And The Wall Came Tumblin' Down

What a natural demolition worker!
(Except she wanted to keep all the scraps)

It was amazing how fast it all came down! Thos methodically reversed his building skills and undid the work of the past. It really takes brawn and an understanding of how structures are engineered.

A huge part of demolition is clean-up, and that is what I did, take many, many loads of rubbish and recyclables to the driveway. You can see Robert above taking a load.

Thanks Thos, Bill, Annie, Robert and Kevin the hauling guy!

Day #1

Annie has given the walls a final send off, plus a welcome for my brother Thos who is the contractor on this job. The demolition begins in a few minutes.
More later...

Off to Paris!

Actually, I'm off to remodeling world! Alameda StudioTime will double it's space in the next two weeks and it will be a world-wind trip! I'm all set up to do some Valentines Post Cards from Paris with the kids next week, thanks to the idea from fellow art teacher Gail Bartel.
Keep posted. I'll do some before and after shots of the work as I go if they don't cart me off to the funny farm first.

Masking & Contrast

Amelia, above and her finished detail below, and her wonderful owl in the tree!

The kids all came away from this project with a great piece! We used low tack painters tape, Exacto blades, blue and white tempra, and a variety of brush sizes. I loved the level of concentration and focus, and then the happy smiles upon completion.

So good to see Cecilia again after her trip to Panama! This is an artist that could easily double her StudioTime.

Kat, above and below, so happy making a blizzard.

My dear Annie, above, lost in a snowy night. Full piece, below.

Beaming Zahrina below, detail above, with her finished piece below. Notice the nails!

Ajna, finished above. Full piece below.

Johnny below, loving the steps involved to achieve the final result, and wishing there was even more time to work.

Hady, love the nails, below, loved this project!

(More) An Early Spring!

The lesson this week was about symmetry, working loose, and mixing colors. Didn't they turn out magnificently?

Hady, age eight, above, with amazing concentration.
Kat, age five, both photos below, adding details to her vase, then working loosely with a larger brush to add flowers.

During class I played some classical flute music. Kat said dreamily "Some music makes me drift..." Love her!

Pieces by my Wednesday artists, above, clockwise from top left: Ilana, Lukas, Annie, Hady, Amelia, Kat.

Annie, or Supergirl Kitty, age 9, shows off her dragon vase, above.
Lukas, below, age eight, shows off some tools-of-the-trade.

Annie, arm above, experimenting with loose brush work!

Skye, 6 years old, at work.

My Tuesday artists final pieces above.
Clockwise from top left: Skye, Johnny, Iesha, Kevin, Ajna and Zarinah.

Everyone's a critic. Even Harpo!

Our wonderful newest addition Ajna, age ten, working on her flowers.

Johnny, age eight, above, feeling the joy and surprise of mixing colors.
Kevin, age eight, designing his bouquet.

Wishing Trees

Skye, age 6, (welcome back!) and her work above. Asher, age 5, below.

I love this project for the new year!
My youngest students named it "Wishing Trees" because they said the flowers looked like dandelions at the tops. Cally, Alabama, Asher and Clara really are my sages and poets! On thick watercolor paper, we used cut cardboard to scrape acrylic paint to look like birch bark, and once that dried, we used chalk pastels to layer colors to create backgrounds and tops to the "stems".
Wow!

Ilana, age 8, above. Benidict, age 2, holding his brother Kevin's, age 8, work below.

Lucas, age 7, above. Zahrinah, age 9, below.

Iesha, age 13, above. Anne, age 9.75, below.

Let it Snow

Above, Annie (age nine), below Liam (age five)

This was a great winter project!
The kids (ages four through nine) were bursting out with their after-holiday energies and tackled this project like the brave artists that they are.
We used colored pencils on black paper. It really makes the colors pop off the page. We started with a snowy horizon line, added verticals in brown to start our trees, and then added detailed trunks and limbs, delicately covering them with pine needles in two different greens, then added a light dusting of snow. We discussed shadows and how to show distance using grays, and making the white of the snow brighter the closer it is to you. (Objects far away are diffused because there is a lot of atmosphere between the viewer and the object.)

Showing the falling snow, and adding animals (and glitter) were the frosting on the cake!

Above, Thomas (age seven), below Ilana (age eight)

Above Caleb (age six) and below Aoife (age seven)

Above Kevin (age eight) and below Johnny (age eight)

I was so happy to hear from parents how proud their kids were with their projects!