Instructors
Nancy Call Torres
Owner/Founder
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.
Audrey Torres
Audrey was raised with an art teacher as a mother and an oil painting studio in her garage. She’s been surrounded by art her entire life, and has a deep appreciation for color and creating. Her artistic interests span many mediums, including oil paint, pencil, photography, and linoleum block carving. Her current passion is modern calligraphy and hand lettering, and her wedding signage has been featured on Style Me Pretty and Borrowed & Blue.
Audrey has worked with children for almost two decades. At age 11 she founded her own theater arts summer camp, collaborating with campers to write and perform an original play each week. She ran the camp for 5 years before closing its doors, at which point she began working with Art Attack every summer. Now 12 years later she is with the studio full time, managing registration, teaching teen class, and leading Summer Camp.
Diane Elcan
A native of San Mateo, Diane is thrilled to be back in the Bay Area following her graduation from UCLA, and a long career in the travel and hospitality industry in Southern California. She’s always had an eye for beauty, creativity and adventure, which shows in her diverse resume. She’s held positions in the cruise ship industry, followed by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, and then the Century Plaza Hotel and Spa. There she designed entertainment industry events such as the Emmy’s and Grammy Awards, as well as White House and Presidential visits. Additionally, she worked at the Getty Center in Brentwood as the Catering Manager for special art events. Most recently she left a tenured position at the Stanford Faculty Club as the Director of Catering Sales and Marketing.
She’s always made an effort to have art in her life, and during her summers home from college she taught watercolor for children at the Beresford Recreation Center in San Mateo. Finally her quest for an adult program was fulfilled when she met Nancy Torres at a social event in 2012. She happily became a student at Art Attack and continues today with the Tuesday night classes. She loves big shapes, bright colors, and is always trying to improve her skill-set.
Ellen Howard
Ellen 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. In 2010, she was introduced to plein air painting and started taking classes and & attending workshops. She has had the opportunity to study several noted artists including: Will Maller, Bill Davidson & Jeanette LeGrue who have become great mentors.
Ellen works primarily in oils studying landscape and marine subjects on location allowing her to be outdoors, taking in the nuances, beauty and diversity of Northern California. True enjoyment comes from painting the marshlands and highlighting areas along the Pacific Coast, capturing the light as it spreads across a scene.
Ellen is Co-Chair of the California Art Club, San Francisco Region, a signature member of the California Plein Air Painters (CPAP), Society of Western Artists (SWA) and Monterey Plein Air Painters, a member of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPs), the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA), the Los Gatos Art Association (LGAA), the American Impressionist Society (AIS), the Outdoor Painters Society (OPS), and the Plein Air Painters of Colorado. (PAAC). Ellen has also been juried into the 2016 and 2017 “Best of America” NOAPS national exhibitions. She was awarded 2nd Place in the LGAA Greater Bay Area Open earlier this year. Ellen was a featured artist in the Mendocino Plein Air Event (MOPO) in 2016 and won “Best Water Scene” in MOPO this year. She has also received Honorable Mentions from both the Monterey Bay Plein Air Artists (MBPAA) and the CPAP Annual Exhibition in 2017, National Juried exhibitions include OPS 2015 & 2017, and PAAC 2017. She was one of 19 artists for the “Northern California Impressionism” exhibition at Peninsula Museum of Art.
Ellen’s work has been showcased in the October issue, 2016 of Plein Air Magazine and the September 2017 issue of Art Collectors magazine. Ellen is represented at Gallery 24 in Los Gatos, CA, and Arnould Gallery in Marblehead, MA.
Mitch Berry
Mitch Berry was raised in a family of musicians, so artistic expression is a part of who he is. Starting at a young age he was encouraged to explore many art forms, planting seeds that would later thrive. He would say that art helped him become the man he is today, and he wants to relay those experiences to the next generation. He has experience in a number of mediums; from sculpture, to oil and acrylic painting, to graphic design. He recently designed and painted a mural at a local cafe in SSF.
He is an art enthusiast, and has decided to dedicate his life to it and pursue a career in the art field. He’s currently studying Studio Art with an emphasis on Teaching at San Francisco State University, and is on the path to transfer to Notre Dame de Namur to become an Art Therapist. He wants to inspire kids to create the way he was inspired when he was young, and is excited to be working with the youth of his community.
Pam Lampkin
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
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”.
