Art Camp!

Whew, I've had a fun but exhausting week doing an art camp.  We did 20 hours of art- and they did some amazing work!  I wanted to do projects based on the theme of summer but somehow it morphed more into a theme of art history mixed with summer.  I'm not going to share ALL the projects here, because we did SO many- but here are a few of my favorites.....

"Great art picks up where nature ends" Marc Chagall

This one was based on Chagall and his style of using all sides of the paper- my little six year old students were asked to include a self portrait with something they love,  a house, tree and some flowers- they turned out GREAT!

We studied warm and cool colors and then they drew and painted two sunflower still lifes.....

Sunflowers like Van Gogh

Sunflowers in warm colors

Sunflowers in cool colors

Fishy Color Wheel

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Color Wheel of Loooove

 I always focus on some element of color theory, so it seemed like a good time to do color wheels, talking about primary, secondary and tertiary colors......

This was my favorite project of the week.  In researching for lesson ideas, I kept stumbling across story quilts in the style of Faith Ringold.  BUT, I didn't like any of the ones I saw that were done by kids in the same age group as my guys, so I made up my own based on "Artist Speak".  We talked about what artists do and made a list of words-some theirs and some mine- here's what they came up with.   

Another favorite- just a simple tracing of their hands with a lifted finger to provide a resting spot for a butterfly.....some careful coloring and creative drawing and voila! another masterpiece!

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Bake"

Sorry I've been missing in action all week- I've been teaching an art camp and haven't time or energy for blogging or to visit any of my bloggy friends!

Lucky for me, this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue was "bake"

 and one of my little projects was for us make an edible color wheel- it doesn't seem to matter how old or young the students are- they all LOVE this!

We use food coloring and white frosting and mix each color talking about primary, secondary and tertiary colors as we go- GREAT fun, and yummy too!

Sorry I don't have more pictures, (I wanted one with everyone) but the kiddies were too impatient to devour their color wheel for me to get any more than I did!

Be sure to pop over to Inspiration Avenue this Sunday to see what everyone else came up with.....Or ever better submit something of your own- just get it in by 12:00 on Sunday for it to be posted with everyone else's creations!

Have a great day!

Stephanie
P.S. If you want to make one of these color wheels, I do NOT recommend bargain food coloring like I used here- the colors are so much purer with McCormick or something comparable.

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

For those of you who've seen the stages of this since it's beginning might notice a lot of changes- in the flowers, her pose, dragonfly tattoo, etc....it's taken me a while to get there, but I think she's close to being done.  I just want to fade out that tattoo a bit and maybe play a little more with the flowers......it's getting close to that point where I need to leave it lest I run the risk of overworking and ruining it!

 I know the flowers were more "rainbow-ish" before and thus more fitting for this week's challenge of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", but I just had to change them.  I think this piece still works for the challenge because there is a rainbow of colors in here, even if they're not in rainbow format.....btw the way I must say thank you to Lisa DiNunzio for the idea of a dragonfly tatt- I think it's the perfect finishing touch, even though it's still too dark- I LOVE it!
Be sure to pop over to Inspiration Avenue to see what everyone else has come up with for this week- there's certain to be a fabulous array of beauty there in a rainbow of colors!
Have a brilliantly colorful day!
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- June 3

YAY!  It's Paint Party Friday again and I've started a new painting that I can share with you!  I actually enjoy sharing WIP's because they look so different on the monitor.  And here, I must say, that I was pretty happy with this yesterday but now that it's up on said monitor, not so much....it's also for Inspiration Avenue's challenge- "Over the Rainbow"

 

and I've tentatively named this, "Off to Meet the Wizard"....I'm sorely tempted to paint a tiny emerald palace in the distance and make that swathe of empty lime green meadow (which I quite liked yesterday and HATE today....) into a field of poppies.....I'll not be changing my ladies dress and tho' you can't tell here, she's in the act of putting on a necklace.
I've wanted to do a painting of a woman putting on a necklace ever since I got this book:
"Kissing Games of the World" by Sandi Kahn Shelton- the cover has this image on it:

which I've been wanting to to use in a painting ever since.  However, bowing to copyright laws and a lack of ideas, I never did anything with it until now....(by the way, I can't really recommend this book, I started it but never finished it- got bored about halfway through ;))
What pulled this together is the fact that I've been rather down recently and kind of hiding in my own skin.....so I needed to paint it and hopefully lose this "Don't LOOK at me feeling"...that I sometimes get- anyone else ever feel that way?
Anyway, it's been very therapeutic for me and now that it's up on the blog, I know more where it needs to go:

• Obviously, she needs hands, hair and a necklace ;)
• the path blends too much into the flowers- needs more definition
• her skin tone still isn't where I want it
• the arch isn't quite right
• sky needs to be touched up- especially the bits coming from behind the arch
• to add an emerald palace or not?

And PLEASE feel free to add suggestions- I'm am completely open to constructive crittisism!

That's what I've got for Paint Party Friday this week- be sure to check it out; last week we had more than 60 artists participate!
I'm off to the party, see you there!
Stephanie

FOLLOWUP:  Here it is after I worked on it today...added the poppies and changed the hair- may or may not have the necklace- and I think NO on the castle.  Thanks for all the great suggestions!

I'm still wanting to do more on the garden and touch upsin general.....but pretty happy with it over all.
XO
Stephanie

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Green and Purple"

Here is my weekly entry for the challenge at Inspiration Avenue- "Green and Purple".  This is my (mostly) finished page for Kim Mailhot's sketchbook, featuring the month of June.  When I think of June, I think of warm Summer nights and beautiful gardens in full bloom lit with moonlight and fireflies and sometimes candles- maybe even a lantern?....so that's the direction I went in with this...

I trimmed out the existing page to create a profile and added an extension to the other side repeating the lines of the profile to create a sort of triptych effect opening to:

 the painting I shared for Paint Party Friday....there will be some journaling in the blank space on the left- I might also use the space to describe the techniques and all- to be able to do something extra on the back page which is stamped in the same way the borders are with prints of flowers and leaves from the garden.

 I had the HARDEST time finding the right words to go with this...finally I stumbled across this quote by Anthony J. Angelo who I'll give credit to somewhere in this ;)

And for those of you who weren't around on Friday, here's the painting before I glued it into the pages- several people noticed the edge of a face and wondered about it- now you know WHY it's there!
That's it for me- be sure to check out everyone's art at Inspiration Avenue- it's a gorgeous collection as always!
Toodles,
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- May 20,2011

It's Paint Party Friday again and I'm so happy to say I'm almost done with my rose!  It's getting to that point where I'm REALLY ready to move on to something new, but I know myself, and I know if I don't finish it before starting something else, it will stay unfinished!
So, here it is:

Really I just want to do a little tightening here and there and touch up the yellows on the petal- it doesn't quite GLOW like I want it to......all in good time :)

I included this image just because I thought the reflection was kind of cool....
I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and be sure to stop by Paint Party Friday to see what everyone else has been up to- I'm always amazed and inspired by all the incredible work there!
Stephanie

Last Two Weeks of Art Class.......

With Blogger's down days last week, I never posted updates on my art class.  So today, I'm sharing two classes instead of one!  Lot's of photos here....just so you're warned :)
When  I last wrote about my classes, we were just beginning "If you're afraid of the dark, add another star to the night" and at the beginning of last week, they finished them and here are the final works of art:

 

 

 For the second half of week 5, the students drew and painted flowers- the most beautiful flowers they could imagine Mom and Dad liking!  Then they did a painting of colors and or patterns to be made into a vase.  I drew a profile of each child and cut them into optical illusion vases......

 And here they are completed!

To finish up the six week session we did a light project with concentric circles and oil pastel resist.  They were free to use any colors they liked, the only guideline were where to use pastels and paint.....this is a good example of the crazy places I get ideas for my projects; this one was inspired by a gift bag.....

That wraps up my first session of art classes.  I can't wait to start the next one.....stay tuned for details!
Stephanie
P.S. Anyone who want to she more pictures from class, click HERE!

Paint Party Friday- May 6

Hooray- it's Friday and you know what that means- time for Paint Party Friday!  I know I said a few posts ago that I was going to work on a tulip next, but this rose got in my head and just would NOT leave!  So here is my current WIP- it's from a picture I took last year of Perle D'or, the rose on my mailbox.  This rose gives and gives and gives!  It is always the first to bloom and as long as I remove the spent flowers, it keeps blooming until the first freeze, usually in November!  I LOVE it!

The only drawback is that it isn't an especially good cut flower, as the blooms only last a couple of days.  BUT, just look at the shape of those petals! 

 And here is the reference I'm using: 

 Be sure to pop over to Paint Party Friday- there's always so much beautiful work to see!
Happy PPF,
Stephanie

And we're rockin our way through....Art Classes- Week 4

I saw this a couple of weeks ago at Paint Party Friday and was SO inspired to do a color theory lesson and 'prolly, I could have had my lil guys do it the way she does, but since we're just getting started on color theory, I thought we'd just stick to the really cool circles.  And of course, as I was doing the set up (i try to cram the equivalent of 3 lessons into 1 1/2 hours...) the word  DOTS stuck in my head...next thing I knew, I was outlining a "poem" for them the trace~ "We've got dots, lots and lots of dots..." around and around their papers for them to add color to add we mixed them.  It was an AWESOME lesson- THANK YOU Anne of My Giant Strawberry

Dots....

and MORE DOTS.....

 

We gots Lotsa DOTS..... of COLOR!

 And, next we started on ( like I said, we try to cram a LOT into an hour and a half!) finishing the backgrounds to the star painting and they turned out INCREDIBLE!!!!  Just like I knew they would...

Unfortunately, I only have the one photo for you this time, but there will be more next, I promise :)

In the meantime, they worked on self portraits to finish out their star paintings....

And finally, we made "ladders" for them to reach the sky with- you'll soon see what I mean-......but that's for next week!
and YES I know I'm so blessed to work with these new blooming talents!
TTFN,Stefny