Lovejoy is a celebrated local painter, and she’ll be teaching painting classes every Thursday throughout the summer at Uptown Sedona’s Amara Resort and Spa. If the name Lovejoy sounds familiar to you, it’s likely because she’s been painting the Marigold Mural that kicks off the Dia de los Muertos celebration at Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village for years. Lovejoy has been a professional painter for over 20 years.
Guests will take home a painting of their choice. Paintings can feature images of Sedona – there are about eight images from a total of 20 to pick from – or the participants’ pets. The class lasts for about two hours. Students are given step-by-step printouts so they can complete their paintings. Lovejoy will help answer questions. She wants people to know that creativity doesn’t have to be hard and is accessible for all ages and skill levels. “My biggest goal for any art class is I want the student to impress themselves with what they created. So, if they come in and go, ‘I can’t do this.’ But at the end of class going, ‘Oh my God. That was easier than I thought.’ Then that’s what I consider a successful class,” she says. “That’s my main objective.” She taught paint and sip classes in San Diego about 15 years ago and enjoyed seeing how much participants enjoyed the classes.
“Here’s permission to play. It doesn’t have to come into anything,” she says. “A lot of times, halfway through class, I’m like, this is a tech-free time. When was the last time you spent two hours not staring at an electronic device? I feel like it’s a good cultural counter to how crazy life is, how they need to create with their hands and just how tactile it is. It’s almost like going back to kindergarten.” The paintings are intended to serve as a memory of the class and time spent in a town that’s partially known for the arts. “Make your own souvenir. Make your own memories,” says Lovejoy. “Every time they look at that painting on their wall, they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I did that at Amara in Sedona. That was so much fun.’ It’s connecting the location of where they’re at with the project that they impressed themselves with and then hopefully good memories that they have associated with it.” − Teresa K. Traverse
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