News! News! News!
It's finally official! The studio has moved. I gratefully announce that this Summer, 2022, my husband, David, and others created two beautiful spaces for teaching and painting in our brick Cape Cod home near the historic downtown Staunton. I am excited to work here after a wonderful seven years in the Stonewall building. Goodbye to all my great neighbors there. I will miss you. I am excited to be looking forward to new adventures. Thank you Staunton for all the love!
Because I love teaching SO much, children's classes and adult art classes, I sometimes forget to tell people that I am first and foremost, an artist. I've been drawing and painting as long as I can remember. I have a BFA (that's an Art degree, :) from the University of Tennessee (that's why I can say, 'Ya'll' so well) and could never get enough time to just create! Please check out my artwork here on the D. Cruce Kocka Art page. For paintings that are available to buy and place in your beautiful home, click here! Nearly everything I do is LOCAL: people, scenery, pet portraits, etc. So my work is all VERY Staunton, VA. Mostly because I love it here. If you see something and are not sure if you want to buy it without seeing it in person, let me know. I will gladly meet you at the studio so you can browse my paintings!
Art in the Park, Staunton 2022
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Thank you to everyone who came out to Gypsy Hill Park to Art in the Park to support your local artists. I had a wonderful time meeting new friends and was so pleased to have sold so much work! Now I need to get back to the easel.
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I am hoping that my next venture will be Art for Gifts at the Staunton Augusta Art Center in Novemember.
If you were at Art in the Park and are looking for one of my paintings, go to my Available Paintings page or click here. |
Welcome to Art Classes in the new iagoArts Studio space! |
THE EXCITING ART PLACE IN
Staunton, Virginia Located in the Kocka's home studio near the historic Staunton, Virginia, the IagoArts Studio gives every person an opportunity to create and relax, regardless of your artistic skill level. The Studio serves a two- fold purpose: Primarily to be a working studio for the Shenandoah Valley plein air artist Donna Cruce Koćka. And the teaching studio serves as a place for Art Classes for the community. Mostly for children's classes. Mrs. Koćka has been teaching for over thirty five years and loves working with both adults and children. Along with teaching, she is a muralist, portrait painter, set designer, and plein air painter. She and her husband opened this studio in order to expand the opportunities for local art lovers to play and learn together. She is a firm believer in learning to become 'whole brained' and loves the prospects of strengthening that cerebral cortex. Let's do some art to become a healthier community. |
The Children's Art Classes are ideal for children, ages 8 through High School, who are being homeschooled or student's who are home bound. They meet regularly on Mondays, throughout the school year. Classes run mostly contiguous with the local school calendar beginning after Labor Day and ending the middle of May. Every year there are no classes between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.
Mrs. Kocka teaches her Art Classes with a four year rotation so that no class or activity is repeated for four years. This enables students to stay with her classes throughout their homeschooling years continually learning new and exciting skills and working with as many different media as possible.
Some classes will begin with a short five minute presentation of Art History. Every year the history follows a timeline beginning in the Fall with Prehistoric Art and moving toward Modern Art in the Spring.
Each year begins with a review of drawing skills then moves into a diverse use of painting and drawing materials which can include watercolor, acrylic, pastels to reinforce their lessons. Each class for that year will focus on one or two of the 7 Elements of Art- Color, Line, Space, Form, Texture, Value and Space- reinforced throughout that year.
Classes for High School students who are interested in exploring the possibility of pursuing Art after high school are offered as the High School Portfolio classes. These classes are generally after school hours so students from any school setting can participate.
Finally, each Spring we end the year with a beautiful Annual Student Art Show, complete with each student's work shown in a professional style, and the 'all important' punch and cookies to share with family and friends. To email for more information click HERE.
Mrs. Kocka teaches her Art Classes with a four year rotation so that no class or activity is repeated for four years. This enables students to stay with her classes throughout their homeschooling years continually learning new and exciting skills and working with as many different media as possible.
Some classes will begin with a short five minute presentation of Art History. Every year the history follows a timeline beginning in the Fall with Prehistoric Art and moving toward Modern Art in the Spring.
Each year begins with a review of drawing skills then moves into a diverse use of painting and drawing materials which can include watercolor, acrylic, pastels to reinforce their lessons. Each class for that year will focus on one or two of the 7 Elements of Art- Color, Line, Space, Form, Texture, Value and Space- reinforced throughout that year.
Classes for High School students who are interested in exploring the possibility of pursuing Art after high school are offered as the High School Portfolio classes. These classes are generally after school hours so students from any school setting can participate.
Finally, each Spring we end the year with a beautiful Annual Student Art Show, complete with each student's work shown in a professional style, and the 'all important' punch and cookies to share with family and friends. To email for more information click HERE.
iagoArts Summer Plein Air Camps 2022
Thank you so much to all the wonderful students I had the privilege of teaching this Summer! And thank you to the parents and grandparents who made this possible. It was a great success with many beautiful Plein Air paintings created with amazing views of our beautiful downtown Staunton!
The Art Institute of Chicago's MONET exhibit, May 2021! Woot! |
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Plein Air Painting October, 2018 in the Adirondack.
OOOh the Fall colors! |
Donna Cruce Kocka Biography
Born and raised in a southern family, Donna has been drawing since she could hold a pencil. Donna Cruce Koćka, BFA, University of Tennessee (1986), is a Staunton, VA resident. She is married and has three children, one beautiful grandson. Currently she is enjoying teaching homeschoolers in her Monday art classes at her new studio. When she is not teaching or painting, she leads group bible studies. She also loves to hike in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, read, walk in the park with her dog, traveling and have tea with friends.
She began teaching art to children during her senior year of college. And along the way as Donna was raising her children she was painting portraits, murals, theater set design and construction, faux finishes and a little graphic design.
In 2011 she took a landmark oil painting class with Cedric Egeli, an internationally known colorist and portrait artist on Cape Cod. This outdoor portrait class began a new journey for her. She is fascinated with the effects of light and color and has since studied on the Cape again with Camille Prezwodek and at Maryland Hall with John Ebersberger. At the local Beverley Street Studio School she has taken classes with Elise Blake, Jeffery Stockberger and numerous classes with the renowned colorist, Ron Boehmer. Boehmer is recognized as one of Virginia's foremost landscape painters and has had a heavy influence on Koćka’s painting.
In the Springs of 2018 - 2022 she was represented at the Queen City Plein Air Festival. She has has been in numerous shows and festivals in and around the Shenandoah Valley. Her love for painting plein-air painting often draws her outdoors to the beautiful Virginia countryside or to historic downtown Staunton. She also spends time at her studio and gallery, IagoArts, in downtown Staunton.
Donna is currently painting outdoor children’s portraits, landscapes and murals and is available for commission. Or contact her to just come by the studio for a visit. She is drawn to her love for painting plein air in the beautiful Virginia countryside and in downtown Staunton. She also spends much of her time at her new studio, IagoArts, near downtown Staunton.
Donna is currently painting outdoor children’s portraits, landscapes and murals and is available for commission art work.
She began teaching art to children during her senior year of college. And along the way as Donna was raising her children she was painting portraits, murals, theater set design and construction, faux finishes and a little graphic design.
In 2011 she took a landmark oil painting class with Cedric Egeli, an internationally known colorist and portrait artist on Cape Cod. This outdoor portrait class began a new journey for her. She is fascinated with the effects of light and color and has since studied on the Cape again with Camille Prezwodek and at Maryland Hall with John Ebersberger. At the local Beverley Street Studio School she has taken classes with Elise Blake, Jeffery Stockberger and numerous classes with the renowned colorist, Ron Boehmer. Boehmer is recognized as one of Virginia's foremost landscape painters and has had a heavy influence on Koćka’s painting.
In the Springs of 2018 - 2022 she was represented at the Queen City Plein Air Festival. She has has been in numerous shows and festivals in and around the Shenandoah Valley. Her love for painting plein-air painting often draws her outdoors to the beautiful Virginia countryside or to historic downtown Staunton. She also spends time at her studio and gallery, IagoArts, in downtown Staunton.
Donna is currently painting outdoor children’s portraits, landscapes and murals and is available for commission. Or contact her to just come by the studio for a visit. She is drawn to her love for painting plein air in the beautiful Virginia countryside and in downtown Staunton. She also spends much of her time at her new studio, IagoArts, near downtown Staunton.
Donna is currently painting outdoor children’s portraits, landscapes and murals and is available for commission art work.
Six plus years in the Stonewall building. So sad to leave but excited for the next adventure. Thank you to the Staunton, Virginia NewsLeader when I opened, for the lovely article in the paper... find it at: IagoArts Paint Party articlePhoto credit:Ted Tripp, Staunton NewsLeader
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