October is mixed media month!

Exploring collage while using a variety of mediums this month we hope to impress upon our students that they are only limited in their imagination when it comes to finding materials to make thier art with. We also feel it's important for every artist to be aware there is so much that we throw away that could be used to make awesome art. Being that starving artist is a common term we use that should let you know artist have always been scroungers and very creative in finding new ways to use whatever was around and free!

Degas' ballerinas this week.

There are quite a few of our students who are very excited this week thanks to Degas and all of his ballerina paintings. Sometimes it seems like at least half of his work was about ballerinas. Mary has chosen some dancers from his various works to do with all of our age groups. Starting a little easy and getting harder along the way to our advanced students. We are using oil pastels, baby oil, and black acrylic paint.

Van Gogh's Thatched Cottages this week!

This week our students will be painting Van Gogh's Thatched Cottages. These were some of his last works and you can see his strokes were a lot looser and somewhat more carefree. We hope our students learn to let go and just let these paintings happen. I always like too see who can resist the urge to make the roof lines and walls so straight and just let them curve along with all the other lines such as the grass and the hills. I know I will enjoy this weeks art and we hope our students do as well and they are as proud of what they can do as I am. They suprise me every week.

Drawing from still life this week!

Mary has set up our classrooms with with some colorful chaos that our students will be using to learn about drawing from still life. I am really enjoying this lesson because each work of art is different depending on where the student sits. Mary shows them how to pick out what they would like to focus on and offers as many tips as they would like but there are no real steps for this lesson offering lots of creative freedom. We have really enjoyed seeing what our students see and how well they are able to translate that to their work.

We have been sharpening our drawing skills in August!

We have had a great time getting back in the swing of our regular schedule. We would like to thank so many of you for jumping right back in with us and even filling up some of our classes. You have helped us get off to a great start for the school year and we are thankful. We have been focusing on drawing this past month to get ourselves ready for painting which we will be beginin September. Now that we are all warmed up I cannot wait to see what Mrs. Mary and the students will be showing us soon.