Music to paint by

I love music. I memorize lyrics better than multiplication tables. I like to listen to music while I get ready, cook, drive, run, and especially when I paint. I have been a long time U2 fan (mostly thanks to my sister who listened to them before they were cool) and was lucky enough to go with the most excellent neighbors and friends to this amazing concert. I have just about all the old stuff-except for the album Pop, but I was missing the new one, so I bought No Line On The Horizon and have been painting to it since!

Big Sky

My latest painting titled Big Sky is framed, finished and ready to make big money at my son's school auction tonight!

Roadside Cotton Candy

OVAC's big event 12x12 is long over but I never got around to posting about it. The event was another huge success and I was proud to be part of it once again. There are so many wonderful artists in Oklahoma that want to be in the show and I have been lucky enough to have been invited for the past 6 years. I have also been lucky enough for my piece to sell each year.

This year I did an acrylic titled Roadside Cotton Candy. It was inspired from a trip to Montana that my husband and I took together. It was one of the few trips we were able to make without the boys tagging along. My heart really belongs to the mountains of Colorado but Montana quickly started to win me over with it stillness, wildlife and big sky.

I have been busy in my kitchen studio working away on several projects...I'll keep you posted!

Here is a WIP primed, outlined and ready to be filled with paint!

Warhol Fall

For a day of Drop in Art fun we focused on repetition and color drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol. I had the kids think of one fall item and it had to be something simple enough to draw several times.



These examples have 9 drawings, but they could be done in in any number combination. We used black marker to divide our paper into sections and then we drew that one item in each section. We used oil pastels to fill in the areas. It was fun for the kids and parents to use oil pastels. Many commented on how much they liked them and that they had never used oil pastel before.



You will need:
-white paper any size
-black marker
-pencil (optional to lightly sketch first)
-ruler (optional)
-oil pastels

Fall Finger Leaves

In this fun class for ages 15-36 months we focused on the beginning of fall. We looked at a few books and talked about trees and how the color of the leaves are going to start changing.
I had wanted Lois Ehlert's Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf but all copies were checked out of ALL local libraries! I ordered it from Amazon so I will have it for our collection here at the house. I really enjoy all of Ehlert's books, so do my boys.

We talked about trees, fall colors and found them in the museum. In the class we rolled up our sleeves to create our own Ode to Fall-via fingertips, paint, glue and paper. We glued the brown strips to make trunks and used our fingers and hands to create fall foliage. (Getting hands in paint is a great sensory building experience.)



You will need:
-14x11 piece of student grade watercolor paper
-strips of brown construction paper
-red, yellow, orange washable paint
-glue

While our pieces dried we sang a little song to movement: (tune of London Bridge)

autumn leaves are falling down,
falling down,
falling down

autumn leaves are falling down,
red,
gold,
and brown.

So much fun!

Sensory Sculptures

Wow. Where has the time gone? We have been very busy here with my oldest starting Kindergarten this year and our youngest in Preschool. I've been painting away on 3 commissioned paintings, working on 12x12, teaching a few classes and just busy being Mom!

Before we get to one of my latest projects, I want to say thanks to The Crafty Crow for featuring me again! I was excited to see my Cezanne Still Lifes on your site!

Sensory Sculptures was a class for toddlers-ages 15-36 months. We talked about 3-D sculpture and how it is something we can see from all sides. It might look different on each side, so it is fun to walk around the sculpture and see what it looks like from all angles. We learned we can even walk under some sculptures and see them from the top. We looked at two books. To learn about sensory we read,

Feed Matisse's Fish.
To see examples of sculpture we looked at Bob Raczka's 3-D ABC.
In the Museum we looked at our 3rd floor gallery and looked at Modern Sculpture.

Back in the classroom we got busy.



You will need
-6x6 piece of corrugated cardboard
-a handful of air dry clay. I like Crayola.
-pipe cleaners
-beads, buttons, jewels and feathers
-pom-poms
-glue



First we squeezed and manipulated our clay how we wanted it. We placed it on top of the cardboard and began to add pipe cleaners, buttons, beads, etc by pushing them into the clay. We learned we could bend the pipe cleaners and even slide beads onto them. To finish we glued some pom-poms onto our cardboard. The clay will harden within hours and completely overnight.

They turned out really neat and this is a great sensory-motor skill project for kids. Here are some examples.

Cezanne Still Lifes

This was a class for ages 3-5 years old. With a little direction, they produced wonderful pieces!

First we learned a little about Cezanne and what a still life is. They thought it was funny that artists often used what was around them, even things from their ice box, or shoes from their closet as subject matter for paintings.

We read a funny book called, Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett.


I set up a white bowl filled with oranges on blue fabric at the center of the table.




Supplies were:
-pencil
-limited paint palette
-3 brushes (I used 3 as a time saver)
-paper
-still life

I first had the kids establish a grounding point for the bowl by drawing a line from left to right across their papers.

Then they studied the shape of the bowl and drew it along with the oranges. We filled in our background using blue for the cloth (blow the line) and tan for above the line. At this point we took a break to let this step dry and visit the exhibit.



On our return we painted our bowls and oranges, adding a few highlights to complete our works!