Donna Hayden: Donna's background includes study with numerous prestigious instructors at the Laguna Beach School of Art, including Suewo Sirasawa. She has been selling original art in Laguna Beach, CA since 1970. Her preferred media are oil and acrylic painting, watercolor and pastels, and the use of hand made paper. 

Donna's first dog was Schooner, a brindle Whippet and rescued professional racer. Currently, her dog is Ruby, a Bearded Collie/Wheaton Terrier mix. Both companions have given her countless opportunities to study the elegant movement, dignity and capricious nature of canines.

 

 

 

Robin Cambre: Robin draws her inspiration, well, from everywhere! She virtually looks around, and sees art! She has been painting for 30 years, working in oils and acrylic, painting still lifes, landscapes, animals and portraits. She enjoys painting in many styles including Impressionistic and Old Masters. Robin credits Lynn Torinni, her college art teacher, for inspiring her to paint and to look at everything with an artist’s eye. Her passion and love for all dogs started earlier on, with her first poodle, Muffin … and currently, without a doubt, with Zoe , a black lhasa-poo with extreme attitude and charm! Oh, and did we mention, she is a gourmet chef, too?!

 

 

Lori Rase Hall: As long as I can remember. I believe I was actually painting even before I picked up a brush. It's that simple need to make marks. There is certain art that I favor, such as the wonderful composition & design found in Japanese art, the intimacy of Henri Matisse, the intricacy of Persian Miniatures and the patterns of Moroccan and Indian art. I'm a Graphic Artist in my 9-5 job, so graphic design & illustrators are a favorite of mine to explore. Also, I've got to say I ‘m enjoying looking at Grant Wood's landscapes---you gotta love those puffy trees!

I have an absolute love to produce pattern and color for pattern and color sake. It's such a meditative and integral part of how I make pictures that is always there in some form. This in turn produces what I like to think of as visuals which allow the eye to wander but in a gentle way, thus a meditation. If for instance I put together a series of circles your eye first will travel those forms before the intellect takes over. After the intellect has finished its reach for an answer, then one is left with a very intimate relationship with very simple forms. The same can be said for color... maybe even more so. I believe that I make art that is very comfortable.

My motivation is the same for any artist, whether they are painters, musicians, or writers...to somehow document thoughts and visions in a way that is unique and different. The simple need to explore who I am - to know myself.

I was born in Sacramento, California and received my Art training at American River College, graduating with a degree Fine Art. Since the 1980's my paintings have been exhibited in numerous galleries throughout California and the Western US. My work appears in many distinguished and private collections, and is also in the permanent collection of the E.B. Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA.

 

 

Debby Carman is an imagineer: She is a Laguna Beach, California artist, author, cartoonist and fabulist who dreamily draws, paints, sculpts, whimsical cats, dogs and other creatures of the animal kingdom. She chronicles random notions, furry motions and life's nutty nuances depicting fun and farce, frolic and foible in her distinctively recognizable style and expressively vibrant color palette. The broken line art style is an allegory of what is real and imagined; best described by Debby as allowing the possibilities to enter into every piece of art.

Debby lives in a tiny house by the sparking sea in Laguna Beach, California with her newest character a whackadoodle dog she has named Cozy Coquetti, the two cats she inherited from her mother, SunnyCheese—puss & Bigg E. Smalls. Her life has been filled with love and real life animal characters all which have fueled her tireless imagination. She creates "art from the heart, because everybody smiles and giggles in the same language". She invites you into her world: "to dream to dream, but not to sleep".....