Before Mary Kay West was ever a painter, she was a dog lover. But now as an art instructor, she thinks back to the slogan of the TV show Pit Bulls and Parolees. The host always said something like, “I rescue dogs so one day I don’t have to.”
“That’s how I feel about my students,” West told the Sun. “Sometimes I feel like I’m saying the same thing a million times, but I’m sharing this information so one day I won’t have to.”
Meet the painters
Join the Central Coast Art League crew for an opening reception on Nov. 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Bob’s Well Bread, 2449 Baseline Ave. in Ballard. Artwork will be up for at least a month afterward and is for sale. For more about the artist group, visit centralcoastartleague.com or see @centralcoastartleague on Instagram.
She and nine other women officially named their circle the Central Coast Art League a couple of years ago. While the group mainly paints for personal satisfaction, they show work somewhat regularly around the Santa Ynez Valley. The next exhibition is at Bob’s Well Bread in Ballard with an opening reception on Nov. 14.
Peintures de Pain will be up for at least a month, West said. When the group shows at Bob’s, which they’ve done twice before, it’s always a bakery theme. Sometimes they leave artwork up at the café indefinitely.
Members will each have at least two paintings in the show. West, the group’s founder, said she “decided to go have a little bit of fun with a cupcake” in one of her pieces called With Sprinkles, Please. Next to the dessert is a frothy glass of milk in decorative glassware.
The Central Coast Art League meets every week at a small studio inside a Los Alamos garage where West teaches classical realism. The Guadalupe resident learned the tricks of the trade at a rigorous apprentice program 20 years ago and now passes knowledge along to her students. Without such studios, the technique would slowly be lost.
“I want them to be completely independent of me one day. I want to take from them one day. I’d like for them to look at one of my paintings and say, ‘Mary Kay, you need to change your color,’” West said with a laugh.
Some students have been with West for 15 years. She still gives individual instruction and critiques, but after so long it feels less like a classroom setting and more like friends gathering.
There are only three rules in the studio: no talk about politics, religion, or anyone who isn’t in the room.
“We love each other,” West said. “We support each other 100 percent, and it’s really been something.”
One of the teacher’s goals is to help the women realize that they can leave their marks on the art world, no matter their age or how they make a living.
“Almost everyone starts under me as a hobbyist. ‘No, I just want to paint for fun. I just want to paint for my family,’” West said. “They don’t have the confidence to even let themselves think that they could truly contribute something to the art world. … The other rewarding thing is changing that thought process.”
Each artist works on her own still life painting, absorbing advice from West during the sessions. Classical realism is based in truth and proportion when it comes to composition, color theory, and drawing.
“In visual art—I’m not being sarcastic—it really is about seeing,” West explained. “For example, how light or dark something is. That’s the most important thing in painting, and in the beginning, people can’t tell that something is lighter or darker.”
Santa Ynez resident Michelle Feldman agreed that learning how to paint in the classical style was all about learning how to see. She started oil painting about five years ago and filled an opening at the Central Coast Art League not long after. Learning the fundamentals from West, who is “a master painter” in Feldman’s eyes, has meant everything.
“Now I can look at things and tell you the colors that are used in them, and maybe I wouldn’t have noticed that before. Like when I’m driving around, it’s kind of neat,” Feldman told the Sun. “And then also the friendships we’ve made. … We help each other up, and we rise each other up and cheer each other on. That’s been really special.”
Feldman recently hung her first solo gallery exhibit at Santa Barbara’s Art and Soul. It’s a milestone for the artist, who in the past has shown a few pieces here and there while maintaining her stationery shop in Solvang.
At Bob’s, Feldman contributed one painting called The Last Drop, a jar of purple jam with a knife across the top dripping jelly onto a slice of bread.
“Since being with Mary Kay I’ve explored glass, and I’ve been really liking that,” Feldman said.
Another student, Rachelle Witt, said taking lessons from West has been “life changing.” The full-time mom in Los Olivos believes creativity has brought her a lot of joy over the past decade.
“It felt like doing art and learning how to paint kind of gave me a new purpose in life outside of just being a stay-at-home mom,” Witt explained.
The community is special to her because in the time that she’s been part of the Central Coast Art League, Witt lost both of her parents. She said being around the women in the group felt like having more aunts and mothers.
She remembered her early days under West learning how to sketch with charcoal. When it came time to break out the paints, Witt had to ask West how to hold the brush and move it across the panel, but now she’s an artist through and through.
Bread and Lobster is one that she plans to hang at Bob’s. Witt was inspired by a piece made by Dutch Golden Age painter Pieter de Ring from the 1600s.
She’s always had an appreciation for art history. After college, Witt traveled to Europe and got to tour the Louvre Museum. Standing in front of the paintings she’d studied in school brought tears to her eyes.
“My whole body reacted to being in front of these paintings that were so historical and just done in the traditional way and with such skill, and it really moved me,” Witt said. “I think deep inside of me, I was always supposed to paint traditional realism or representational realism, but I just never realized it until I got to Mary Kay’s class.”
Reach Staff Writer Madison White pondering bread and cupcakes at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in November 12 – November 19, 2026.
