Ted Carter

Tybee is set to put out the welcome mat for a 12-day visit by more than 150 well-heeled painters who will take part in the GA Seminars by the Sea Porcelain Arts School.

Painting china is an expensive hobby that draws people who have worked with the medium for many years. The students coming to Tybee plan to make the trip a “luxury lifestyle vacation,” organizers say.

Sponsors of the school have spared little expense in putting together the instruction staff, organizers say.

The artists as teachers will provide instruction from Dresden style to modern, said seminar owner and founder Suzanne Painter of  Hephzibah. “We have assembled the most prestigious and talented collection of artists in the world.”

The painters are sure to bring smiles to Tybee business people looking for a pick-me-up before the arrival of spring and the return of the beach season. The upscale visitors “will definitely” give a boost to Tybee’s overall economy, said Stacye Jarrell, owner of Oceanfront Cottage Rentals, who has worked to arrange lodging for the painters each of the past three years Tybee has served as host of the school.

Savannah businesses should share in the benefits as well. Shopping excursions and restaurant visits in Savannah are planned, Jarrell said. She noted area golf courses will see business from the husbands of many of the painting students.

Tybee’s Old School House Cafeteria will serve as the instruction venue and headquarters for the school that runs from Thursday (Feb. 25) through March 7. In January, Jarrell persuaded the Tybee City Council to give a 50 percent discount, a reduction of $1,200, on the cafeteria rental.

Tybee’s renovated Guard House served as the main gathering place the last two years. The school this year outgrew the facility, however, Painter said.

Painter, president of the Georgia World Organization of China Painters, said more than 150 students from 26 states, Canada and  Washington, D.C., will take part.

Further, 14 international artists representing Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Canada, Japan, Korea and the United States will participate.

The school “will offer day student classes and invite visitors to stop by and see our artists and students daily,” Painter said.

It has sponsored seven scholarships for this year’s 12-day event, she added.

For participants, said Painter, “we strive to provide an atmosphere that will enrich their lives” and “nurture their souls.”

Each night, said Painter, “we fire the students’ work on porcelain in huge ceramic kilns” at temperatures above 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit. “These temperatures soften the glaze and allow the minerals to become fused into the glazed porcelain,” she said.

The school also offers classes in porcelain high fire “hand building.” In these classes students actually sculpt and form porcelain pieces from porcelain “slip” and clay, Painter said.