Art Studio

Paintings in process from my Monday morning open art studio sessions

DOG PORTRAITS

 

PAINTINGS FROM NATURE

 Pear Painting

Sunflower Painting

Textured tree Painting

Book Painting

In Celebration of Summer

Sailboat Painting

Summer Art Camp

Week Two - Wonders of the Natural World

Our inspiration for this weeks art camp was provided by forms of life that surround us ~ animals, plants and birds.

PLANTS

 Project 1 - Hand painted pottery garden markers

Before any art began, the girls and I discussed what different plants could be grown in a home garden.  With the summer growing season going on around us ideas flowed with little prompting.  For example, one could have vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, and squash.   Or a flower garden with daisies, sunflowers, roses and tulips.  With these examples in mind the artists drew and painted their designs onto a bisque garden marker.

The markers were fired in my kiln and are now ready to decorate a flower pot or small plot of land at each girls house.

  Project 2

Painted terra-cotta pots

   The artists painted the pot and saucer with acrylic paint, to help preserve the color the painted pots were sprayed with a clear varnish.

 

ANIMALS

Project 3

Self portrait with favorite pet

For our third project the girls drew a portrait of themselves holding one of their favorite animals.  The drawings included a few cats, a rabbit and a turtle.   The portraits were outlined with a black marker and colored with oil pastels.

The portraits were cut out, glued onto a contrasting polka-dot piece of  paper then glued to a plain piece of heavy duty art paper.  To finish off this cute piece of art the girls drew animal footprints around the edges, outlined them with a black marker and colored the prints with crayon.

 

BIRDS

Project 4 

Hand painted bird houses

 

 

 

 CUPCAKE TIME!!

 

 

And another week of summer art camp comes to an end with happy faces, a collection of fabulous art and hopefully a few lessons learned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Art Camp

This past week four little artists helped kick off my summer art camp program with a Tea Party.  

 

My front porch was the perfect setting for creative inspiration as birds sang to us each morning and nature produced a colorful palette.

Here's a look back on our artful week together:

CUP CAKE PAINTING

The girls each painted a 16x20 inch canvas with their favorite color onto which they used simple shapes to draw and outline a cupcake design. 

This was followed by a discussion on complimentary colors;  how colors opposite each other on the color wheel create the strongest contrast and reinforce each other.  The artists, enthralled by the concept, chose a paint color to compliment their background.

Knowing that one cannot have a tea party painting without a little bit of bling, sparkles were added to the finished paintings.

 

 

POTTERY TEA CUP

A tea party art camp without hand drawn and painted tea cups would be an absolute travesty! 

Teacup problem averted the artists moved on to our next project.

CUPCAKE STAND

A handmade stand ~ assembled with terra-cotta pots and saucers, painted with non-toxic, lead-free pottery glazes and fired in my kiln ~ would become a lovely spot for a homemade cupcake!

With the cupcake stands created it was time for our final production:

 

KITCHEN ARTISTRY

All hands were on board for the making and baking of cupcakes.  After which happy, hungry artists gleefully celebrated a wonderful week of art.

 

ART SHOW

Thank you girls for getting my summer art program off to an excellent start.  

 

Stay tuned for the wrap up of next weeks "World of Wonders" art camp...