Windberg Art Center

Windberg Art Center

By Andrea Leptinsky Friday, 12 March 2010

GEORGETOWN — Art lovers and enthusiasts seeking skilled instruction from world-renowned artists need not go any farther than the Windberg Art Center in Georgetown.

The center, run by native Texans and longtime Georgetown residents Dalhart Windberg and his son, Mike, has been open for three years and continues to grow in success.

“Our purpose is to promote the traditional world of art,” said Mike, 53. “The teachings that are hundreds of years old, that within the last 100 years started to get stomped on and literally forgotten … there are very few places in the country that still teach traditionalism.”

When he is not at the art center, located at 7110 N. IH 35, Dalhart, 75, travels around the country teaching weeklong intensive art workshops. Dalhart started painting professionally nearly 45 years ago and still sees limited editions of his paintings sold through various art outlets across the country.

More than 100 students passed through the art center last year to study various forms of traditional art. Through classes and boot camps that focus on drawing, oil painting, portraiture, life drawing and plein air painting, the Windberg men are providing a service to eager artists seeking more involved, in-depth instruction.

“They love it,” Mike said of his center’s students. “A lot of these folks, especially the young ones, have just come out of college and they’re learning how to paint and do something they want. I ask them what they’ve learned in the process and unanimously they’ve said they like how we take the time with each individual. We’re not insulting them, but we’re explaining the hows and whys of what we want them to do.”

Windberg Art Center
7110 N. IH 35
868-8183
www.windbergartcenter.com

One draw Windberg’s art classes have is the center’s genuine desire to promote traditionalism and educate a newly developed trend of artists who have shown a larger interest in this particular type of art, Mike said.

“Even though our teachings are based on the last 400 years, there’s a new awareness of it and a new desire to learn,” he said. “That’s what we’re here to do and that’s what we’re here to promote.”

Classrooms are limited to 15 students at a time, Mike said. While he teaches a workshop once every month, Dalhart teaches three to four weeklong workshops every year.

Potential students who might enroll at Windberg Art Center can expect specific direction on what tools, instruments and items to use—many of which the Windbergs sell in an art supply store adjacent to the center.

“Nowadays a person who wants to pick up a brush and start painting ends up going to a Hobby Lobby or a Michael’s [retail outlets] and the person working the aisle that day isn’t going to be very helpful in what you should get. That’s how we ended up with this store. We carry the better, and the best, products.”

The store also sells products designed specifically for artists by Dalhart himself.

“The easel we supply every student with was designed by Dalhart,” Mike said. “We solve 99 percent of the problems you’re dealing with when it comes to easels, and students learn this is why you need something like this.”