After 26 years, H.B. art studio instructor packing up palette for move to cheaper locale

For more than 25 years, Barbel’s Art Center has been a haven for people looking to escape their troubles.

People from all walks of life — among them doctors, children, former judges and the late Bernice Edwards, co-founder of the Edwards movie theater chain — have taken painting classes with owner Barbel Strzoda at her studio at 17055 Newland Ave. in Huntington Beach.

She has had students from as far away as Fallbrook, San Dimas, Palos Verdes and Palmdale spend three hours painting with and learning from Strzoda.

But on Nov. 24, Strzoda, 75, will hold her last painting classes at her location of 26 years before moving to a less-expensive space at Catalyst in Westminster.

She said interest in traditional oil painting classes and workshops has diminished significantly.

“I used have close to 100 students about five years ago, but now I have maybe 15,” Strzoda said. “People don’t have the interest in oil painting anymore.”

Dozens of Strzoda’s paintings — images of seascapes, Spanish missions, cottages and floral arrangements — line the Barbel’s Art Center walls. However, none of those works will be going with her to the new space. She plans to sell her pieces at discount prices during an open house at her studio from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 7 and noon to 3 p.m. Nov. 8.

“They’re all going for very little,” she said.

Strzoda had been teaching art at the Newland Avenue location for years before buying the business in 1989. She was not formally trained and learned how to paint from art teachers she met through the years, she said.

On a recent Tuesday morning at the art center, Strzoda taught a class of five students, with each person working on a different piece. She sat next to Elizabeth Broderick, who was working on a painting of an Italian alleyway. Strzoda picked up a palette knife and added more texture to the walls and explained to Broderick what she was doing.

Minutes later, Strzoda shifted gears and walked over to Sarah Person, who was painting a scene of seawater crashing onto a rocky shoreline. Strzoda grabbed a brush and showed Person how to emphasize the foam in the surf.

“It’s not as easy as it looks, mixing the colors and getting them just right,” said Broderick, 73, of Fountain Valley. “Everybody’s doing something different, and for her to go from one to the other is impressive. She’s very talented.”

Person, 53, of Huntington Beach, started attending Strzoda’s classes in March. “But I wish I had been coming here for years,” she said.

Person said she took up painting as a form of therapy to reduce her stress and quickly discovered that the combination of putting paint on a blank canvas and Strzoda’s warm personality relaxes her.

“I came here thinking that I would just sink myself into the art, but then I realized that there’s more to it than just art,” Person said. “It’s about Barbel and the community here. It’s such a warm and loving community.”

When Strzoda moves to Catalyst, at 6630 Westminster Blvd., she will offer classes on Tuesdays between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and from 6 to 9 p.m. The cost of each three-hour class will remain $30 per person.

For more information, call (714) 847-5414.