Art & Clay Summer Camp 2013

[gallery type="rectangular" ids="456,463,462,461,460,459,458,457,454,453,452,451,450,438,445,446,447,448,449"] Every year the fantastic clay artist Katherine Mathisen and myself hold a week-long art camp for children in Maitland. It is always a great time for the kids and so much great art is produced.

I helped the kids create the 2-d projects. We made a watercolor of an elephant and I guided the children through a step-by-step drawing process of the elephant. We created a mixed media still life,  using old pages out of science books, acrylics, oil pastels and rubber stamps. We made Gelli prints and used the prints as the flowers of the mixed media piece.  I assisted Katherine Mathisen in her portion of the clay camp. She expertly showed the children how to make a bust, a bug on a leaf and a decorative heart.

We also made a series of greeting cards. It seems sending and receiving cards is becoming a dying art (thanks to e-mail and the immediacy of the internet) and I asked to keep one of the cards to save as a pen pal kind of project. I'm working with a friend in Australia to see if there is a group of children there that would like to make some cards and start an exchange with my art campers. Keep your fingers crossed that it works out.

Thanks for taking the time to view my blog. It's been a while since I posted. With the return to the school year, perhaps I can get back to a regular weekly posting. :)

View some of Katherine’s awesome claywork: http://www.katherinemathisen.com/

Gelli Prints

Here are a couple of photos of my wonderful Middle school art students and the prints they created using Gelli Plates. We had such fun! Here is a link to the website where you can purchase a plate for yourself;  http://www.gelliarts.com/

Rainbow Zebras & 4 Year Olds

This year a parent from our Montessori Pre-school asked if I would do some private lessons with their 4 year old daughter.  Their daughter is quite gifted and likes to stay busy, so accepted the task. At this age children like to tell stories and draw from their imagination in their artwork. So I am trying to approach her lessons with that in mind while at the same time teaching her the basics of drawing and using different medias. In teaching her, it made me think back to my first drawings and I realized that I still had one hidden inside an old music book. I had drawn it when I was 4 and I had drawn it inside the first page of the book. Naughty me! I thought that this may be a good lesson for Alexis to try in oil pastel.

When teaching one-on-one I usually paint/draw along with the student, kind of showing them a step by step process and at the end of the project we have 2 finished pieces. Both usually go home with the student. When we started working I realized how much better Alexis was at drawing and color then I was at 4! I also realized that I still approach art in the same way I did when I was 4. A whimsical central subject and lots of color! So both Alexis and I are still learning. Do you have any of your artwork from when you were 4?

Pondering the finished product.

After School Art- Assemblage!

We just finished a 4 week assemblage project in my after school art class. The children did a fantastic job! I am just amazed with their creativity and imagination. We used mainly repurposed materials. Jewelry that I collected over the years, scrabble tiles and inspiration from the fantastic Lynn Whipple (my old studio pal from McRae Art Studios), corrugated cardboard from my husband's warehouse and more that I can't remember to list. Enjoy! Here is a definition of assemblage;

assemblage -  a collection or gathering of things or people : a wondrous assemblage of noble knights, cruel temptresses,and impossible loves.• a machine or object made of pieces fitted together : some vast assemblage of gears and cogs.• a work of art made by grouping found or unrelated objects.• the action of gathering or fitting things together.

Picasso did quite a few assemblage pieces. Here is a link to an example of one using similar materials;

http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=34095

There are really no rules in assemblage, just the limits of your imagination! You should try one!

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To see more of Lynn's great work: http://www.lynnwhipple.com/

Website of a great co-op art studio in Winter Park, FL. http://www.mcraeartstudios.com/

Pop Art of George!

Here's a newly finished piece that my Middle School art students did for display at the student section of the Maitland Art festival. I am so proud of them! They did a great job and seemed to have fun They decided to do Gilbert Stuart's George Washington portrait in a"Andy Warhol" style. Each student picked numbers out of a basket that corresponded to a square in the grid style painting. They drew out what part of the painting fit on their section of grid and painted their 2-3 squares in acrylics. We then put the piece all together and touched up what squares didn't match. Did you know that the unfinished portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart was used as a model for Gilbert and his daughter's? They painted around 100 paintings of Pres. Washington based on that great unfinished work and sold them for around $100 each. Probably a big amount for the time.

Art & Clay Camp

[slideshow] Art & Clay Camp happened last week and the kids had so much fun! It was 5 days of just art and clay. All the adults that came by the room wanted to join in.

I helped the kids create the 2-d projects, including a montage of 4 Zetangles, a oil pastel/watercolor resist of Owen the Hippo and Mzee the Tortoise, A mixed media heart painting, and a crayon compostion of crayon rain that melted in the sun. I assisted Katherine Mathisen in her portion of the clay camp. She expertly showed the children how to make a bowl, cup or goblet, + several sculptures of animals. Katherine and I usually teach this camp just once during the summer and this is our 5th year of working together! It's both fun and exhausting. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLMxoD5Ce14

This video explains Owen and Mzee's relationship. So sweet.

Katherine’s awesome website: http://www.katherinemathisen.com/

Maitland Montessori Art Show

I teach art at my daughter's school and every year in May we have a school wide art show displaying the art created throughout the year by the children. Here are some picture's from this year's show. It's fun to see them grow and get creative! Their parents always look forward to it too and invite relatives and grandparents to come to the show.[slideshow] For those interested, I am holding a art and clay summer camp July 9th thru July 13th. I will be at Maitland Montessori School, 8:30 am to 2:30 pm. My friend and great clay artisan, Katherine Mathisen will be helping with the clay portion of the camp. We always plan some fun projects and split the time up nicely between 2d and 3d projects.

Contact me for further details; genasemenov@gmail.com

Katherine's awesome website: http://www.katherinemathisen.com/