Summer Art Camp

POP ART

We invite you to join us for this weeks art camp as we take a little journey back to the late 1950's and early 1960's when the movement of  Pop Art was first introduced in Britain and the United States.  Pop Art, with its designs based on themes drawn from popular mass culture, is often distinguished by clear lines and bright, bold color ~ like that of our first artist, Romero Britto

ROMERO BRITTO
POP ART PORTRAITS

Romero Britto - Love

The beginning stages of the girls Romero Britto inspired Portrait Paintings.

To which they added color and pattern with acrylic paint.

The finished Master Pieces - both based on popular activities - ready to be framed and cherished.

ROY LICHTENSTEIN
PORTRAIT PLATES

Roy Lichtenstein - 1962

For our next project the girls created portrait plates based on Roy Lichtenstein's newspaper comic strip paintings .

The very hungry artist portraits ~ painted, fired in my kiln and ready for a piece of cardboard pizza (see recipe below) ~ Yummy!!

CLAUS OLDENBURG

Pop Art Sculpture

Claus Oldenburg - Floor Cake - 1962

For our Pop Art Sculpture project, we constructed a Papier Mache pizza.  The crust was produced with foam core board, cut into a circle with rolled up paper taped around the edges.

Newspaper was torn into strips and glued to the pizza crust with laundry Starch.

The crust was given a nice golden brown glow with a little help from our friend the paint brush.  Hand painted papers were put through the shredder to create a smorgasbord of cheese, which was then glued to the nicely toasted crust.

A pizza box, from one of our local pizza joints, was coated with white water-based primer and set aside to dry.  Later, the girls designed their own box top and added color  with a bit of acrylic paint.

Cheese and Pepperoni Pizza's in their own little carry out boxes.  Dinner anyone??

I hope you enjoyed this bit of Pop Art time travel and the art that was inspired by our trip. Join us again in two weeks as we take a trip to sunny beaches, with waist to chest high waves, for our surf art camp.

Christmas in July

Hand painted portrait ornaments
for the 2011 holiday season.

Another set of hand painted portrait ornaments - drawn, painted, kiln fired and ready for the Christmas tree.

Visit my shop here if you would like to order a portrait ornament or for more information on my hand painted pottery ornaments.

Unique Wall Decoration

Triptych Puzzle Pieces

Recently I received an e-mail from a potential customer with a very unusual request.  She wrote:  I love your paintings! When I was looking through them, I had an idea. I am trying to find art for my bathroom and thought wouldn't it be cool if I took the Surfer Girl original triptych, the Surfers board meeting triptych, and the Blue surf bus triptych and mixed all of them up and then hung them in three rows of three on my bathroom wall (like a puzzle).  

At first, I thought, "Huh?  Seriously?"  But when I started playing with, and rearranging the pieces I thought, "What a unique concept"!  And wouldn't you know the customer, Mary, is also an artist and k - 8 art teacher who loves happy colors, happy subjects and happy places!!  If she lived closer, I know we'd be great friends!

 Puzzle piece triptychs arranged on bathroom wall.

Yesterday I received another e-mail and images from my new friend, Mary, in which she wrote - "The triptychs arrived and are hung up in the bathroom and I am in LOVE!  I keep walking in there just to look at them.  Thank you!!!"    Well...thank you Mary!  You have indeed made me very happy.

If you'd like to visit Mary in her cheerful little shop, just click here - and tell her Cathie sent you.

Beach Road Trip

Grab your gear and head down to the beach while the ocean is still warm and the days long. 


If you are in need of, or would like any more information on the beautiful beach items shown above, simply click on the image. And...don't forget your sunscreen!

Road Trip

Time to get your camp on with a summer road trip.  Just make sure you don't forget the essential ingredients...

Camp sign from JAndersonArt

 Camp trip print by JAustinRyan - Camper salad plate by MagicMarkingsArt - S'mores in a jar recipe courtesy of How sweet it is - and Compass ring by LexiLevin

Happy Camping!

Getting a head start

Just out of the kiln - my first custom painted portrait ornament of the 2011 Christmas Holiday Season!!

The bride and groom looking quite happy to be man and wife...

The ornament ~ drawn, painted and ready to be fired. 

The finished ornament ~ fresh out of the kiln, ready to be packaged and shipped.  Whew, working on this ornament made the holidays seem much too close ~ especially when the summer heat is still baking our plants!  But then, I guess not everyone waits until the last moment to do their holiday shopping ~ unlike yours truly.  Therefore, Merry Christmas in July!

Cooking Art - A recipe for success

Have you ever experienced a gathering of teenage girls who, so involved with their work, were unusually quiet?   I have, just this past week during my "Life is Sweet" art camp.  These six artists were a delightful blend of talent, creativity and individual style - the perfect ingredients for a successful week of art production.

LIFE IS SWEET ART CAMP

Grand Mommie's Pecan Pie by Elly Chen - From They Draw and Cook

Inspiration for our first project came from "They draw and cook"  a showcase  for recipes illustrated by artists all across the globe.  This talent filled site is quite addicting for those who love both art and food.  The cool thing is anyone can draw their recipe and submit it to the site...so I thought ~ let's give this a try!

RECIPE ART

To make this recipe art project a little more meaningful to the girls, I had them bring in one of their families favorite recipes. 

 

 

The first step in creating an illustration for the recipe was to think about a theme or design then sketch that idea onto an 11 x 15 inch sheet of watercolor paper.  In doing so, the girls had to consider balancing shape, color, pattern and movement in their composition. 

The sketches were filled in with water colors painted in various hues and shades.

Each artist had their own creative style which produced a diverse collection of recipe paintings.

ILLUSTRATED RECIPES

A collection of artistic recipe renditions destined to become family heirlooms in their own right.

WHIMSICAL CAKE PAINTINGS

For our next project the girls had to think like "The Cake Boss" and create a special cake.  The wonderful thing about our cakes is they will last longer as they were painted on canvas, not baked in the oven. 

Each girl thought of a fun design, drew it on canvas and painted it with acrylic paints.  The finished pieces are a whimsical wonderment waiting to be hung.

FONDANT  CUPCAKES

In keeping with the "Cake Boss" theme, the girls had an opportunity to work with fondant frosted cupcakes.

For the girls first time working with fondant I think these little cupcakes turned out great and there just might be a future for some of these artists in the cake decorating business...

or, perhaps, just in the cake eating business - or the "let's just have fun creating in the kitchen" business...

BISQUE POTTERY ICE CREAM CUPS

With local temperatures reaching into the mid 90's, our thoughts turned to mouth watering summertime temptations - and there's no better temptation then ice cream!!  And, since you can't just serve a great scoop of ice cream in any old bowl, the girls painted their own unique ice cream cups.

Ahhhh....deliciously delightful - and ready to be filled with fresh made ice cream!  We are loving summertime!!

My thanks to this great group of girls for inspiring me - and each other - with your unique talents.  You are welcome back anytime!!!!!  Keep on creating.