by Alyssa J. O’Brien

As sunlight streams through the windows of the historic Train Depot at 110 Higgins Canyon Road in Half Moon Bay, seven students dip brushes into water and touch bristles down on paper, creating beautiful swirls and scenes of color.

They are here for Watercolor Painting, a class led by artist Jennifer Roberts Almodova. With a warm smile and gentle voice, Almodova walks around the room, commenting quietly on each work. She says that she chooses watercolor for her students because of “convenience, portability, and its sheer beauty as a medium.” But there’s also deep emotional power in watercolor. “Because of its sensitivity, the medium of watercolor captures the imprint of human emotion more readily than any other media. I love the term watercolor and the myriad of connotations that water has. Because of the presence of water, watercolor is alive as a medium. It behaves according to the weather, and its capacity to render subtlety is unparalleled.”

“Watercolor reminds me of the spoken word,” she says. “It cannot be taken away once the words have been set forth from the speaker’s mouth.” And so with watercolor: “It is not easily erased, covered up or scraped off the paper that it is painted on. Part of its special beauty is its transparency, not unlike transparent panes of colored glass at times. It reminds me of the human quality of transparency, which I value in others.”

Almodova’s journey to teaching in Half Moon Bay began by invitation from Joan Baker, owner of the Garden Gallery in the 1990s, who saw Almodova’s work exhibited at the Academy of Art University where Almodova teaches. Baker asked to represent Almodova at the Garden Gallery and asked her to lead workshops. Since then, Almodova has been driving nearly two hours each way down the coast every month from her home in Terra Linda, San Rafael, to share her gifts with the class. “It’s a beautiful, healthy habit that I’m not likely to break anytime soon,” she says. “I absolutely love the coast, our classroom and the people. The students from San Francisco are willing to travel south, and students from as far away as Carmel Valley are willing to drive north.”

A beloved teacher not just in Half Moon Bay but also at the Academy of Art University, the University of San Francisco, and Menlo College, Almodova’s paintings and sculptures have been exhibited at the De Young Museum as well as in corporate collections of the Bank of Tokyo, Pacific Bell and Bill Graham Presents.

Almodova also offers workshops in Hawaii, including a May watercolor workshop and a fall sculpture workshop both at the Visual Arts Center in Maui, and she’s hard at work curating a show on five decades of contemporary women artists for the Frank Lloyd Wright Marin Civic Center in San Rafael, March 9 through May 29.

As for what advice Almodova would give to aspiring painters, especially those who feel they have no talent, Almodova says, “Simply begin. Do not judge the products of your early creative encounters. Count them as practice. Practice is forever; goals are transient. You can always focus on finished paintings later.” Her emphasis on process, not perfection, explains the dedicated following of students up and down the coast. “The goal or shadow of perfection can have a crippling effect on a new painter,” Almodova says. “The new painter is not a manufacturer.” Instead, the new painter under her guidance is an artist in the making, practicing creativity for life.

John Quilici from Burlingame has been coming Almodova’s class for five years. “At the Garden Gallery, I saw this beautiful jungle painting, and it was hers,” he says. Quilici recalls the feedback he received from Almodova when he first started: “Be easy with yourself. That’s a beautiful drawing.” Since then, he says, the class has “opened all kinds of doors.”

In the Train Depot, Almodova pauses to discuss a painting by Sue Vandiver.  Together, they place it on the mantel to catch the light. “The painting needs to say how you feel about the subject,” says Almodova. “Give the viewer the emotional overlay.”

While Vandiver gets individual attention, another student, Donna Kinney Dobbins, works on her still life series    of ballet shoes. “My niece graduated in medicine and dance, so I photographed her ballet shoes for this series of watercolors,” she says. Dobbins explains that Almodova’s “precious” guidance in color studies was essential to the series. “She showed me how some colors go better with others. A violet iris with a yellow center in nature — that’s perfect.” But more than perfection is pleasure in the process. “I had a lot of fun doing this,” says Dobbins.

Fun is what Debbie Daugherty wanted when she signed up for the class through the Half Moon Bay Recreation Division: “I was at home, isolated after my car accident, and I wanted a class to help me express my creativity in a supportive atmosphere,” she says as she begins a new painting of a Half Moon Bay sunset.

Diane Moomey, a student from El Granada who reads at Open Mike Night at Moon News, praises her teacher, “Anybody who wants really compassionate, enthusiastic guidance artistically should come take this class.” Moomey, who has been taking Watercolor Painting since August, reveals the secret to Almodova’s teaching: “She knows how to press each person’s buttons so we can just blossom.”

A room full of blossoming painters is perhaps the best image of the Friday watercolor class in the historic Train Depot in Half Moon Bay. Sue Vandiver calls it “the Jennifer Almodova Fan Club” and has a message to future painters of all levels: “Come play with us!”

Learn more about Jennifer Almodova at her Web site, www.JenniferAlmodova.com.