- April 24, 2024
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Rose Ann and Fred Samuelson relocated to Ormond Beach five years ago to teach at the Art League of Daytona Beach.
BY WAYNE GRANT | CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It's all about developing new artists for Fred and Rose Ann Samuelson, who relocated to Ormond Beach five years ago to teach at the Art League of Daytona Beach.
“I love it,” Rose Ann Samuelson said. “The student says, ‘I don’t know what to do;’ then they take off. It’s like — boom — they create something, and it’s fantastic.”
The Samuelsons, who teach artists of all levels, believe that anyone can create art — all they need to do is try. And the better someone is able to draw, the better artist they'll usually become, even if they plan to make abstract art.
After living in various places throughout Florida, the Southwest United States and Mexico, the couple moved to Ormond Beach from Tallahassee. Before the move, Fred Samuelson was leading workshops at the Art League of Daytona Beach from their home in Tallahassee.
Samuelson teaches a technique with watercolor washes called “drip and splash.” The artist drips washes of color through tissues onto a canvas, keeping a theme in mind. Then, the artist studies the images left by the tissues and paints toward the theme using more paint and pastel pencils.
This technique “energizes the imagination,” he said. “Students love it.”
Fred Samuelson, with a master of fine arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago, has owned galleries and taught for years at the San Antonio Art Institute, as well as the Instituto Allende, in Mexico. He has also won several awards and been featured in “Who’s Who in American Art,” since 1962.
Rose Ann Samuelson, who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Ringling School of Art and Design, in Sarasota, when she was 40 years old, teaches figure painting. Throughout most of her career, she's sold her work at art festivals, and she also has a long list of awards and acknowledgements to her credit.
Originally an actress and singer, she performed with the Titusville Little Theater Group until going to art school.
“I had always been able to draw,” she said. “When I was a little girl, I drew on the wallpaper until my mother bought me a paint set.”
Both artists deny being retired.
“Artists never retire,” she said. “Other people retire and want to start painting, so we teach them.”
