About Our Instructors

Turtle Embryos, Watercolor

Wendy Lamar
Wendy Lamar received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Fashion Design from the University of North Texas. UNT is one of the nation's most comprehensive visual arts schools at a public university, and it is considered one of the best in the Southwest. As a child, Wendy discovered her love for creating art as a kindergartener with her first ceramic creation, a pizza, complete with olives and pepperoni. During her study of art at UNT she discovered a fondness for working in watercolor with gouache. Wendy was honored as a Junior fashion design student by being selected to show in the Senior show, Artwear, an honor given to only two juniors each year. Wendy designed ladies sportswear at a Dallas manufacturer after graduating. Wendy, her husband and 4 daughters recently moved to McKinney after living in New Orleans for the last 10 years. She teaches Young Artist and Studio Artist classes, as well as camps.

Green Stamps

Elizabeth Mott
Elizabeth Mott is an artist, art educator, and McKinney native. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Texas Tech University, where she studied all kinds of art but "focused" on photography and art education. She went on to get her teaching certification at the University of North Texas. Elizabeth spends her time teaching part time art at a public elementary school, wrangling her three year old daughter, cutting and pasting pictures out of various bits of paper and ephemera, and trying to cram lots and lots of mid-century-modern furniture into her little house.

Tijuana No. 1, Watercolor on Arches paper

Molly Goodall
Managing Director and Owner of Art House McKinney, Molly Goodall received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Parsons the New School for Design in New York City in 1997. She received the Assemblage Award for her watercolor “Tijuana No. 1” at the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Art in 2005, and is currently at work on the completion of her Tijuana series of paintings. Before moving to Texas from New York in 2002, Molly was the Design Director of the Tonner Doll Company for five years and prior to that worked in Hat Design at Liz Claiborne. She has traveled and worked widely in Asia and Europe and finds much of her inspiration in foreign cultures. Molly works primarily in watercolor, gouache, and oils, and teaches Fashion Design, Adult Oil Painting, and Adult Watercolor.

Faded Glory, Oil, 2005

Laura Darais
Laura Darais has been creating various forms of art for more than twenty-five years in a 2-D and 3-D format. She taught the elementary art program at McKinney Christian Academy during the 2003/2004 school year for more that 160 students and has taught private lessons in her home and incorporated an after school art program at a local elementary school. Her painting “Faded Glory” was featured in the 2005 McKinney Main Street Art calendar. She also received a third place ribbon for a sculpture from the Collin County Art Show in 2004. Laura just received her Associate of Arts from Collin County Community College and is planning on attending a local University in the fall to receive her Bachelor of Visual Arts. She enjoys creating and manipulating different media and uses that passion to teach the Studio Artist, Young Artist and Summer Art camp students at Studio Art House. Laura is a resident of McKinney and resides with her husband and two teenaged sons.

Alien Jak

Tim Markello
Tim Markello is a mild mannered generic Texan. After spending a year in Japan as an exchange student, Tim graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Indiana University with a BA in East Asian Languages and Cultures. However, once a week, mild mannered Tim Markello transforms into Tim Markello Comic Enthusiast: he embarks on a continuing quest to teach cartooning and comics to everyone, in the hopes of legitamizing a vastly ignored and underutilized medium. So far his quest has included publication with Hopper Comics out of Austin as well as teaching hugely popular camps and classes at ArtHouse McKinney, ArtHouse Flower Mound, and ArtHouse Coppell. He plans to continue his quest, teaching anyone who will listen about the greatness of comics and cartoons.

The Pasture, Acrylic on Canvas, 2008

Claire McGillivray
Claire McGillivray has been making art since before she can remember. She was born and spent most of her childhood in Aberdeen shire, Scotland, but later moved to America at the age of eight. She and her family lived for several years in southern California before finally moving to McKinney, Texas. She now attends Collin College in McKinney, where she is earning her associates of arts degree, and plans to continue to earn a bachelors degree in visual art. Claire's love of art started as soon as she could hold a paintbrush, and continues to grow as an adult. She draws her inspiration mostly from nature, and enjoys drawing and painting natural scenes and animals. Although Claire loves all types of art, she especially enjoys working in oil and sketching. Claire is an office assistant and teaches Mommy and Me Workshops, birthday parties, camps, and Young Artist make-up classes.

After Vermeer, 2008, Oil

Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson is a native Californian and studied at the College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California. He has taught wherever he could change lives with his oil painting technique. Initially, he taught at people’s homes and in retail stores. Sixteen years ago he and his wife, Lynda, opened their own studio in San Ramon, California. There he instructed beginning to advanced students in group settings, as well as teaching private and semi-private lessons. A paint manufacturer began sponsoring him at trade shows, where he taught numerous artists this technique. In addition, he taught at various schools in the area as well as at the San Ramon Community Center. Simultaneously, he taught on a weekly public access television program --- where a potential 170,000 people viewed his teaching methods.

Tom Anderson has always, even as a young boy, had an ability to draw. He would copy paintings from his parents’ encyclopedia. He would draw in pencil, copying the works of Michelangelo, Donatello and others. He taught himself all of the body’s muscles and their movements.

He currently resides and teaches in McKinney, Texas, where he and his wife recently moved to be near family.

Untitled, 2006, Ceramic

Diana Rushing
Diana Rushing graduated from the University of North Texas in 2001 with a Bachelor of Art Degree with an emphasis in Art History. Diana's love for art sparked in college and has continued to gain momentum as she learns more and more. She loves all forms of art, but especially enjoys working with her hands in Ceramics and Printmaking. She has returned to school to continue learning more art techniques. She has recently found a passion for Painting by taking courses at Collin College. Along with being a Ceramics and Young Artist teacher at ArtHouse of McKinney, Diana is a wife and mother of two young boys. She is very active in her community and the lives of Children. She volunteers on a regular basis at her children’s school. She is an active member of her children’s Cub Scout Pack and a den leader for a Cub den. She firmly believes that children are our future and they need all the guidance and support that we can give them.

Teresa Horton
Teresa Horton received her Bachelor of Science degree from East Texas State University (now Texas A & M Commerce), where she studied Communication Arts. She also received a Master of Arts in Teaching from Texas Woman’s University. She is certified EC-4 and currently teaches kindergarten in PISD. She also has spent many years in the world of preschool both as a teacher and as an Assistant Director. Teresa is excited to return and teach summer camps at the Art House. Art has always played an important role in Teresa’s life and she has enjoyed using a variety of media; drawing, painting, sculpting, silkscreen, and airbrush to create it. Teresa is married to a graphic designer and has two sons; both in college.

Mandala, 2008, Oil on Canvas. 55" x48"

David Connolly
David Connolly was born in Houston Texas, and grew up in Carrollton, a suburb in North Dallas. In 1997 he earned a B.F.A. in painting, then went on to graduate school and earned an M.F.A. in printmaking and painting at the University of Tulsa in Tulsa Oklahoma. He has been collected by a myriad of collectors internationally, but mainly in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Montgomery, Houston, New York, Dallas, Australia, and Africa. “I have continued to wrestle with the notion of the pictorial space and my own limitations of expression in the context of spiritual resolve, wonder, and lethargy. One source of inspiration would be the eastern artists who work so diligently to respect the flat surface." Connolly labors to re-create situations or capture emotions that were evoked by dreams, encounters or happenings in life that are extraordinary throughout the course of a normal day that become private memories, embellished by the mind and one’s secret pleasures, yearnings, fears, hopes, despairs and dreams. The work is sublime, haunting and mysterious, as metaphor is used to deal with spiritual aspects of the human experience. David lives and works in Dallas currently as an artist, a high school art teacher and adjunct professor in a local college. He is the husband to Janice and the father of Hannah Elizabeth and Catherine Mae. The Connolly’s reside in Frisco, Texas.

Iris, Acrylic

Jessica Head
Born and raised in Plano, Texas, Jessica has always been an artist and an art lover. She has studied art all over the world and is working on completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Texas Women's University. Recently, Jessica has been deeply involved in jewelry design, but painting and photography are also passions. Her love for art compels her to want to teach people of all ages to have an appreciation and understanding of it. Jessica and her husband live in Frisco with their Maltese, Bella. Check out her amazing jewelry designs by clicking here: Jessica Sharp Jewelry