Press Kit
Julie Abels: Artist, Author, and Art Curriculum Creator
Quick Introduction
Julie Abels helps homeschool parents, co-op teachers, and classroom educators teach meaningful art lessons with confidence, even when they are not artists themselves.
She is the founder of Ridge Light Ranch, LLC, author of Anyone Can Teach Art: How to Confidently Teach Art in Your Classical Homeschool, and host of the Anyone Can Teach Art podcast. Her work brings together practical art instruction, classical education, creativity, beauty, and the belief that art is an important component of each person’s life.
Contact
For interviews, podcast appearances, speaking, teaching, or partnership conversations, email: julie@ridgelightranch.com
Additional Contact Information:
Name: Julie Abels
Website: https://ridgelightranch.com
Art website: https://julieabels.com
Media Phone: 234-405-0029
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Short Bio
Julie Abels is an artist, author, art instructor, homeschool mom, and founder of Ridge Light Ranch. She helps homeschool families, co-op teachers, and classroom educators teach art with confidence through practical, low-prep lessons rooted in beauty, cultural understanding, and the classical model of education.
Medium Bio
Julie Abels is an artist, author, art instructor, and art curriculum creator based in Tucson, Arizona. She is the founder of Ridge Light Ranch and creator of Anyone Can Teach Art, where she helps homeschool parents, co-op teachers, and classroom educators teach meaningful art lessons with confidence, even when they are not artists themselves.
After earning a BS and MBA and working in the corporate world, Julie began homeschooling in 2012. Her experience with the classical model of education changed the way she approached learning art and eventually led her to create art lessons, classes, a podcast, and the book Anyone Can Teach Art: How to Confidently Teach Art in Your Classical Homeschool. Julie also creates her own artwork, especially watercolor, and teaches local art classes for both children and adults.
Extended Bio
Julie Abels is an artist, author, art instructor, and curriculum creator who helps families and teachers make art feel possible, meaningful, and worth keeping in the school week.
Julie lives in Tucson, Arizona, on the desert acreage she calls the Ridge Light Ranch. The mountains, birds, animals, and desert plants around her home continue to inspire both her personal artwork and the lessons she creates for students. Her personal art often focuses on watercolor, pyrography, animals (including pet portraits), plants, landscapes, and commissioned work.
Before becoming a homeschool mom and educator, Julie earned a BS and MBA and worked in the corporate world. She began homeschooling in 2012 and became involved in Classical Conversations in 2013, serving in multiple community and leadership roles over the years. Learning through the classical model helped Julie see that art could be taught in a clearer, more approachable way. That realization grew into Ridge Light Ranch, where she creates art lesson plans, online and local classes, blog posts, podcast episodes, and resources for parents and teachers.
Julie is especially interested in helping adults who feel intimidated by art. She believes parents and teachers do not need to perform artistic genius in front of students. Instead, they can guide children in observation, practice, beauty, history, and creativity through simple, well-planned lessons. Her work often explores the relationship between art, classical education, faith, creativity, and what it means to remain fully human in an age of AI-generated images.
Topics Julie Can Speak About
How to Teach Art When You Are Not an Artist
Many parents and teachers skip art because they feel unqualified. Julie explains how a simple lesson rhythm, observation-based teaching, and guided scripts can make art approachable.
Why Art Belongs in a Classical Education
Art helps students cultivate attention, recognize beauty, understand culture, and connect history, literature, and faith. Julie can explain why visual art is not just an elective extra.
How to Use AI in Art Class to Improve Student Skills
Julie takes an optimistic, practical view of AI as a tool students and teachers can use wisely. AI can help students brainstorm ideas, compare possibilities, notice details, ask better questions, and improve their own creative skills without replacing hands-on drawing, observation, and practice.
Art, AI, and the Human Soul
Most AI discussions focus on what machines can produce, but leave out what makes human beings different. Julie can discuss art and AI in light of the belief that people are created in the image of God and have souls, and why that matters for how we teach creativity.
How to Add Art and Creativity to the Homeschool Week without Stress
Families do not need a perfect schedule, art studio, or expensive supplies to add beauty. Julie shares simple ways to make art sustainable in ordinary homeschool life without stress.
Why Children Should Study Great Artists
Julie can talk about how studying artists, art movements, and cultural context helps children understand history, beauty, human struggle, creativity, and the wider world.
Suggested Interview Questions
- Why do so many parents and teachers feel intimidated by teaching art?
- What does it mean to teach art classically?
- How can a non-artist teach a meaningful art lesson?
- What is the difference between teaching art as self-expression and teaching art as part of a larger education?
- Why does art belong in a classical or Christian education?
- How does art help children understand history and culture?
- How can families add art without derailing the school week?
- Why do children still need to draw, observe, and make things by hand?
- What is one simple art lesson families can try this week?
- What should parents think about AI-generated art?
- How can parents and teachers use AI as a tool without letting it replace human creativity?
- What do most AI discussions miss when they leave out the soul and the image of God?
Books and Resources
Anyone Can Teach Art: How to Confidently Teach Art in Your Classical Homeschool
Ridge Light Ranch art lesson plans and resources
Julie Abels artwork and commissions
Audio and Media Samples
Julie has hosted the Anyone Can Teach Art podcast, where she discusses art education, classical education, art supplies, creative life, artist studies, and practical art teaching.
Listen here: Anyone Can Teach Art Podcast
The Survival Podcast: Why Making Art Still Matters in the Age of AI – Epi-3897
Julie was on The Survival Podcast, with Jack Spirko to talk about the value of art in an AI- driven world. Listen in or watch the recorded livestream on YouTube!
AI and Your Homeschool with Nancy Manos
Julie recently appeared on the AI and Your Homeschool podcast with Nancy Manos to talk about using AI thoughtfully in art education. They explore practical ways AI can support learning, how to recognize when it begins replacing the work students need to do, and why hands-on art-making and human creativity still matter. Listen to the podcast episode (and find all the show notes and links) on Nancy’s website or watch it on YouTube.
Downloadable Images
Quick Facts
- Based in Tucson, Arizona.
- Founder of Ridge Light Ranch, LLC.
- Creator of Ridge Light Ranch art lessons and curriculum resources
- Author of Anyone Can Teach Art: How to Confidently Teach Art in Your Classical Homeschool.
- Host of the Anyone Can Teach Art podcast.
- Artist and art instructor specializing especially in watercolor and drawing.
- Homeschool mom and longtime student of the classical model of education.
- Teaches children and adults through local and online art classes.
Social and Web Links
Ridge Light Ranch: https://ridgelightranch.com
Julie Abels Art: https://julieabels.com
Podcast: https://ridgelightranch.com/anyone-can-teach-art/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RidgeLightRanch
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ridgelightranch/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ridgelightranch4334