One more flower!

Here is Delaney's finished piece. She often gets posted separately because she always makes sure to spend the time to make everything just right! She did a beautiful job on her Georgia O'Keeffe inspired painting.

O'Keeffe-Inspired Painting

Georgia O'Keeffe is an inspiring American modern artist. I thought the girls might be particularly interested in her because she is a woman and because she lived not so very long ago. We watched a short video of her flower paintings (very nicely matched to music - thank you youtube). We learned about how her paintings of flowers sometimes became abstractdepending on the point of view and cropping she used on her canvas.

I made little 2" square viewfinders for the girls and using those, they "zoomed in" on photographs of flowers until they came up with their favorite composition. They then painted on a 12" square stretched canvas with acrylic paints. They turned out gorgeous. I wish you could see the true vibrancy of their colors and their entire works of art (darn my little scanner).

Tenlee
Mikayla
Alyssa
Kadence
Elena
Olivia

Monogram Prints!

I was so excited about this project! This is the first time we have created prints in our classes. We first learned about illumination. I have always been fascinated with the beautiful illuminations of ancient religious manuscripts. We looked at both ancient illuminated letters and current day artwork it has inspired.

For our assignment I encouraged the girls to use their initial then use their creativity in decorating or illuminating their letter. We first completed drawings then imprinted our images into foam. The girls used a brayer to smooth the paint onto their foam prints and then smoothed paper over the paint. The fun part is carefully peeling back the paper to reveal your beautifully unique print! Check these out!

Alyssa
Delaney
Emma
Kadence
MadiMackenzie
Rachel
Tenley
Guest student - my 6 yr old - Olivia
I had to try it out too it was such fun!

Fall session is in! Unit: Shapes and Pattern

It has been a great start to our fall art classes. And welcome to our newcomers Lily, Kadence, and Tenley!

For our first class (in both my Wed. and Thurs. classes) we talked about shape and how complex subjects are made up of these simple shapes. We experimented with pencils of different hardness and the ever-favorite kneaded erasers. Here are some of the girls drawing exercises to share with you. We started with simple exercises, which artists repeat over and over, to get us to start thinking art, and get our drawing pencils warmed up. They did a great job!



Emma.Delaney.Erin.

Belated Blogging

Just wanted to fill you in on my blogging status. It has been increasingly difficult for me to make the time to update this blog very frequently. I apologize to any of you who like to peek at the blog once in a while! Who knew life could be so busy and full ...

I am going to continue to keep this blog up, just posting occasional projects and pictures. (If you have any questions or requests or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment, or email or call me.)

Also, classes will begin again in September. Please let me know if you are interested! I am excited to get going again.

Thanks,
Erin

Suminagashi

For our first project of the year, the girls worked with the ancient Japanese art of Suminagashi. We used special inks to create beautiful and original designs on paper. The elements of color, contrast, and harmony were very important with this assignment. It also requires a lot of patience as well as a careful and delicate touch. The girls each created their own designs which they inked onto a heavyweight paper. We then showcased their paper creations as the covers of a journal for each of my little artists. See for yourself what a fabulous time we had!

Suminagashi marbling inks are carefully dropped onto the surface of the water.
The inks flow with the tiniest movement of the water and begin to form patterns and ripples. No design can ever be perfectly replicated - each is original.
The inks can be manipulated by blowing them gently across the water, or by using the end of a paintbrush.

The finished project:
The girls did a beautiful jobs making their papers for the jounals. Once their artwork was dry, we used hot glue to adhere the paper to journals. Then they got to select ribbon and other embellishments to complete their one-of-a-kind journals. I think they are beautiful!
Alyssa and Jocelyn's journals
Emma and Delaney's journals

We used embellishments to personalize our creations.

They were so cool, I just had to make one too!


The artists:

Calling all artists!

Just a reminder that I am accepting students for the fall session of our art class. There will be a class held on thursdays from 4:30-5:30. I may also be able to offer a class on wednesdays as well if I can recruit a couple more students. So far, I have ages between 7-15, both girls and a boy this year.

Help keep our little class alive! Leave me a comment, write me an email, or give me a call and I can provide you with the details.

Thanks!