Skip to main content

Creativity Starts Young


I just returned from Fine Arts Night at an elementary school. It's one of my favorite events to do. Once every year, this school turns their classrooms over to working artists from a variety of disciplines. Tables are set up in the hallways to display students' 3D works and every inch of wallspace is hung with children's artwork. Music fills the air, as does the ebb and flow of storytellers and puppeteers voices. Meanwhile, students bring parents and siblings through their building, visiting each room and learning something new along the way.



I got Mrs. S.'s third grade classroom. I brought in grid walls and filled one third of the room with paintings. The kids enjoyed flipping through the unframed paintings which I displayed on a table right at their level (pictured directly above).

I set up another smaller table with my journal and some collages, along with sign up sheets for this summer's session of Creative Journalling classes (email me if you are interested in getting on the list - details to follow!). We had a lot of discussion about the type of ideas that you can put into a journal/diary, and I think I recruited a few hesitant writers to try out some visual/drawing expression on their own.

But the best part were the round tables in the middle of the room, tables where I piled up all sorts of crayon muffins, markers, colored pencils and oil pastels (see pic at the tippy top of this post). I spent the better portion of the night around those desks, showing kids how to sketch different animals. And they eagerly shared their know-how with me in return - for instance, I learned that a platypus's egg is the size of a gumball.

Art + Kids always = Good Times.

I'm so glad I got me a piece of that today.

Thanks, as always, for looking at - and sharing - my artwork with your friends and family.
Kim

SHOP ORIGINALS & LIMITED EDITION GICLEES: at my Etsy shop
ORDER CUSTOMIZED NOTECARDS & REPRODUCTIONS: at Imagekind
COMMISSION A PET PORTRAIT: contact me
GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE: contact me
READING MATERIAL: Preview and order each of the Dog a Day books at the publisher's website: The First Year (2006-2007) and That's 14 in Dog Years (2008). If you would like your copy personalized, order them through me.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Katie’s Moustache,” 6x12, pet portrait in acrylic on canvasboard, $90. Inquiries to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com . One glimpse of Katie’s face, and I was hooked. Not only did she fall into my beloved “black & white” category, but she came with a full moustache and doe-like eyes. I first covered the canvas with a variety of blues and purples, using a (mixed) light green and pink for the highlights. (Right now my palette has been expanded to include the following: pthalo blue red, azurite hue, cad red dark, alizarine crimson, cad yellow dark, and then for graying/hazing out I use light green yellow and ultramarine purple.) I lighten with titanium white and darken with one of the blues and a touch of one of the reds. As a side note, at this time last year I was really struggling with my limited palette (I went from about 60 pots of paint to 3), but I have lived the benefits – I am so much more familiar with what I can mix given just this handful of colors. My paintings are also m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dear Copyright Thieves

Dear Copyright Thieves,   Just because it's on the internet doesn't mean it's free for the taking. So let's just stop pretending the internet is a free-for-all.   Don't play the card that you didn't know - that's insulting. And don't also tell me that you meant to follow up and get permission but never got a chance to. That's insulting too. And by the way, don't you have a copyright protection notice on your own site?   And don't even try and point the finger at a third party who commissioned you to make a copy of my painting - again, an insult - you and I both know the difference between a reference photo and a painting.   And don't tell me that I asked for it because I share my artwork on the internet. I share my paintings and ideas and the stories behind them so as to encourage others to pursue  their own passions . I do not share so that those lacking integrity and morals can copy and market the images as their own...
33 comments
Read more

Golden Open Acrylics

I get all sorts of process oriented questions. Most recently I've been getting asked a lot about my paints and palette, which made me realize what a nice blog topic this would make! I use a Masterson Sta-Wet Premier palette box . This is comprised of a box (think Tupperware) with a sponge liner and a slice of palette paper that work together to keep my paints wet. This setup allows me to work with the same palette for about a full week, having the box open for multiple hours every day. You can see what the palette looks like at the beginning of a new session above - below the exact same palette after this week's work. For the last 25 years I have used Golden brand acrylics, mediums, and varnish. I love the overall quality of these paints and the fact that, when I have a question, their customer service department is made up of artists who actually use the products. Until last year, I used their Heavy Body paints exclusively. They have a buttery consistency, a little loose...
11 comments
Read more