summer school

Art Club is on hiatus for the summer. The kids should be keeping up with their sketching and crocheting, and we'll pick up with our chair theme again in the fall. I asked the art club students to find an old chair this summer, either at a garage sale or in their basements, to transform next year into a "super chair" -- one that in functional and empowered with special qualities. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Last summer I had several optional art club meetings during vacation, but attendance was sporadic with all the different family schedules. This summer I simply asked students to keep in touch and plan on a show and share session when we regroup. Many of the art club kids attend camps and other art classes in the summer where they pick up new crafts and techniques to share with the group.

Sometimes I offer summer mini camps (last year we did several weeks of miniatures), but this summer I will be quite busy with a new baby due in July. I hope to have some updates for the blog this summer (maybe we will hear how Sylvia's new hat business is going or get a chance to visit Carina's fairy forts?) but the entries will be less frequent.

Keep it up art club! Have a great break.

chair painting

We spent some time thinking about chairs this week at art club. Chairs are a pretty great subject. I have quite an assorted variety around my house. I started by asking the kids to sketch ten different chairs from life. I asked them to think about what type of chairs seem happy and what type of chairs seem fat. We discussed scary chairs and solid chairs. Skinny chairs and silly chairs. Adult chairs and those meant for play and children. Are some chairs more restful than others? We naturally had some philosophical questions about chairs. What type of chair would we choose to represent us in a chair self portrait? What type of chair would we pick to live with if we could choose only one chair? What words do we think of when we think of chairs?

After much musing and sketching, we got to work painting little chair vignettes on masonite board. The art club was asked to translate their sketches to paintings using simple lines and a minimal palette.

Some of the students worked with bold outlines to really make their chair designs pop. Check out how excellent chair drawing is for learning perspective!