ROCKINGHAM \u2014 More than two dozen aspiring artists converged Wednesday on Arts Richmond for painting lessons taught by Richmond Senior High School art teacher Susan Perkins.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Flip-flops, locally known as the glass slippers of the South, were the theme as paintbrushes whisked sandy beaches and Carolina blue skies onto blank canvasses. Perkins offered group instruction and individual pointers as she guided them step by step toward completing a likeness of a finished example painting on display.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been teaching art in the schools for years, and teaching these classes here and other places,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a few other paintings already this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Themes of the earlier paintings included flowers, coffee and love.<\/p>\n

Arts Richmond volunteer Laura Daskal said the turnout has been remarkable at previous events, and several people have already signed up for the next one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll be painting sunflowers,\u201d Daskal said.<\/p>\n

Amanda Motley took the class with a coworker, but said she\u2019ll be skipping the sunflower class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m waiting for the peacocks,\u201d Motley said.<\/p>\n

Blaine Maples, Richmond County Arts Council board president, said Wednesday\u2019s class was a fundraiser event.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust this one,\u201d Maples said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fundraiser with proceeds going to Arts Richmond. The other sessions are regular events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara Adkins and her friend Jan Allen, art teacher at the Richmond County Ninth-Grade Academy, smiled while painting the backgrounds of their canvasses to reflect a beach landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my first class,\u201d Adkins said. She appeared to be enjoying herself despite her inexperience.<\/p>\n

People with and without art experience filled all 25 available seats, and the first-timers appeared to be having as much fun as the veterans.<\/p>\n

Jordan Cooke, 13, was the youngest in the class and sat next to Merie Dawkins, her grandmother, who was also busy painting. But this wasn\u2019t the only art project in their lives this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on my house,\u201d Dawkins said. \u201cMy treehouse. My husband built it for me several years ago. We\u2019ve been fixing it up, redecorating and painting. We\u2019ve had breakfast up there, stargazed up there. We just love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Brianna David, 17, the painting class was a gift from Daskal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Laura did this for me as part of my graduation gift, so I\u2019ll have something to put in my dorm room,\u201d David said. She will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this fall and plans to major in biology. She is the daughter of Hamlet City Manager Marchell David, and attended the painting class with her friend Darshema Townsend, who will attend North Carolina Central University in Durham.<\/p>\n

The sunflower class will be Friday, Aug. 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Arts Richmond building downtown, but people should register soon to get a seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have 11 signed up, and the class only holds 25,\u201d Perkins said.<\/p>\n

The cost of each art class is $35 per person and includes all supplies in addition to step-by-step instruction.<\/p>\n

For more information, call Arts Richmond at 910-997-6008 or visit www.sociableart.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROCKINGHAM \u2014 More than two dozen aspiring artists converged Wednesday on Arts Richmond for painting lessons taught by Richmond Senior High School art teacher Susan Perkins. Flip-flops, locally known as the glass slippers of the South, were the theme as paintbrushes whisked sandy beaches and Carolina blue skies onto blank canvasses. Perkins offered group instruction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mpweb.org\/artsrichmond\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}