Denise Hartley is currently (2016) the art specialist at Ripon High School in California. She has two Bachelor of Art degrees, one in Fine Art, and the other in Philosophy. Her Master of Art degree is in Fine Art, New Media (digital art). She completed her teaching credential, and began her teaching career three years ago, in 2013. Denise is also a professional artist and muralist, and a Fine Art business owner, her work is found at www.DAHartley.com.

Denise Hartley has developed two separate and distinct art styles that follow a naturalistic theme. Her works are displayed as an installation, including paintings, video, water reflection pools, and peaceful meditation rooms. Her paintings are low relief and sculptural, created on large wood panels, with deep texture, oils, stains and gold leaf. Most of her works are created with a nature theme; as gnarled trees embedded in rock, and more contemporary abstract themes.

Her solo exhibition, Water! (2008) Conley Gallery, Fresno, was a combination of large-scale videos within an installation format that also included an inner meditation room, surrounded by paintings and the gentle sounds of water, designed to include the viewer in the artwork. She also works in oils and acrylics on canvas, recently exhibiting her photorealistic style at Ironstone Vineyards, Spring Obsession, 2011, Murphy’s, CA; Spiritual Art, at Beach Side Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA. 2012; Mistlin Gallery, Spring Art Show, Modesto, CA., 2013 and 2014. In 2011 she traveled with a group of artists to France highlighting Paris museums and art galleries, and plein air painting in the south of France. Her new works are reflective of that genre.

Denise as an Art Specialist, currently teaches 200 students at Ripon High School, CA. She teaches drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and Art History. She is also qualified to teach computer generated Digital Art.

Denise is passionate about getting her students art into as many art shows as possible, in California. This is the third year her students have entered the VFW Auxiliary Young American Creative Patriotic Art Contest. Her talented students have won prior local competitions in Stockton, Ripon, Turlock, Ceres, and in Modesto, California.

At Ripon High School she is the advisor for Art/Anime Club, and Fashion Club. For two years she has taken her advanced students to San Francisco art colleges and museums. Spring, 2017, she will be taking a group of students to Spain.

Her students have entered and placed top honors at exhibitions at the Haggin Museum, and the San Joaquin Department of Education’s, Art Expressions Exhibition in Stockton, the Mistlin Gallery Student Art Show in Modesto, the Congressional Art Show, sponsored by Rep, Jeff Denham, the Youth Art Month show at Modesto Junior College, and the Turlock Regional Art Show at California State University, Stanislaus. Her students work has also shown at the Ripon Almond Blossom Festival, and the Ripon City Library, California. One of her students was chosen as an art scholarship recipient at Mistlin Gallery. Her past students have received scholarships, and are art/art history majors at several colleges.

In her art career she studied at the Art Students League in NYC, was trained by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in sculpture restoration; worked for U.S.Vice President Nelson Rockefeller Collection as a sculpture restorer; for the Whitney Art Museum in New York City; the Fresno Art Museum as registrar; and for the Fresno Metropolitan Art Museum, teaching drawing classes. She also worked for the Department of Education in Kauai, Hawaii, teaching young children on the Autism Spectrum. She loves working with children and young adults, and is the mother of seven children, and has six grandchildren.