Still lifes are fun!

Still lifes have received a bad wrap. After my drawing classes in school, I was pretty happy not to draw a cow skull again for the rest of my life. I moved into figure drawing and after one class realized what drawing was all about. People usually find it unusual to stare at a nude man for two hours but it was a great experience. It is where I learned to see, it's not what you think you see it's what you actually see in front of you. Making the connection between your eye and hand is enlightening. I can now appreciate the hours and hours of the cow skull because it prepared me for the next step. I recently set up a still life for my younger students and they did wonderfully. If you have younger kids who get frustrated when they try to draw something and it doesn't look "right" then there is a fun book to help loosen them up. The book is ish by Peter H Reynolds. Set up a still life and let the kids have at it.

Fresco

I discovered a great resource for art lessons on the dick blick website. I tried one yesterday with my students, it is a lesson for creating frescoes. You can find the lesson here.

I thought it was a fun lesson both for art production and art history. The kids loved learning about Pompeii and the ancient fresco paintings discovered there. The kids had a great time and wanted to make more and more. On several of the frescoes I used a yellow water color wash to help antique the plaster. I also preferred using colored pencils instead of the pastel with the younger kids. It was hard for them to keep from smearing the pastel with their hands. I loved the idea of breaking the pieces to antique them even more but most couldn't bear to crack their beloved fresco drawings.

Birthday

I celebrated a birthday last week. Yep, I've been here 29 years. And I have been reflecting on the last decade. Wow! I mean look at those two beautiful girls. Can it get any better? I hope so!

What's Visual DNA?

I received this link in my email the other day from my sister in law and thought it was fun. Choose the picture that best suites you and it will give your visual DNA. If you have a minute try it.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Studio

My little studio is complete. It is so great to finally have one place for all my supplies. It was very kind of my fella to give me what was supposed to be his work shed. I hope to give it some personal touches next week when I start teaching art lessons. It's missing students work!

King Tut

Philadelphia was great. The King Tut exhibit was very interesting. They had over 130 pieces from the time of Tutankhamun along with some things found in his burial chamber. They did not have any of the actual burial masks or the coffins but a very cool computer generated image of the burial chamber. My older girl had a great time. I hope it is something she will remember. My parents took me as a child to see the Ramses exhibit and I have great memories of that trip. I remember getting those headphones and feeling so grown up. I remember the feeling of being near items made thousands of years ago. I still like to walk up to pieces close my eyes and imagine the items being made by artisans, the scene plays in my mind. Makes it fun.

I love the picture with younger daughter who would not sit by us. I think she was afraid we would take a drink.