Celebrating Art Again

Today I'm celebrating my after school Art Club again. But first, kudos to Lexa Cain @ Lexa Cain , L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog, who co-host this "Celebrate the Small Things blog hop. You can go to any of these sites to get all the links and add your name to the links. 

About the Art Club: This year I have students from age 6 to age 14, and we meet each Thursday for an hour an a half. The first fifteen to twenty minutes are the lesson, which includes a little information about the artists we study, painting and drawing styles and terms, and use of the materials we are handling. 

Every Thursday I leave the house and drive to the community center, somewhat torn about the long afternoon  (thirty-minutes set-up, an hour clean-up, an hour and a half lesson and application.) Every evening I drive back home, thoroughly renewed, restored, and so happy I teach this class. The kids are so responsive and give art their best. Their energy revitalizes me (a great change from being hunched over my computer). And these are some of the sweetest kids you will ever meet. 

Yesterday's lesson, in honor of Black History Month and Dr. King was focused on the art of William H. Johnson, a twentieth-century African-American artist who studied in Paris and was influenced by modernism. Also a few other artists African-American artists of his era. Here are a few more samples of what they did yesterday:

These were done with oil pastels and colored pencils on pastel paper. Next week we will be using bamboo brushes and watercolors to celebrate Asian New Year.

And next month, we will have an art exhibit at University Art. The students keep portfolios and select what they consider their best work to show. If you are in the Sacramento Area, I hope you will come by. (I'll post more information later on Facebook.)

I hope you have enjoyed your visit, and I'll be visiting your blogs to join in your celebrations. Have a great day. And have a great week-end!

Celebrating Art Assistants for the New Year

The first week of the New Year has already gone by. How did that happen? Today I'm celebrating the fact that I have art assistants for my weekly art class. But first, kudos to the sponsors of this blog hop: Lexa Cain @ Lexa Cain , L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog  You can go to any of these sites to get all the links and add your name to the links. 

On to Art Club: For those of you who haven't read earlier blogs about it, I volunteer teach an after school art club to students ages 7 through 14. It used to be only 8-to-12-year-olds, but younger siblings have squeezed in and returning students are always welcome. And this year, for some reason two 6-year-olds got in. Amazing 6-year-olds. This class is an hour and a half, and they stay deeply immersed and focused the entire time. So of course, I kept them!
(You can see more about the class and student work in an earlier post I did HERE . )

What I'm celebrating: Just before the holidays a young girl stopped by while I was cleaning up and started asking questions about the class. I thought she wanted to sign up for it. Instead, she wanted to become my assistant. She's had three years of art herself, but now she is into music. She has good art background, though, and yesterday she showed up for our first art class of the new year. She was a wonderful help, guiding students in applying the lesson, sharpening colored pencils, collecting supplies at the end of class. Not only that, two of her friends want to be assistants, too! What a blessing that will be: Next week we work in paints, which means putting paint in palette trays, and, later, washing those trays and brushes, not to mention bringing clean water when the first cup of water gets murky, etc. Painting days are usually my late days for getting home, since there is so much clean up to do. I am so looking forward to having more assistants.

Colored pencils on
pastel paper

Colored pencils on
pastel paper

Meanwhile, here are some new samples of student work: One lesson was about how to paint skies & clouds; a second lesson was on drawing baby animals. Enjoy.

Colored pencils on
pastel paper

Acrylic on canvas

Acrylic on canvas

Acrylic on canvas


How about you? Have you ever had unexpected help just show up out of the blue and ease your workload?