Artist Spotlight -  Cara Calvert-Thomas

We’d love to take a minute and introduce you to one of our newest team members, Cara Calvert-Thomas. While Cara is new to our studio, she’s no stranger to Pinot’s Palette! She’s been with the company for over 7 years, constantly living out our overall goal of helping to introduce the idea of painting to everyone, while maintaining excellent customer service! We work to encourage everyone who comes into our classes, making them understand that, truly, anyone can be creative and succeed at being an artist, if they want! 

As Cara is new to our Tustin studio, you might not have had the chance to take one of her classes. We promise you’ll have one of the best painting and wine experiences you’ve ever had, when you get Cara as your instructor! She’s super fun, wonderfully silly, always encouraging, and very entertaining as she guides her artist-students through their paintings for the class! 

Cara grew up in Alaska and moved to the "Lower 48" to earn her BAEd in Visual Arts Education from the University of Kansas. She spent her next 10 years, teaching Elementary Art in Oklahoma and providing professional development to teachers from across the country. She did this at Northeastern State University's ‘Great Expectations Summer Institute’. 

Cara came to HQ in 2015 to fill the roles of ‘Master Painting Librarian’ and ‘Artist Training Director’, after working as a lead artist at Pinot's Palette, Lakewood, in Dallas since their 2011 opening!  Currently, based out of her Southern California satellite office, Cara develops training resources for our studios, travels to studios for staff development, provides ongoing support, assists franchisees in training and hiring artists. She enthusiastically promotes the Pinot's Palette mission and we love her for her constant dedication to the company!!! 

When she isn't dancing and singing for customers at our studios, Cara's free time is spent painting in her home studio, gardening, traveling, and hanging out with her husband and her dog, ‘Kermit’. Some additional, interesting facts about Cara: She loves going to concerts and live music venues, where she’s seen musicians like ‘Cake’ (seven times!), Paul McCartney, the Lumineers, and Aerosmith. Cara also loves cars (particularly classic muscle cars and compact European hatchbacks with lots of horsepower!). She enjoys lavender-flavored things, more than most, and will drive an hour to try a new coffee place that has a lavender latte! Cara has currently been indulging in the green-thumbed pastime of propagating succulents.

With over 7 years of experience, working with Pinot’s Palette, Cara knows a thing or two about painting and wine classes!! We hope you get the chance to come in to one of our classes, soon, and hopefully you’ll get the pleasure of meeting Cara! There’s no doubt that you’ll have a great class with her! You can ask her to tell you a good joke, show you some awesome dance moves, or start up a conversation about art with her! She’s great at explaining the steps of the painting, always encouraging, and there for you to help with anything you may need... and always with a big, beautiful smile on her face! 

We hope to see you all soon, at Pinot’s Palette, Tustin, where you’ll paint, drink, and have fun!

Cheers!

Share    View Some of Cara's Artwork HERE!   |   Sign up for a class with us!