Last Saturday I had a couple of fun workshops in the theme of PLAY. In the first, Paint Like a Child, we had fun going through the developmental stages of children’s art, putting them into practice as we created a couple of pieces of art on our “playgrounds”.
In the next workshop, A Touch of Whimsy, we talked about the elements that can be tweaked to create whimsy in our artwork.
Everyone did such a great job, even when it was a new to them technique!
Next month at Tessera Gallery….
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
Pablo Picasso
My focus for the month of November has been looking at the qualities of children’s art and in what areas I could benefit from approaching the canvas as a child would. That means dropping ideas of perfectionism and just having fun with it. When I manage to do that, there is a fun quality to the art that seems more expressive. So I have been doing a lot of studying the developmental stages of children’s art and fun experimenting with bringing those “techniques” into my adult art. There has been a lot of finger painting which is soooo much fun and forces me to loosen up a bit! My results will never be like Picasso’s, but hopefully bringing the child into the studio will help me become my best artistic self.
I am pretty excited about the lineup of workshops coming up at Tessera Fine Arts Gallery!
Next week there will be three different workshops, all with the theme of PLAY! On Thursday will be the “Paint Like a Child” workshop where we will look at, and use the developmental stages that children go through in their artwork. The goal is to try to restore a childlike joy in the process and expel crippling “adult” perfectionism! We will approach our canvas as a playground, and loosen up! Some of the products we will be trying out are the Stabilo pencil, NeoColor II crayons, and oil pastels.
Participants are welcome to work in their art journal, or on the provided canvas.
A few of my own examples using this technique…
I have had so much fun with this I can’t stop! Several little nativity’s…
Next up on Saturday morning will be “Oodles of Doodles” which has become my wonderfully relaxing bedtime routine/art making! We will doodle up some papers to use in our pieces, and then layer them on our surface. We will also create an imaginary creature or character wearing some doodles, and then finish the entire piece with doodles that will be an amazing transformation! Some pages of funky cutouts will help us with our creature creations. Paint pens will be the featured tool in this workshop.
Work in your art journal, or on the provided “doodle board”.
I have been going doodle crazy in my art journals….
Saturday afternoon will wind up the trio of play workshops with “A Touch of Whimsy” which will look at four elements of creating whimsical art. Once you know the elements, you can control just how much, or how little whimsy there is! We will be creating a character with a whimsical face in a whimsical place either on an art journal page or on the provided canvas board.
If you would like to join me in any of these playful romps, check out the information below and call Tessera Gallery at (316) 262-2435.
Have a great weekend!
“Lucy” is my “Paint Like a Child” version of one of my favorite subjects… an elephant! I painted her as a sample for my upcoming workshop using some of the techniques we will be learning to help us return to the childlike wonder and freedom and joy in our art.
We will be looking at, and using, the five stages of development in children’s art. The goal is not to abandon our adult interests and abilities, but to regain the influence of that art child. Seems strange to have to learn to paint like a child doesn’t it? Picasso said that it took him four years to learn to paint like Raphael, and a lifetime to learn to paint like a child! We better get started!
Here are some in progress photos as this piece and a few others in the series were made.
In the workshop we will learn how to incorporate childlike scribbles, shapes, and more into our “adult” artwork. It is such a fun and free way to create and a good exercise for those who struggle, as I do, to be looser in our painting.
Hope you can come!
Sometimes happy accidents happen in art. “Choose Joy” was one such accident. I had been working on six or so faces on wood panels at once. The other five had already gotten their preliminary coat and I was ready to do just one more… but I was nearly out of time. Wanting to at least use the paint on my palette, I decided to hurry and just rough in my lights and darks with the leftover paint. This quick, rough painting was so much better than the other five! I was so happy with my rough painting that I left it with just some minor touch ups and work on the eyes.
I also like how the face doesn’t fit on my board. It helps to really focus on the face instead of the setting. I will have to remember that.
The trick will be trying to repeat the process. Maybe set a timer so I have to hurry?
“Big Top” has been sitting in my studio partially finished for awhile. I like the idea of the circus theme, but had gotten to a point where I didn’t like the direction it was going. So I painted over the old elephant, and put in a new one. I love how forgiving mixed media is… the layers allow for an endless number of do overs!
I also added the title right into the background by using these vinyl letter stickers. I liked some of the collage elements, and wanted to darken the background without losing them entirely.
I added them right over the collage and paint surface.
Then painted right over them.
This 16 x 20 framed board is available at Tessera Fine Art Gallery. Prints available in my etsy shop!
Once in awhile I have a little paint party with my 4 and 5 year old granddaughters. I am always distracted from my own paint project by watching them. Their imaginations and enthusiasm just run free without all the constraints we put on ourselves as adults. The results are fun, and I love them, but I also really enjoy watching the evolution of the painting as they go. For example, the zoo piece in the foreground has a chameleon under which all of the other animals are sheltered. What a fun idea! Our adult minds think, well, that is just impossible for the much larger animals to squeeze themselves in under a low slung chameleon, and what would a chameleon be doing in the zoo anyway? But in the mind of a child with a paintbrush anything is possible! Who said art has to be constrained to the “real” world anyway? Children make such great art because they have not yet thought of it as a right or wrong.
So, from the delightful art of children, I learn to add a little whimsy into my own works…and let them become a bit of childlike play and silliness. Requires me to hush my inner critic, who is perhaps just the very adultish version of myself.
“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” Joseph Chilton Pearce
Sometimes, some just plain old silliness pops into my pages. This is another of my magazine turned art journal pages, and the original lovely and respectable lady in the ad became a whimsical pink haired and long necked fun loving friend. It is like there is a child within that drives creative outbursts of ideas that catch the grown up me by surprise. But, maybe that is not so surprising considering that a sense of fun is a pretty crucial aspect of finding the glow of creativity. It helps me escape the boundaries of the ordinary to see possibilities beyond what meets the eye. It links this to that to make connections that otherwise would remain unseen. Even in such expressions of fun, I am often surprised at the important truths that reveal themselves. Perhaps play is the spiritual exercise that makes children so in touch with God. They are able to see in a different way, enabling a faith that can imagine God doing the impossible. So, let the child out to play!
from victory road 
