tango.
Silvina holds a B.A. of Arts in Studio Art from Clark University in Massachusetts and has exhibited her work in Argentina, Unites States and most recently in Canada.
She started her career as a figurative artist and transitioned into the mixed media and abstract in the last few years. Silvina’s blunt and bright colour palette is the key denominator in all her work and a symbol of her passionate energy.
Silvina’s work is radiant, full of rich textures, vibrant colours, and fluid movement.
“Painting to me is like dancing to the rhythm of my colours! Come dance with me”
Catherine Trembath
Catherine Trembath is our newest drawing instructor. She draws inspiration from many sources. Her childhood memories of growing up in foreign countries, to her curious journey through adulthood are what shape her style. She has explored many different avenues; environmental studies, art direction, graphic design, painting and teaching. She has received formal training from the Emily Carr School of Art and Design as well as the University of British Columbia. She has also received specialized instruction all over the world.
Her work is mainly in acrylics, portraits and abstracts, however she loves all media.
Her personal ethos is that creating is good for the soul.