Take a look at our students and their awesome artwork, created at the Whales In Art Workshop during April school vacation week! These wonderful photos were shot by Alma Cummings.

It's April school vacation week! I can't wait for my Whales In Art Workshop for Ages 9 to 14, coming up on Thursday, April 18 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. We will be using a wide variety of media to make three different art projects in response to these giant, awe-inspiring creatures. Several examples appear below. Workshop photos to come! 

What kinds of projects do we make in my classroom? Lots of animals, plants, and still-life, with some landscapes and portraits in the mix. I never repeat the same project, so if a child has taken a class with me before, they will always have a new experience. Here are just a few examples of recent artworks by my students:

What a great experience my students and I had during last week's two February school vacation workshops! The teen group on Tuesday illustrated their fashion ideas with inspiration from the past, using colored pencils and watercolor outlined with micron pens. Then the children's group on Thursday made 3 projects in response to photos of their pets, with colored pencils, colored markers, and collage. Here are some views of the two workshops:

We are excited about our two new workshops, coming up next week for February school vacation! We're offering a Fashion Design Workshop for ages 12 to 17 and a Pet Portrait Workshop for ages 9 to 14, both meeting for one day from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Below are examples of the projects we're planning. For fashion design, we'll update looks from the past to contemporary styles using a comic-style grid to display the full garment and an assortment of related accessories. Our sample shows Folkwear Patterns' Poet Blouse, inspired by Romantic era poets like Keats and Byron, transformed to today, belted with layered midi-skirts and laceup boots. The Pet Portrait workshop will offer a variety of materials for students to reinterpret their favorite animal or pet; our example here shows a colored pencil drawing of a white German shepherd. Looking forward to seeing what our students come up with!

Our teen class has done a lot of acrylic painting this session, and their latest project was a reflection of their interest in music. The two examples here illustrate the viola, an instrument which both students play. With the subjects surrounded by abstract patterns, you can almost hear the music in the air! 

Our of our guiding principles as an art school is to honor each student's individual creative voice. While we all start with the same project, each young artist is encouraged to approach the assignment in their own way. This week, we created collages of doughnuts on a checkered tablecloth. Our students went in different directions in their selection of flavors for the doughnuts, colors for the tablecloth, and arrangements for the artworks. Each one has a unique "flavor," doesn't it?

Our first session of the new year is underway! Our children's class began with parrot drawings (see previous blog post); our student Dominic Navin is shown here working on his. And our teen group created colored pencil drawings of sliced citrus fruits; shown is work by Venna Botelho. We're off to a terrific start!

More new projects in the works! We never repeat a project, so if your child has taken classes with us before, they will always have a new experience. This wildly hued parrot, rendered with graphite and marker, is perfect for younger students who respond to strong colors and bold shapes. We'll be trying him out during Session 1.