Colour, Form & Landscapes by Rachel

Rachel was my student for two years and every class with her was amazing. She has a great sense of humour and loves to use colour and shapes without reservation. She is a truly free artist and was always full of surprising and unique ideas during our 2 hour classes. She is now in high school and busy with soccer and being a teenager. Hopefully, she'll be back to make more awesome art!

Here are some of my favourite pieces that she made in class:

Gavin the Great

I've spent the past several months working with a remarkable student by the name of Gavin. At twelve years old Gavin is a fantastic guitar player and artist, not to mention an all around great person. Each week we meet for two hours, spending the first 20 mins or so doing warm-up exercises then dive into an art project.

Here is some of the wonderful work he has done:

biology composition / graphic markers

watercolour exercise 

fruit still life / watercolour, pastel and graphite 

 guitar abstraction / guache 

New Classes, Amazing Results!

A year has gone by since my last post and a lot has happened with the Early Works project. Here's an update and some samples from my classes so far this year.

I am now teaching from my new home studio which has turned out to be a very enjoyable and functional space. As much fun as I had at the House, I find the change refreshing and the students seem very comfortable. Calla and I do plan on teaming up again in the future however! For now, I'm teaching solo and keeping my classes to a maximum of four students. This offers students more instruction and creates a calmer, more focused environment. We still get goofy though! 

The last two rounds of classes have been so nice : )

In the spring I taught a botanical watercolour class and in the summer I put on a week long art camp dedicated to my passion for astronomy. We created solar system mobiles, alien landscapes, and beautiful nebula paintings. Currently, my fall session is under way and we have been focusing on composition and illustration. 

Eva : age 11 / watercolour / botanical study

Lauren : age 5  / watercolour / learning technique

Hana : age 12 / collage on hard board / composition study

Amy : age 11 / mixed media / alien landscape

Anna : age 5 / styrofoam balls, acrylic paint, yarn / solar system mobile

Student's Work / Fall 2011

Emma: age 10
collage
made-up monster







Emma: age 10 & her sister, Katie: age 6
watercolour & ink
still life




Rowan age: 11
water colour & ink
abstract & made-up monster




Isobella: age 12
watercolour and ink
still life contour line drawing






Ruby: age 12, Rowan: age 11, Emma: age 10
collage contour-line project




Marlee : age 13
watercolour & ink
still life contour line drawing






Grey : age 8
watercolour and ink
made-up monster & still life




Ruby : age 11
graphite
blind contour line drawing




Amy : age 11, Sophia : age 11
graphite
blind contour line drawing


Isobella : age 12
watercolour & ink
still life

The House

Fall is here and Calla and I are super stoked!! We have finally taken over our WHOLE house and now have room for our art studios and classes! We're calling our space "the House" because it feels good... the idea of living with our art and sharing the experience. We've also teamed up with an experienced animation instructor, Ben Jacques, who has a wealth of knowledge about video editing and movie making. He has a fine arts degree from ACAD and has been teaching kids animation and art since 2002. He has extensive experience making short films and has even re-made star wars and Lord of the rings among other original works. Also, he can draw anything you want, if you ask nicely.

The following multi-media pieces are from a still life workshop Calla did with a group of grade eights. The project was to create an image with limited materials. Students were given pages from phone books and a sparse colour palette to express their view of a chair holding potatoes and oranges. Her students loved this exercise and were happily surprised with their differing styles and techniques!

Action! ART!

I just finished teaching a five session class called, Action! ART! that focused on narrative art making. I had seven amazing students who each created their own stories, sets, and characters! After working on thumbnails and storyboards, each student built their own sets and backgrounds out of a variety of materials. They then created characters (or brought some of their favorite action figures) to photograph within the sets. After photographing and editing their stories, students then added text. In the end each story turned out very unique and I really love them all!

Below are the covers of each book and the final layouts. The full spreads (with text) will be e-mailed to the kids and parents. Enjoy!

Riley Park: Round 1

This past week Calla and I finished round 1 of "Calling All Young Artists" at Riley Park Community Centre. For six weeks we worked with a group of kids ages 9-12 on collage, colour theory, and conceptual projects. The focus was on the process but the finished results were fantastic! For our last project we wanted to let the kids make something that was just about aesthetics, so we asked them to make "stained glass" using a huge variety of coloured tissue paper. Check out how beautiful these turned out!

8" x 10" surface - wax paper
sticky substance - glue stick / white glue / gel medium
"stained glass" - tissue paper
silhouettes - black card stock or craft paper

Start by taping down a piece of wax paper to your desk or work surface. Water down some white glue, mixing until there aren't any lumps. Use a paint brush to gentle apply the tissue paper pieces to the wax paper. Overlapping is encouraged!

Allow the tissue paper to dry before applying the black, cut out silhouette and frame. Trim edges after adding the frame and then hang on a nice sunny window.