San Diego Finishing School

My name is John Hiemstra, and I founded The San Diego Finishing School in 2006 out of local demand for training in faux finishing crossed with the a unique opportunity to spread my studio out across an entire building. (Click here to see/read more about me first.)

I had already decided to start teaching faux finishing in both a group-class and a one-on-one coaching format after several requests from people here in San Diego, when I received possession of an “extra” 1000 square foot property in 2006. At the time I was also starting to put a lot of knowledge about marketing on the internet into actual practice, and discovered a relatively large number of people searching for faux finish classes and faux finish information (rather than a faux finish artist to hire).

I started putting everything in the studio space and also created my first successful marketing website so that interested people could find me. A month after “launch”, I had my first paying client and over the next several months taught several one-on-one classes, helping students from all over the country at different abilities improve their paintng, finishing and drawing skills and turning my “extra” property into positive cash flow.

The San Diego Finishing School site and concept was so well received that by mid 2007 I was too busy between teaching, painting and revising the “new” school while preparing for the birth of my daughter Logan that I failed to see the drop off in the economy coming.

Starting in September, inconveniently coinciding with her birth, paying students and paying jobs cancelled, and as the year drew to a close, rediversification out of pure economic necessity meant closing the SDFS building for good.

Fortunately, change works both ways and this summer the San Diego Finishing School is reopening in a new space I’m sharing with old friend Jen Guerin. Together we will be teaching classes ranging from basic acrylic glazing to American Clay and Venetian Plaster to Trompe L’oeil mural painting in our new space on Fifth Avenue in Banker’s Hill.

I will also be offering classes, workshops and seminars on marketing & small business skills for artists, another change driven by attention response to circumstance. Even though every student of SDFS came for technical painting training, every one of my custom teaching sessions ended with questions about business practices, contracts, finding clients and preparing marketing materials.

So in a few weeks, you can look here for classes in blogging, website and online portfolio management, using both social media and self-publishing strategies to create a viable small business as an artist, in addition to classes in actual painting and art making.

Got questions? Let me know, I probably have the answer!

John Hiemstra

San Diego Finishing School
john@sandiegofinishingschool.com
619. 654. 6208
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