Sherkston Blog: RV Resort, Vacation Homes, Vacation Home Rentals in Ontario, Canada on Lake Erie

“It’s been my experience over the years that about 90% of people have talent and the other 10% can be taught. In fact, I’ve never met anyone who I couldn’t teach to paint.”

It may sound like quite a claim, but after you’ve met and talked to Sandy Chaisson about what she’s been doing the past thirty years her enthusiasm and passion for teaching art make it hard to doubt her.

Though she’s been painting since childhood, Sandy stumbled into teaching by accident. She was in a store, searching for a color, started talking to the proprietor who liked her work and asked if she would be interested in teaching.

She was working as a Pharmacy Technician, a job she loved, but the idea of teaching intrigued her and she decided to give it a chance.

“I found I loved it and I’ve been teaching painting in acrylics, oils and watercolors part-time ever since, dividing my time between that and the pharmacy,” the Port Colborne resident tells us. “I taught out of my house all those years.”

Six years ago she came to Sherkston to visit her daughter Ainsleigh – one of three daughters, the others are Lindsay and Chelsea – who was working at Sherkston and she soon found herself volunteering to teach a class of youngsters. She was a bit surprised when nearly sixty kids showed up to learn how to paint the Sherkston logo.

Her rapport with the kids so terrific and the project was so successful that Sandy was invited back to teach a regular class. So now, once a week, she has a class in the morning for children five to twelve at Rafters Event Centre and a class in the afternoon at the Wyldewood Beach Club House for adults. Classes, which range from about twenty to thirty kids and fifteen to twenty adults, are free.

“I try to make class a relaxing, enjoyable and fun experience for everyone. I may teach a little technique like how to construct a tree or sky or sand, but it’s really a chance for everyone to use their imagination. That’s one of the pleasures of working with the kids. They’re simply not afraid to use color, to combine colors and to let their imaginations run wild. I’ve had so many tell me that they want to find a way to do this when they grow up.

“And while everyone may be doing a study of a flower or a shell on the sand – two of our projects this year – everyone turns out something different, something that’s an expression of them. And they love doing it. I’m amazed at how popular and well-attended classes are. I often hear from adults that they came in kicking and screaming because they thought they couldn’t paint and by the end of the summer they have a half dozen wonderful paintings.”

This year, with her retirement from the pharmacy, Sandy has taken on another job at Sherkston, where she’s joining JoAnne Klauck as a hostess at the Wyldewood Beach Club House. “I feel I’m the first person a lot of the residents see in the morning and that my smile sets the tone for the rest of their day.”

In addition to what she does at Sherkston, Sandy finds the time to utilize her talents to teach seniors in long-term care facilities and at hospitals where she works with the mentally ill. She also works with the intellectually disabled, all of which she finds tremendously gratifying.

But Sherkston is a very special place for her. “The team here has just been incredibly supportive and accommodating. They not only gave me the venues and provide everyone all their paint supplies, they’re there to help with anything I need.

“They provide an environment that really encourages people to have fun and make memories. Having a painting to take home or to hang in their vacation cottage is a really tangible reminder of their time here. That’s part of what makes this so special for me.”