Art class

I  got to class this week and had to catch up a bit; below is the 'work in progress' from 3 weeks ago, I will finish it this week and then post the finished painting for comparison...and add the finished painting from this week's class.

One thing I have gotten so far from this class is an appreciation of the subtleties of the medium ( and the frustrating uncertainties as it interacts with water); I see that in the past I have been using it more or less like a crayon!...so that should mean that I can't get any worse!

Painting with grandkids

Both Adrian and Anna enjoying drawing and painting with me. However, Anna has really taken to watercolours and insists on painting at "grampa's painting desk".

 This one above is a "spotted elephant"; coloured after she drew it in pencil. She insisted that this elephant has a short trunk ( head on RH side) and didn't want to make it longer.

This was her first water colour using "real paper" and Grampa's paints; she just wanted to see what she could do.

These are from a joint session with both Anna and Adrian. Top left is Anna's 2 laughing giraffes, bottom right is Anna's "storm clouds", and she added, that the purple looks like sunset!

Top right is Adrian's: there is a red giraffe kicking out at a shark (in grey); there is also a red hazelnut tree; bottom left is one that Adrian did for Nora.

Drawing and painting with the kids, who are so uninhibited reminds me of a story from the book "drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. Her 4 year old niece asked her what she taught; Betty responded that she taught art to adults. There was a long pause and the little girl said "..why, did they forget how?".

Updates?...where are they??

Just a quick note to explain that I've missed my last 2 art classes due to Robin being ill and our furnace blowing up. I will post my latest from art class in a day or so - we are tied up with looking after grand-kids, which takes priority!

I had the pleasure of painting with Anna today; how refreshing to be with a 3 year old with no per-conceptions of what she should be doing. She now enjoys water colour and wants to paint "at grampa's paint desk". I'll scan her latest also..tomorrow.