Spring Art classes are now enrolling!

Its my favorite time of the year. The days are long and something new pops up in the garden everyday. The spring classes are now enrolling. Check out the classes page and sign up soon, as always, class sizes are small and fill up quickly. New this spring is a Middle School session on Tuesday afternoons.

My daughter got a pretty sweet bike for her birthday. She thought it would make for a good drawing lesson.

I started by having the students do 3 detailed drawings with a nice soft pencil.

Students then focused in on a close up of part of the bike to do a large study with charcoal.

Painting, Drawing, Printmaking

 Here's a few shots from the fall from a couple of my middle school students.  

 10x10, acrylic on wood by Ophelia. I love the graphic quality of this painting and the energy of the repeating lines against the complimentary colors.

Also by Ophelia, the humble converse hi top makes for a great study of lines and proportion.

Dry-point etchings on recycled cd's. Ophelia was inspired by the shape!

 Drypoint by Ruth, a lovely, dreamy image with a nice variety of lines and textures.

Fall art classes now enrolling

The fall session is now posted on the classes page. Be sure to check it out and sign up soon. Classes are very small and fill up quickly. 

It has been a beautiful hot summer in Seattle! Luckily our studio is in the shade and stayed lovely and cool for summer camps and private classes.  Here's a small sampling of what we got up to this summer:

 Acrylic on canvas still life studies...

"Henri Rousseau" inspired oil pastels featuring "Poofy" our pet chicken....

Hydrangeas from the garden, acrylic on canvas

Still life with Chocolate lab...

Charcoal Poofy Portraits ...

garden lilies...

a quick "Kandinsky" warm up...

Oil pastel Sunflowers

Time for self portraits...

Painting lessons and summer camps

Summer camps are filling up. Please check the classes and page and sign up soon!

To keep things fun I love to ask the kids what they want to work on.

Here is what one of my 5th grade students has been up to.

Jalen wanted to do a painting in perspective, specifically with a road that vanishes.  We started this painting by first doing a lesson on drawing bird houses in 1 point and 2 point perspective.  This painting to 3 one hour sessions to complete! It is a classic lesson. We decided to leave out the shadows to focus on the trees and the road.  

"Lets do something abstract!" Composition is talked about in every lesson, its especially important when working on a an abstract piece.

 The cherry blossoms were in full bloom! Any excuse to have them in the studio!

Life drawing with chicken

The "Poofy Sessions" Its always a popular day when we bring Poofy into the studio to model! 8x10, chalk pastels on black matt board. Students range  in age from 7-10.

Self Portraits

Love, love, love how the oil pastel self portraits turned out!

 

students are 7-10 years old...

  love the background!

This project takes 2 one hour sessions to complete. During the first session we draw our self portraits in pencil on black paper. The second session is all about oil pastels. The pencil lines are traced over with a black pastel, then the flesh tones are added and blended with a white pastel, followed by the hair and the background. A final black outline is added to give the finished drawing some contrast. 

Abstract paintings inspired by Kandinsky

Abstraction in the studio this week.  We talked about Wassily Kandinsky and then dove right in!