Friday, June 21, 2013

Keeping you up to date

  A time line of photos showing the awesomeness that has been happening in the studio.  I continue to be inspired and love the challenge of creating thought provoking curriculum.
 Created with Kindergarten students.  Forest houses!  This project will also become a part of our Outdoor Art Camp.  Pinch pot tops, with slabbed bottom structure.  Bottom part of the mushroom houses were leatherhard so that the students could carve and detail without it collapsing. 
 Lots of art workshops even through the summer!  For Teens and adults.  The work that is created in these mini sessions are fun yet produce work that is very professional and will inspire you to keep creating.  Taught by working, professional artists.  Wheel throwing, Book making, Screen printing for t-shirts, and Zine making. 
 This was created by one of our adult drawing students.  Our adult classes are very flexible to fit into busy schedules.  8 card class passes are good for an entire year.  She has never taken a drawing class before and was inspired to add an additional element to her journal entries.  She is a writer and published author and has loved seeing her progress (as have I).   Love the expression of her fabulous dog (pencil on paper).  Learning how to train the eye is taught even with our littlest students.  Each new session working on something that intrigues our eyes and stimulates our mind. 
 Sewing!  Who wouldn't want to add this to their basket of talents.  Sewing classes are year around, with the special addition during the summer of Fashion Design Camp.  Two different sessions available.  In class and in camp students learn to machine sew, design patterns, work on personal projects, and above all gain confidence to create!   For ages 7 and up.
 After School Enrichment art classes have finished for the 2012-2013 school year.  We will be back at it again in August, coming to over 12 different schools.  So honored that Studio 4 Art is found as an educational and professional organization that can bring quality art sessions into schools.

Pictured here is a student who has painted his background and after mixing the skin tone, is painting the shape of the head....all with his fingers.  This class is offered for students, grades 1-5, and I find it important to go back and remember what it feels like to play.  They were later painted with brushes when we were doing more intricate work on the portraits themselves.  They had a blast. 
 Studio 4 Art sponsors at least 2 free art days a year.  This was a part of the Art, Wine and Music Festival in Novato.  My favorite quote of the day, "Wheel throwing has been on my bucket list for years, so happy I can check it off.  Thank you!" 
 Lino cut prints.  The process has a zen quality to it.  From sketching your design, to transferring it to your linoleum plate and especially with the carving.  But the true reward, the magic of the print.  Printmaking classes offer this as one of the techniques learned.  We also have workshops!

This will be a part of the Mixed Media Camp.  I think we may print them on t-shirt to show them off.
 Bisque ware is available at Studio 4 Art.  You can come in a paint a piece any time we are open; M-F 10:00-5:30 and Saturday from 10:00-2:00.  This piece warmed my heart.  It was created by the child's hand and her thumbprint.  Then outlined with one of our glaze pencils.  So sweet. 
 One of our own teachers was in a show recently.  It sponsored up and coming artists in the bay area.  This piece is one of my favorites, although it is difficult to photograph, the process is layers of photographs, printed on transparency's.  He has bolted them together with space in between to give depth and also adding a bit of ghostly quality to them.  Artist: Jenson Neugebauer
 Our first week of summer camp.  These young artists were looking at trees to sketch to become inspiration for our later project in clay.  They were looking for the width of trunks, how many branches they saw, the outer shape of the tree (contour line), how to create so many leaves in one drawing and the texture they saw on the trunks.  Observational drawing at its finest. 
When we closed our eyes and imagined ourselves as trees with a background that symbolized our favorite time of day, this is what happened in our Clay Play fine art camp.  Love, love, love.   The process was of visualization, inward perspective, and painting on clay as a canvas.  Summer camps, art work that is above and beyond.

 Encaustics are still a mystery to many.  I have been painting with wax for about 5 years now (first learning the process in college) and have enjoyed sharing my experience with our students.  The scent and sensation of painting with melted wax is like no other.  It is great for many, many reasons; laying in words and poems to work, layering in handmade paper, mixed media art pieces, for those that like to carve, and especially for those that enjoy the creative process.  It is a medium that allows you to just let go and have fun.  Truly.  It is a wonderful medium if you love scrapbooking too!  Encaustics is available in a weekly class, workshops throughout the year and will be a part of our Teens ONLY camp.