 Each October, I like to offer an adult watercolor class that explores the colors and themes of autumn. This year we painted pumpkins and loose florals after we created a fun swatch of autumn colors. My Koi watercolor pan sets, though very affordable, never disappoint in their rich, saturated colors. My goal is to teach students how to properly load their brushes with the right paint:water ratio, and then how to use the brushes to their full potential. That's where the magic happens. Each student has her own flair with the paints, even though I demonstrate "my way" of painting. I LOVE encouraging individuality within a framework. I try to model laughing at yourself and reframing "mistakes." And I enjoy simply spending time with women who make creative expression a priority. Enjoy the slideshow...
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When I choose an art project for my students, I think about what new vocabulary and drawing skills they could learn, what new media they could try, and how they can connect to the subject. Sometimes I pull themes from literature or science. This "Llamas in Perspective" lesson, adapted from a Deep Space Sparkle lesson, had it all!  First we talked about the life and talents of the llama, particularly the Peruvian llama...how they are pack animals who help humans, how they spit when they are agitated and sit down stubbornly when they are overburdened. I told the kids I use llama poop on my plants because it's a great "unscented" fertilizer! We practiced a llama drawing in their sketchbooks. I love that many of the students said they drew them all week long at home. We then talked about drawing and painting tricks that fool the eye into perceiving depth as we drew our scene together, step by step, and went over the lines with Sharpie. Students were free to add their own little details, decorations, and paint colors to individualize their work. We used tempera cakes, which are similar to watercolors, on heavy duty Bristol paper. Finally, we "embellished" our mounted picture with handmade tassels. I told them that tassel-making is a "handicraft" that the Peruvians would do to decorate their llamas. The lesson took two 90-minute class periods. Check out the slideshows below. TUESDAY CLASS WEDNESDAY CLASSES Afterschool Art Club is something new I've added to the schedule this year, and it's been a blast! Twelve lively students gather on Thursday afternoons to create wonderful art, and for our first project, we created optical illusion "agamagraphs." Pioneered by the artist Yaacov Agam, this kinetic style art changes as the viewer moves. Two of Agam's pieces can be found in the Mayo Clinic art collection. I'm a big fan! This project took 3 weeks of 75 minute classes to complete. Each student created a starburst name picture on and an optical illusion "wormie" picture, which they colored with sharpie and watercolor on 140 lb. watercolor paper. Then we cut both into 1 inch slices and mounted them alternately to an accordion folded page. The final effect is so cool! If you stand to the left, you see one image and when you move to the right it morphs to the other image. Check out the slideshow below! I feel so very fortunate to have over 70 homeschooled students come to my studio each week, in 5 different classes, to create art and build friendships. These kids are respectful, eager learners who are endlessly creative and thoughtful. And as a 20+ year homeschooling veteran of 3 kids who have blossomed into creative, high quality humans, I can say, "I GET homeschoolers." In the first 2 weeks of art classes, we have played with paint, practiced drawing skills, analyzed Leutz's "Washington Crosses the Delaware," played games, and created sketchbook covers. Here are some slideshows of our time together so far. I'll post photos from the intermediate class when we complete our sketchbook covers. Elementary Splatter Sketchbook Covers: Elementary "Llamas in Perspective" project: Day 1: Argentina When campers arrived, they painted and beaded wooden name tags that my husband made on our Glowforge, then they colored in a giant welcome banner. We learned information about Argentina, made clay llama sculptures, and wove tiny blankets for them with a straw loom and yarn. Later in the week we painted the llamas. For food, we made homemade alfajores cookies by rolling out the dough and filling them with dulce la leche. Yum! Recipe: https://www.chowhound.com/recipes/alfajores-28373 Day 2: Russia We talked about the vast country of Russia and then read a story called The Littlest Mastryoshka. The campers painted wooden matryoshka nesting dolls and then we made blini, a thin pancake, which we filled with strawberries and whip cream! Recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/215962/blini-russian-pancakes/ Day 3: Italy After watching a video about Italy, one of the students dressed up like Leonardo da Vinci and "painted" the Mona Lisa. We spread wet plaster on burlap to make our own frescoes. When they dried, we drew fruit still lifes with chalk pastels. We also made margherita pizza with sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, and basil. Yummy! Recipe: https://www.thekitchn.com/easy-recipe-classic-margherita-pizza-recipes-from-the-kitchn-174103 (we used refrigerator bistro pizza dough and jarred pizza sauce instead of homemade) Day 4: Egypt After watching a video about a tourist in Egypt, we made funny Pharaoh selfies with our names written in hieroglyphs. We cooked up some Egyptian Basbousa Semolina cake that was very interesting, like sweet, dense cornbread with syrup on top. Recipe: https:/cleobuttera.com/middle-eastern/best-ever-pastry-shop-style-basbousa/ Day 5: Thailand We enjoyed a video about a family who traveled to Thailand and then read a book called The Umbrella Queen and painted with liquid watercolors on paper lanterns. We cooked up some veggie stir fry and rice noodles. We topped it off with watermelon slushies. The kids enjoyed shopping at the studio store, too! Recipe: https://damndelicious.net/2014/05/24/watermelon-slush/ (I skipped the sugar) One of the highlights of my summer was enjoying a break from art camps to run a 5-day drama camp. This week we performed an original mini-musical called "Unleashed," along with playing lots of drama games and learning some important stage skills. One of my favorite moments was playing the "compliment web game" on the last day, where we expressed what we appreciated and admired about each other.  Of course, there were many other fun moments, like playing the game "Family Portrait." Check out the cute slideshow. Here are photos of our characters.... Click HERE to watch the performance on YouTube. We had a little glitch with the lights at the beginning, but after that it was smooth sailing! Thanks to everyone who participated and stopped in to watch the performance! Hope to see you all back again soon!
 Grace took these awesome girls under her wing this week to teach them cake and cookie decorating skills, fill them with sugar, and send them home! Sorry if they were a little wired, moms & dads, but we hope you enjoyed their delightful handiwork! The themes included Galaxy Day, Succulent Day, Animal Day, and a final layered cake with a melted ice cream cone theme. Everyone learned new skills such as making multi-colored frosting, cake balls, rainbow filling, and homemade cream cheese frosting and ganache, cake leveling, and experimenting with tips and royal frosting. The finished the week with a cake boss-type contest. I got to be the picky judge, and Robyn received a Flapdoodles gift card for her 1st place creation. All the girls did a great job on their 2 layer cakes. They all had a sugary blast and made lots of gorgeous creations. Here's the slideshow to prove it!  Teaching watercolors to young, curious, enthusiastic minds is among my favorite things in the world! This week at camp, the kids learned all kinds of watercolor techniques as they explored their new supplies. New vocabulary like glazing, scumbling, masking, salting, lifting, and mopping were taught and tried out. The girls painted in the studio and outside in nature, and they completed many pieces by the end of the week, including transparent lotus flowers, a landscape & seascape, a bohemian owl, and more! Here is a slideshow of the week...  Grace took 10 little girls under her wing this week to teach them cake and cookie decorating skills, fill them with sugar, and send them home! Sorry if they were a little wired, moms & dads, but we hope you enjoyed their delightful handiwork! The themes included Galaxy Day, Succulent Day, Animal Day, and a final layered cake with a melted ice cream cone theme. Everyone learned new skills such as making multi-colored frosting, cake balls, rainbow filling, and homemade cream cheese frosting and ganache, cake leveling, and experimenting with tips and royal frosting. The finished the week with a cake boss-type contest. My neighbor came over as a judge to choose the winning cake, and Ella received a Flapdoodles gift card for her 1st place creation. All the girls did a great job on their 2 layer cakes. They all had a sugary blast and made lots of gorgeous creations. Here's the slideshow to prove it!   This is my 3rd summer of offering Crazy Art Camps, and all year long I am on the look-out for art projects that are going to WOW my campers! I think this year's projects were a hit. I had 16 talented, enthusiastic kids, ages 7-12, ready to try anything! Projects 1, 2, & 3: When the kids arrived, they stained and beaded wooden name tags, which my husband and I designed and etched on our Glowforge. They also colored two big Crazy Art banners. Then we went into the studio and viewed a slideshow of the work of artist Peter Anton, who makes giant, hyper-realistic food art. We made pinch pot cupcakes with coiled frosting out of air-dry clay, then painted them a few days later and boxed them in adorable bakery cupcake boxes. I have a policy that I won't do for the kids what they can do for themselves, so I let them figure out on their own without instructions how to fold the origami-style boxes. Some of the kids loved the challenge and figured it out quickly and others had to persevere and get a little assistance from their neighbors. It's definitely a spacial skill. The kids also enjoyed some outside play time in my WonderYard each day! Here is a slideshow of our first few projects... Projects 4 & 5: We watched a slideshow of the Pop Art prints of Andy Warhol and then proceeded to make our own using gelli plates, texture items, and acrylic paints to pull our mono prints. The kids printed on black & white photos of themselves that I had snapped on Day 1, then put them all together on black paper to make them POP! We also learned about artist Georgia O'Keefe, who is known for her giant, close-up flowers. The kids sketched their own designs, outlined them with India ink-filled bingo daubers, then painted them with acrylics. They even sawed a piece of trim with a miter saw to use as a stylish hanger. Here is the slideshow... Projects 6-7: Friday was the BIG DAY! We blacked-out the studio, turned on the blacklights, and painted with fluorescent paints. There were lots of oohs and ahhh! The kids loved how my wall mural and their Crazy Art poster glowed under the blacklight. We designed and painted mad scientists in a cartoon style, with chalked bubbles in the background, and then I let them draw their own design and fill it in with glowing ice cream salt that I dyed with fluorescent paint. They also had a chance to paint their faces and made fluorescent balloon hats. Such a sensory experience for the kids! We invited families into the studio for a Glow Show at the end. Here is the slideshow... 
Ingrid's home was set up with various lovely spots for us to sit and visit and lift our pinkies as we sipped our sweet, hot tea and nibbled the delicacies. You don't have to visit art museums to see art and beauty. You can experience them in tradition, in tastes and smells and the sounds of laughter, and in the faces of lovely women gathered with grateful hearts.
   I think I could paint rainbow popsicles all day! The wet on wet technique combined with glazing the shadows was fun to practice and teach to my upbeat students. The only complaint of the night was my failure to provide ice cream at the end of the class! Check out the slideshow below for students at work.  In the last few years, I have made a point to pack my travel journal and watercolors on our trips, and this practice has helped me hone in on how best to teach my travel journaling classes. I have fine-tuned a process that works well for me and thought I'd take a moment to share it. Here are my steps... 1. I want to be fully present in the moments with my family, so I don't typically paint en plein air, though it is really fun when I get the opportunity. I take photos with paintings in mind and then find time later to paint in my sketchbook using my reference photos. I'm an early riser, so often I will paint before anyone else has rolled out of bed. 2. I sketch my drawing into the journal, thinking about what to include, what to edit out, how to layout the page if I want to include a label or a whole paragraph, and where I want the edges. Sometimes I paint to the edge of the paper, sometimes I tape off the edges for a crisp frame or loosely draw in a frame, and sometimes I keep them loose. 3. I then decide if I'm going to outline everything in a micron pen for a more illustrator style or if I'm going to just paint. 4. When the sketch is satisfactory, I start painting. Getting the sketch right, with all the proportions and angles, is important so it doesn't look weird at the end. It's easier to erase pencil than watercolor! Watercolor is done in layers, so having a hair dryer or craft heat gun is handy to speed up the drying process between layers. 5. The final step is to add the writing. I often just label and date the page, but many people treat it more as a journal, including weather, people, and descriptions. Here is my most recent sketchbook of a quick trip to Colorado for a family reunion. I included the reference photos so you can see how I edited colors and removed people/objects that I didn't want to include. I was able to complete a page a day, which made me very happy!       
 
My 16-year-old daughter, Grace, led 8 lovely girls on a sweet adventure of learning how to use decorator tips, frost a cake with a crumb coat, get a rainbow effect in the cake layers, work with royal frosting, and more! She even arranged a little Cake Boss-style contest for the "Top Ice Cream Cake," for which our neighbor came to judge. A Flapdoodles gift card was awarded to Kelsey Dickie, and all the girls enjoyed some Flapdoodles ice cream at the end! Day 1: Galaxy-themed cupcakes and cookies, with triple color bagged frosting on the cupcakes and swirled royal frosting on the cookies Day 2: Animal-themed cupcakes Day 3: Succulent-themed cupcakes Day 4: Cake prep with cake leveling, rainbow frosting filling, and crumb coat and flower cookies Day 5: Dropped Ice-cream cone cake with chocolate ganache drips, rainbow filling, decorative border, and cake ball with a sugar cone on top For those of you in the camp, here are links to her frosting recipes: Cream cheese frosting for the cupcakes Buttercream frosting for the cake For the royal frosting on the cookies, she used a royal icing powder mix from Walmart Here are photo highlights from the week!
My campers were wonderfully enthusiastic and adventurous as we "traveled" around the world, learning about 5 countries, listening to the music of each culture, making a piece of art inspired by the country, and trying foreign foods. I loved every minute!
Day 1: Argentina When campers arrived, they painted and beaded wooden name tags that my husband made on our Glowforge, then they colored in a giant welcome banner. We learned information about Argentina, made clay llama sculptures, and wove tiny blankets for them with a straw loom and yarn. Later in the week we painted the llamas. For food, we made homemade alfajores cookies by rolling out the dough and filling them with dulce la leche. Yum! Recipe: https://www.chowhound.com/recipes/alfajores-28373
Day 2: Russia
We talked about the vast country of Russia and then read a story called Babushka's Doll by Patricia Polocco. The campers painted wooden matryoshka nesting dolls and then we made blini, a thin pancake, which we filled with strawberries and whip cream! Recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/215962/blini-russian-pancakes/
Day 3: Italy
After watching a video about Italy, one of the students dressed up like Leonardo da Vinci and "painted" the Mona Lisa. We read the story Strega Nona by Tommie de Paola. We spread wet plaster on burlap to make our own frescoes. When they dried, we drew fruit still lifes with chalk pastels. We also made margherita pizza with sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, and basil. Yummy! Recipe: https://www.thekitchn.com/easy-recipe-classic-margherita-pizza-recipes-from-the-kitchn-174103 (we used refrigerator bistro pizza dough and jarred pizza sauce instead of homemade)
Day 4: Egypt
After watching a video about a tourist in Egypt, we made funny Pharaoh selfies with our names written in hieroglyphs. We cooked up some Egyptian Basbousa Semolina cake that was very interesting, like sweet, dense cornbread with syrup on top. Recipe: https:/cleobuttera.com/middle-eastern/best-ever-pastry-shop-style-basbousa/
Day 5: Thailand
We enjoyed a video about a family who traveled to Thailand, and got some special information from MaiLa, one of the campers whose grandparents are from Thailand. We read a book called The Umbrella Queen and painted with liquid watercolors on paper lanterns. We cooked up some veggie stir fry and rice noodles with the option of sweet/sour sauce or Thai peanut sauce. We topped it off with Pocky candy sticks and watermelon slushies. The kids enjoyed shopping at the studio store, too! Recipe: https://damndelicious.net/2014/05/24/watermelon-slush/ (I skipped the sugar) I had a fabulous group of artsy, enthusiastic campers for my first week of 2019 summer camps. Here is a recap of all of our fun projects and learning. Projects 1, 2, & 3: When the kids arrived, they stained and beaded wooden name tags, which my husband and I designed and etched on our Glowforge. They also colored in a big Crazy Art banner. When those were complete, we went into the studio and viewed a slideshow of the work of artist Paul Anton, who makes giant, hyper-realistic food art. We made pinch pot cupcakes with coiled frosting out of air-dry clay, then painted them a few days later and boxed them in adorable bakery cupcake boxes. They were a hit! Bonus: my daughter, Grace, made fancy cupcakes for us all to enjoy at the end of the first day! Project 4: We watched a slideshow of the Pop Art prints of Andy Warhol and then proceeded to make our own using gelli plates, texture items, and acrylic paints to pull our mono prints. The kids printed on black & white photos of themselves that I had snapped on Day 1, then put them all together on black paper to make them POP! Project 5: After looking at the beautiful close-up floral art of Georgia O'Keefe, we drew and painted these wonderful extra-large paintings of flowers. I taped down the edges to produce a nice white frame. For the outlines, I introduced the kids to India ink in bingo daubers. They work beautifully! Then we practiced mixing the acrylic paint right on the paper to get lovely blends of colors. They added tiny insects and a butterfly magnet to finish the piece. A couple of the kids ventured in their own direction when I mentioned that Georgia O'Keefe also liked to paint animal skulls! Projects 6-7: Friday was the BIG DAY! We blacked-out the studio, turned on the blacklights, and painted with fluorescent paints. There were lots of oohs and ahhh! The kids loved how my mural glowed under the blacklight. We designed and painted mad scientists in a cartoon style, with chalked bubbles in the background, and then we designed ice cream cones on foam core and filled them in with glowing ice cream salt that I dyed with fluorescent paint. I forgot to get pictures of these! Such a sensory experience for the kids! Of course, the paint ended up on their faces (and mine!) We invited the parents down for a Glow Show at the end. Here are a few more pictures of the other ways kids had fun at camp, including petting the studio cat, Ginger, and playing on the rope swing, zip line, and slack line in my backyard. Thanks for a great week to my beautiful, talented new friends! I usually say YES when it comes to new artistic opportunities, because I not only learn new skills, but I break up the routine and often find new ways to creatively apply what I've learned. As I painted long hours in the quiet church gym this week, I listened, among other podcasts, to a TED Talk on "Jumpstarting Creativity," in which speaker Tim Harford talked about a powerful technique to unleash new avenues of creativity called "disruption." Mixing it up. Doing something ridiculously different than your usual. I realized that my current disruptive activity was painting a gimungous canvas backdrop for my church's VBS program, which has the theme of "ROAR" this year. My talented friend, Amy, who designs sets for television, designed the backdrop. I had to learn how to project it, sketch it, and properly paint it. I messed up a lot, improvised when I couldn't see the shape of the elephants, and continually dripped on finished parts. Cringe! But stepping back, one can forget about the little mistakes and see the magic! Thanks to custodian and former sign painter Brad Higgins for his good advice, starting with reminding me to pour the paint over the drop cloth instead of the gym floor! And thanks to Pastor Brian and the whole team for pouring your hearts and time into transforming the church into an African savanna and preparing wonderful messages and activities for the kids! VBS "disrupts" the normal routine at our church and ushers hundreds of kids into the mystery and roaring power of God's love.        I had a most unusual request from a friend recently. Six month ago, she and her family adopted a daughter from China, who would become their 5th child and 2nd adopted child. This 10-year-old girl is spunky and curious and soaking up the language and culture. She is also deaf and has the wonderful ability to express herself through art. Her art is full of manga-style princesses, rainbows, ruffles and glittery crowns. She carefully labels the portraits with her new English name and the names of her new brothers & sisters, and mom and dad. She is finding her place in the world through art. Throughout these 6 months, as she works to bond with her daughter, my friend has also been caring for her mother, who had late-stage cancer until she died a week ago. How do you explain death to a young girl from a different culture who has limited sign language. How do you explain the belief that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord? My friend asked if I could help...if I could somehow draw this concept. As she talked, I formed a vision for the painting, and then, startlingly, my friend described what I was picturing...the bed, the hand, the body, the spirit. It was a Holy Moment that made me shiver! I said I would try, and the next day I laid the watercolor on their kitchen counter. The picture was of a manga-style grandma, rising from her final resting place into the heavenly realm and toward the hand of God. I'm glad I clothed her in a rainbow gown before I even knew how much this girl loved rainbows. She quieted and studied the picture. Her mom signed "grandma." She nodded knowingly. And I thought to myself that God, the Grand Designer, paints around and over and through us all grief and joy and beauty and love and hope.   I had a parent ask for my thoughts on how often her student should take art classes and if it was okay to take breaks and prioritize other classes. Schedules get so busy with conscientious parents trying to make sure all bases are covered. The question got me thinking back to my own educational experience. I was a highly driven, straight-A student my whole life, from K-college. I was also involved in all kinds of extra-curriculars, from sports to student council to music and theater. I took AP classes and did all the college prep stuff. Times were different in the 80s, but I CANNOT remember a semester where I was not able to fit in an art class. Art classes were a vital time of creativity and decompression for this little high achiever. They exercised a different aspect of my brain than math, science, and English, and I am certain they helped to keep me balanced and mentally healthy.  Even though I didn't pursue it as a degree and never thought I'd teach it, my art experiences and skills have influenced me daily for my entire life and have greatly enhanced my quality of life. I approach problems creatively, which comes in handy in everything from parenting to business meetings to interpersonal relationships. I am the one who gets asked to paint banners, create business cards, make jewelry for fundraisers, and help decorate for friends' weddings. The fact that I can contribute artistically in multiple ways to people and organizations is a huge blessing to me. The fact that I have a deep appreciation of beauty and design is a salve in a troubled world.  I know this is all anecdotal. But I've read plenty of scientific studies that confirm my points. You can research those on your own. But keep this in mind, dear parents: depending on your child, art may be more than a "fun extra," it may be the class that keeps them mentally healthy and has a life-long Return on Investment.
I'm so grateful to the 13 folks who signed up for my first Watercolor Bootcamp. Not only were the enthusiastic learners, the were excellent encouragers to me as I experimented with new ideas and teaching methods. We agreed the class should be longer, so my next bootcamp, coming in September will be every other Thursday for 6 weeks. I will keep some projects the same and try some new ones. Check out the slideshow! |
AuthorJill Pearson, owner & instructor at Riverwood Studio, Oronoco, Minnesota Archives
October 2019
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