Art Class at Fran’s

Posted on | May 29, 2007 |

Well, let’s see. The last time I posted was on Thursday. Thursday evening, we met our friends at Chili’s for dinner. Jeff and Kiran have three kids: Julie -11, Miranda - 8, and Cody - 4. It was great to see them! I’ve known Jeff almost as long as I’ve known Dave, since he is one of Dave’s closest friends since medical school. We met Kiran soon after Jeff and she started dating, and she and I have been friends ever since. Usually we go to visit them, since we visit Boston regularly; however, during our October visit, Jeff and Kiran told us they were planning a family vacation to Phoenix. We couldn’t have been more excited!

In October, I had talked with Kiran about my artwork. She asked is I might be willing to show the girls how to paint or do something arty. I agreed. Hey, I’m always willing to support creative pursuits! And I adore these kids. They’re both so talented. Friday morning I cleared off the projects I was working on, covered the art table with paper, pulled out some canvas boards for the kids and one for myself, pulled some magazines, craft paints, and paintbrushes from my stash, and was ready for them to come and paint. They were so excited!

So the morning started with them swimming in the pool. And then lunch. After lunch, Miranda, Julie, Kiran and Cody were ready for art “class”. Since Cody is 4, he focused on cutting small pieces of construction paper, which worked for him. And then he glued them down, was bored and left to watch Happy Feet with is dad and Dave. Meanwhile the girls and I started to cut into the magazines. I showed them step by step how to pull textures and shapes from the magazines and how to think of them as pieces to make up a new composition. I encouraged them as we went through the process and showed them how to “see” things differently.

I was absolutely amazed watching these girls in process. They glued down their pieces and then we started to paint. They were much freer than some of my adult students had been in the past. And this really wasn’t much of a surprise. I mean, the inner critic does get more pronounced as we get older. But encouraging kids to do art from an early age and keeping that up with them can keep the critic at bay.

So, here are the results of the day of “Art with Fran” (note: the “logo” to the left was a drawing Miranda gave me to thank me for the art day!):

	This is Cody’s piece. Cody is 4. He wanted to cut and paint. He told us it’s a dog.
	This is Miranda’s painting. She is 8! had fun cutting out the shapes and putting them together to make the “bones” of the face. And then she painted. I love that she just went and added more and more to the background. And I also like that she left the nose without any paint - it’s just the piece of paper she pulled from the magazine.
	This is Julie’s portrait. She had fun cutting out the pieces, too. She loved to mix the colors to get just the right color for her face. I like that she was able to give the woman eyelids. And that she was able to make the proportions so good. Sorry that the picture is so blurry!
	This is the portrait I did while teaching them. I like that I started off with no idea of what I was going to do and he just sort of popped out of the collage.
	Kiran, the mother of Julie, Miranda and Cody, was inspired to just keep cuting and t create a composition out of collage elements.

After this day of painting, Julie finally decided what she was going to use her Birthday money on - canvas boards, some brushes, glue, and some paints. She and Miranda were so excited to start doing art on a regular basis! All of hte kids will put their artwork in their rooms. And Kiran says hers is going into her office. I’m so pleased to know they enjoyed the day. And, personally, I had forgotten how much I enjoy teaching. Even if it does exhaust me, I do love it. I love watching that “aha!” look on the students’ faces and I love to watch the entire discovery process, just acting as a catalyst for them. Overall, it was a long but fun day.

More on my weekend later! LOL I need to do some art now!

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