starry, starry night

pastels, black construction paper 12 x 18, scissors, glue sticks,
assorted colors of construction paper, images of van gogh's work

In the last few years of van Gogh's life he nearly painted a painting a day. He completed over 2,000 works of art in various media and 900 of those were paintings. His work prolific, his style totally unique, and his energy relentless, he was only an artist the last 10 years of his life and sold one painting before his death, but his influence on art has been amazing, overwhelming, and duplicated by no other.

After showing examples of van Gogh's work and sharing a little history on the artist I passed out images of "Starry Night." We took this opportunity to look at the work closely and discuss those intimate details that one must do when looking at his work. Using words like motion, energy, pulsating patterns, heavily applied, painted strokes and bright colors to express his unique style of painting and vision we had a conversation about "Starry Night." Giving the kids a chance to be a van Gogh they were asked to duplicate a starry night scene. I had to encourage and challenge the students to use only dashes and many colors to create pulsating movement on their black paper. I have to tell you, it does take a bit of encouragement because they will want to color and smudge with the pastels. After they have created their night scene with the pastels have them use construction paper to cut the shapes of a small town (or even a big city, one child did NYC buildings and the Statue of Liberty, have FUN and be CREATIVE) and glue to their paper, giving their scene a little dimension. They can add windows and doors with pencils and pastels. It is fun to listen to Don McLean's Vincent (Starry Starry Night) or to even read the lyrics to add other sensory aspects to the project. It is hard not to lose yourself in the painting or in the song for that matter, this project will turn all your nights into a starry, starry night.

classes!

photo courtesy of Grayman!

@the ArtHousewhere creative imagination lives

JUNE
"wild creatures"
10-2 on Thursdays
11th, 18th, 25th, 2nd (July)
bring a sack lunch
This fun class will focus on creating your own
wild creatures using different mediums.

$60

"sketchbook summer"
9 to noon on Mondays
beginning on the 15th thru 17th (August)
This summer we will be using downtown Reno
as a sketching backdrop and covering various art techniques
to create a personal sketchbook. A somewhat focused art class
but absolutely FUN, (a sketchbook will be provided and
we will be meeting downtown every week,
all grade levels and skill levels are welcome).

$75

"watercolors"
10 to noon on Wednesdays
10th, 17th, 24th
Who doesn't like painting with watercolors?
Fun projects with a focus on color theory.

$30

JULY
"wild creatures"
10 to 2 on Thursdays
9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th
bring a sack lunch
This fun class will focus on creating your own
wild creatures using different mediums.
$60

"storybook"
10 to 1 on Wednesdays
1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th
bring a sack lunch
Lets make a book or two.
$50

"printmaking"
1 to 3 on Mondays
6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
We will print with everything but the kitchen sink.
$60


AUGUST
"watercolors"
10 to noon on Wednesdays
5th, 12th, 19th
Who doesn't like painting with watercolors?
Fun projects with a focus on color theory.
$30

ONE DAY ART EVENTS
An entire day doin' themed art and havin' fun!

DOGSJune 19th
"bolt"
NATUREJune 26th
"my neighbor totoro"
HARRY POTTERJuly 24th
"order of the phoenix"
SPACEJuly 31st
"robots"
COLLAGEAugust 7th
"night at the museum"
BIRDSAugust 14th
"hoot"

bring a lunch (snacks will be provided)
we will create, watch a movie, and play hard!
9am to 3pm
$25

All classes are for students in
1st thru 6th grades
(except for sketchbook summer).
Ask me about multiple kid discounts and also, I will thankfully take
$5 off for your referrals of others to my classes.
I can come to your house for a play group art project for
a group (8 kids max) at $40/hour.

submit your inquiries to shannons.arthouse@hotmail.com

be still my beating heart

12 x 18 black construction paper, glue, stencil of a large heart,
torn pieces of construction paper in various colors, white crayon

A perfect project for those kindergartners in your life. Using your stencil, trace a large heart on the black construction paper with a white crayon. Pass the hearts out with a generous pile of torn construction paper. Using those famous words of wisdom "dot-dot not a lot" (this helps the kids remember not to squeeze out too much glue), have the students glue each piece of paper inside the heart. This is really fun to watch because each child reveals a little bit of their personality with their approach when filling their heart. The finished project is a great one to laminate or frame. This wonderful, simple art piece will fill your heart with happiness.

birth of a business

photo courtesy of Jyn Meyer

I have spent countless hours dreaming of all the possibilities I can be and do. I have thought of owning my own business since my daughter was born deep into the wee hours of the night, many, many, nights. I have fantasized about shopping for supplies and what the ideal art studio would look like. I have pictured myself in my Jack Purcells (no socks, of course), a white t-shirt, overalls covered in paint, and a apron (with my logo) welcoming students and parents to the classes. I have considered who I would market to and what products I would sell and it all comes back to ART. I LOVE ART. I want to do art, I want to teach art, and I want to sell art. I want others to love art too! I would love nothing more than to have kids walk happily away from a lesson I just taught with large smiles and a large sense of pride.

So here it is, the beginning of something bigger than me, the gestation of this idea is long overdue (like my daughter was), I am using this opportunity (with the blog) to create an idea that is moving from just a voice in my head to something real. I am just really, really glad I don't really have to do that labor thing again just only figuratively speaking.

seurat's dots

tempera paint, flower images, q-tips, watercolor paper,
pencils, images of seurat's paintings

Seurat's painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grand Jatte took him 2 years to paint, its dimensions are over 10 ft wide by 6 ft tall. Seurat spent his life studying color theory and he used the play of light and illusion to blend the colors optically. Very exciting!

After passing out images of flowers I found in a flower catalog, I asked the students to sketch lightly the flower they had chosen. I demonstrated how to hold the pencil to sketch and how different it looks compared to when you are writing. I asked them to step outside their comfort zone and to sketch very large, and to please avoid detail because the all the fun will be in painting their flower using the pointillism technique. I found these great little containers (like the ones that ranch dressing comes in at a take out eatery) at a local restaurant supply, they are absolutely perfect for putting a little paint in and easy enough for the kids to navigate on their small desks, plus you can purchase the lids which makes it even more perfect for saving paint for the next class. Using q-tips and dots they filled in their flower drawings with the colors of their choice. Of course you will need to stress "please, resist the urge to paint with the q-tips, dots only!" The outcome will be beautiful and impressive. They are fun to look at closely and at a distance, give it a try.

here comes the sun

watercolor paper, pencils, sharpies, rulers, pictures of masks,
images of works by paul klee, liquid watercolors, paint brushes

This 2nd grade project focused on using the facial features (from the student directly across from them) in a mask-like style to create a playful, sunny face. The stress was not in realism by any means. Pictures of masks help to give them fresh ideas. The students then used the line to move their drawings into abstraction with a 5-line formula and a ruler. Show images of Paul Klee's work. Armed to paint, I used this opportunity to talk about complimentary colors, they were given instructions to paint each section with a color and to think about placing a complimentary color next to it. It wasn't long before their sunny faces began to warm my heart. You can't help but smile.

she is so beautiful

Sandro Boticelli's, La nascita di Venere, 1484.

It was raining the day we decided to explore the historical city of Florence, Italy. In her younger days she was quite the mecca of the arts. Many artists would come to her so they could experience her nurturing, passionate embrace. We stood in awe at the end of the day when a familiar drama unfolded before us. The sun was setting and a few rays of light managed to escape the clutches of the clouds, their stretched fingers reached out to touch the sacred Duomo in the center of the city, it was reminiscent of the Michelangelo ceiling in the Sistine Chapel we had just visited in Rome, we were speechless and feeling a moment of private spirituality.

As an art history major, my visit to the Uffizi was undeniably one of the highlights of my trip to Italy. Besides the unforgettable hazelnut, chocolate, Baci (a yummy Italian candy) kissed gelato in Assisi (which is another story), my walk through the Uffizi was my favorite and cherished memory. Though I was with my family entirely throughout the museum, I somehow managed to walk the museum alone which was lovely in itself. One of the paintings that stuck out in my mind was Boticelli's Venus. She is quite the ambassador of beauty as she sits upon the wall in her quiet, stately room. I noticed nothing else. The four walls held four different large paintings but only Venus invited me to linger and stare. There was just one tufted bench to await for your moment when you could have a private viewing with her. Her soft curves and delicate features strike up an imagined love affair the artist must have had with his model. For a moment, I am jealous. I hate to walk away.

portraits

A culmination of a year's work with pastels, line, contour, charcoal, collage, watercolors and sketching countless still life's ended with a mixed media, portrait project that is out of this world! I had an opportunity to work with some really terrific students who developed their skills all year long to produce a portrait of their own interpretation. I have never felt more excited by the use of color than I have with this project. The revelation of watching each art piece form as each student reached within themselves to discover their own style that is expressive was like walking into the room at the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy and seeing the "La nascita di Venere" by Boticelli for the first time. I was enamored with the detailed softness of Venus, she was so lovely and breathtaking, I couldn't stop looking. I absolutely love their portrait pieces and I know you will too!

a calling

The end of the year is upon me and grades are due. This was my first teaching job as an art teacher, but not the first time teaching art. I have loved every moment and feel as if I mother duck have watched proudly, her little ducklings march away. The year long experience was challenging, exciting, interesting, and most of all, absolutely fun! I have found my calling.

Since childhood I have always known I would be a teacher, a role I often slipped into when I could lure any one into my classroom set up in the garage. Living in a new housing subdivision in Florence, Kentucky, I was in third grade and we were surrounded with pieces of drywall left for me to collect and to use as chalk for my bedroom wall. I would enlist all the dolls and animals in my room to listen to my lectures that I would carefully outline on the walls. After my lecture I would wipe the walls clean with a damp cloth and none would be the wiser. I found out that my theory was completely untrue when my parents discovered the residue, that never really wiped clean, all my notes were revealed in the warm light through the window on my soft, peach painted walls. I had to suffer a slow and painful restriction in my room for at least a week to look at the wall I had regarded as my personal chalkboard.

a little warmth is in the air

summer classes coming soon!

art haiku

creative hands work
art and love gently mingles
sigh of happiness