Instructors
With a background in drawing, painting, and photography, Nancy Call Torres has been working professionally in the arts for over 33 years. Being both an artist and an educator, in 1995 she began the popular “Nancy Call Torres Art Studio,” teaching oil painting, crafts, and theater to thousands of bay area children. In 2005, she founded “Art Attack!”, a local studio that offers fine art instruction for children, teens and adults.
Nancy is passionate about making the fine arts more accessible to local audiences while infusing those she works with, with her joy of creating. Nancy is an accomplished plein air painter who travels regularly, painting what inspires her. Her travels have taken her to France and Italy, but her favorite place of inspiration is her home state of California.
Her paintings are in private collections around the world and she is currently represented by The Studio Shop in Burlingame, CA. Nancy is an active member of Local 365, a movement in the San Francisco Bay Area that combines live art and live music, collaborating with some of the Bay Area’s finest local musicians. She has painted live and exhibited with them at Yoshi’s, San Francisco, Grant and Green, Anna’s Jazz Island, The Elbo Room, Club Deluxe, The San Francisco Jazz Heritage Museum, MAPP, Space Gallery and 111 Minna Gallery.
Ellen has been working for Art Attack for over 7 years and has been involved as a volunteer and as an artist for the past 8 years. She writes our bi-monthly newsletter and organizes all outside student exhibitions; which include local libraries, stores, and the Peninsula Humane Society.
She has been a California resident for 20 years, and grew up outside of Boston, surrounded by relatives who were artists. Her grandfather was a cartoonist and her mother loved watercolor and gardening. While at Syracuse University, she earned a B.S. in Business and started her career in finance. It wasn’t until after she married and raised 2 children that she returned to her love of art and art history.
Ellen works primarily in oils. She loves plein air painting because it allows her to be outdoors, taking in the vast beauty and diversity of the Northern California landscape. She derives true enjoyment from painting the marshlands and highlighting areas along the Pacific Coast, capturing the light as it spreads across a scene. Color is vital to her, and represents the abundance and richness of life. It shows vitality and reflects positive moments in time. Her goal is to brighten up a living space with her paintings.
She began taking art classes in 2005 at Art Attack, the Palo Alto Art Center, and the Pacific Art League. Ellen is an award winning artist and a Signature Member of the Society of Western Artists, NOAPS (National Oil & Acrylic Painters Society”, Laguna Plein Air Painters, Los Gatos Art Association, American Impressionist Society, Outdoor Painters Society, California Plein Air Painters and the California Art Club. Ellen is represented at Gallery 24, Los Gatos, CA Arnould Gallery, Marblehead, MA and Unleashed Art Gallery, Redwood City, CA.
Isabel DeContreras is a Bay Area native and an art enthusiast that has been a part of the Art Attack family for quite some time. Over the years she has moved from student, to intern, to camp counselor, to instructor. She is a seasoned veteran and knows the ins and outs of the studio.
As a senior at Crystal Springs Uplands School, she has taken every art class and is currently pursuing Honors studio art. She also leads Crafts for Causes, a club focused on creating crafts and art for the benefit of the community. For two summers she studied at the Academy of Art University, taking classes in drawing, painting, and photography, and learning from trained, successful, and experienced San Fransisco artists.
Isabel has a passion for charcoal drawing and oil painting, but is experienced and well-rounded in many mediums, including pencil drawing, watercolors, pen and ink, and encaustic painting. You can find some of her art on Instagram @isabeld_art. She is excited to be joining the Art Attack family as our newest instructor!
John Paul Rogers has approached art as he has everything in his life, with passion, inexhaustible energy and commitment. Following a career in aviation, John, or JP as we fondly call him, has been honing his painting skills.
He loves the human spirit, and it shows in his sensitive portraits. We also know his passion for teaching is contagious and his greatest joy is the moment when he witnesses the light go off in a student’s head. JP is a man of many talents, and we are blessed to have him as a part of our Art Attack family.
Pam was raised in Montreal, Quebec and majored in English and Theatre Design at Concordia University. She spent twenty years working as a costume designer and couture pattern maker for regional theatre companies across Canada, landing in Calgary as the head of the Costume Department of a multi-user production company. Her work there included managing the prototype construction of the skating costumes for the closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics. From 1990 until 1998 her costumes appeared on the main stages of the Bay Area including A.C.T., Theatreworks, San Jose Rep., Shakespeare Santa Cruz and Opera San Jose.
An opportunity to take an oil painting class lured her from her comfort zone as a sketch artist using colored pencils and watercolor. She now paints for passion after her hours spent as a fundraiser for various theatre and music companies around the Bay Area.
“Light travels at 670,616,629 mph. The average distance from the Sun to the Earth is 92,955,817 miles. Light only takes about 8 minutes to make that journey. It’s the artist’s challenge to capture it as it arrives.”
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Rachael Dominguez started painting and drawing as soon as she started writing. She followed her passion for painting to Art Attack, where she further developed her skills. Now an accomplished award-winning artist, her work has been featured in numerous shows and resides in several private collections.
Besides oil painting, Rachael enjoys making jewelry, cross stitch, needlepoint, and various fiber arts.
“I’m so excited to be working with young people. Their energy is what fuels the world and I absolutely love it. Creating and teaching go hand in hand for me because then the mind and spirit are working together”.
