Studio Claremont
522 W. First Street
Claremont, CA 91711
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In the Art Studio News for September 2015

9/29/2015

2 Comments

 
​It's great to be back into our regular after school art program.  We love it when we hear the kids say, "It's so good to be home!"  That's how we feel too!  Summer is fun but we really love the familiarity of our "once a week studio kids family".  They mention that they feel comfortable and that warms our hearts, because it really is their studio.  In today's fast paced techno world, it's great to just sit down and be creative with the basic art materials.  Having said that, we have been learning A LOT!  

Here's the recap of September's themed Monster projects and our goals.  We are getting ready for our Annual Halloween ART SHOW!
All of our lessons this month have been designed to teach and review all the Elements of Design; Line, Shape, Form, Value, Space, Texture and Color.
We have even jumped into the Principles of Balance, Unity and Pattern.
Charcoal Monsters
A Study in Line, Shape, Form and Value
Our first project we started working on was our shape monsters.  This project is a great review for the students to use line to create their own shape for their monster.  
I walked them through many choices, what is your main shape, does it have eyes, arms, nose, ears, etc.?  As I walked them through the choices they needed to make, they drew what they wanted their monster to look like.  Some of us have a very hard time with that blank piece of paper.  So if they were stuck, they were told they could use monsters they knew for inspiration, but were told not to copy.  Even the great art masters, were inspired by others but we still try to make it our own.  
After our monster was drawn, charcoal was added to create more of a form (a 3-d shape) through shading.  It's so fun to get messy!  However, as you have seen, all the students are responsible for their own clean-up and I must say you have taught them well! They love to clean!   BRAVO PARENTS!!!  Ok, so maybe they don't always clean their room but they always clean their mess at the studio.  They really are all such wonderful young people and you should be applauded for your hard work in raising them:)

​ Monster in the City
A Study in Value and Space
Our Monster in the City painting/drawing was an opening lesson on learning how to mix paint and create different values (shades).  It's always good to teach and re-teach the basics of mixing colors. Black and white are the most dramatic to show the effects that one strong color can have over another color.  I know technically white and black aren't considered colors but they are very effective teaching tools.  
Students were asked to mix different values (shades) of gray using a lot of white and only a little black.  Some students were very careful and went slow and were able to achieve many values. Those who went fast learned quickly that you will only end up with one value and will ask for more paint.  It's a very good lesson on taking your time and going slow. 
We then went into a lesson on shading with charcoal.  Again, patience in outlining the buildings and adding the windows using those fine motor skills was stressed. However, some of us still like to race through our work.  That's ok, we are all working on patience and slowing down and enjoying the moment of art.  So, the students often her me say, "slow down".
When your an art teacher you just love every one of your students work, because the art truly reflects who they are and where they are at that moment in time. 
  
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 Paper Mache Monsters
A Study in Form, Color, Texture, Balance, Unity, Pattern and Patience:)
Ah, onto our paper mache monsters, we have already fallen in love with all of our creations!  It's nice to hear the kids talk to their monster and tell them that they "love them", that's good for everyone's self esteem. 
 Paper mache is  such a lesson of patience, because it requires so many layers of paper to make it strong and then so many layers of paint to make it wonderful.  Our monsters will take us about 4-5 classes before they are done.  It really is a lot of fun to watch the metamorphosis of a balloon become the fantastic monster of a child's imagination.  
So, having said all that, our monsters are in different stages in each class but they will all be ready for the Monsterz ART SHOW.  Watch for them to invade our front window space.  Many people stop by to see when they will be there, so BEWARE THEY ARE COMING!!!

Clay Monster Plates and Sculptures
A Study in Form and Technique
(sorry no pix for this one)
One of my favorite mediums is clay and thankfully it's the kids too!  So far, we have made clay plates with monster sculptures on them, but they are not glaze fired yet.  We were lucky to not have any explosions on our bisque (first) firing.  YAY!  
This week we will try to get to glazing all our clay masterpieces, so I can get to the long glaze firing process.  The kids love to hear that I am going to set their project "on fire".  All our ceramic pieces are low fire, meaning we fire to 1888 degrees in about a 12 hour timeframe.  You will be glad to know that all of our glazes and materials are LEAD FREE AP NON-TOXIC, dishwasher, microwave and oven safe.  So, go ahead eat your spaghetti and meatballs right off of that monster plate!  Our plan is to have all the monster plates ready for our VIP artist's for them to use for their treats at the Monsterz ART SHOW.  They can even take them home that night.

What's Coming UP?
I get asked this question all the time.  I hate to sound non-committal or even worse, unprepared about our lessons, but truly it's quite to opposite.  You see, I have so many wonderful lessons all ready to go but it all depends on the pace of our artists.  I learned many, many years ago never to say what we were going to do, because I found that so many parents and students were not as flexible as I find we sometimes need to be.  So, I'll just tell you that there will be drawing, painting and clay but the lessons are written in pencil not in ink. The good news is, it's all wonderful and amazing because your amazing students will be part of it. 

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What Have We Been Working On In ART Class?

11/19/2014

1 Comment

 
Well we have been very busy!  It's harder than I thought to keep up on this blog!
Check out all our current projects below.
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Our Family Trees
Fall and Thanksgiving get us to thinking about how great all of our families are and how blessed we are to have such wonderful students and families.  So, with that in mind, each student created a family tree with the leaves representing the family members.  Our concepts were; natural colors, texture, space, line, value and layering.  P.S. these make a great Holiday gift:)
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Mystical Clay Sculpted Creatures 
for A Mystical Magical Christmas
I know, I know...it's too early for Christmas!  Believe me, I feel that way too!  However, art is such a long and wonderful journey that we needed to embark on our Christmas projects for several reasons. 
 #1.  We were excited to get going on them.
#2. We had so many to do and didn't want to shrink the list.
 #3.  Because great art takes time and we like it that way.
 So, above are two of our sculpted mystical creatures, a dragon and a pegasus.  They will be displayed in the front window in a Mystical Magical Christmasy kinda way.  Oh and Santa and the Abomidable Snowman too! 
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A unicorn with the first wash of color, it took a color bath and then was wrapped in a baby blanket.  More paint and fun will be added later, details, details!  We have been learning about the color wheel a lot with this project.
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Clay Ice Castles and Snowbirds
It's hard to tell but this is a picture of our kiln loaded full with clay ice castles and snowbirds.  It's times like this when I get a little nervous and pray that there aren't any explosions!  So, we have been preheating them for three days to get them nice and dry before the final firing.  Wait till you see how awesome these ice castles are, you'll be AMAZED!  We have really been working hard on our fine motor skills, patience and sculpting skills.  Oh, but it's so worth it!
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Ice Castle Paintings
I know this one currently looks like a weird volcano but it's not finished, so use your imagination for what I'm about to tell you.  We are going to add ice castles in acrylic paint to this watercolor painting.  Our sky was inspired by the Northern Lights aka the Aurora Borealis and was painted in the wet on wet technique.  For the ice mountains we used watercolor pencils, our favorite, and tried to have light and dark blue values for the icy glacier look.  Funny, we must have been inadvertently inspired by the movie "Frozen" but none of us have seen it.  I guess it was all those Elsa's we saw during Halloween.

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Patterned Bird Houses and a Little Songbird
This is a fuzzy picture of another project we're working on, Patterned Bird Houses.  So far, all we have is the base coat of paint.  We will be adding patterns using a variety of brushes, colors and a whole lot of patience.  We also will have a little song bird to go with it.  It's funny all the kids have quickly figured out that the bird house is too small for our bird or any bird for that matter.  Oh well, they're still cute!  

Patience is a Virtue
When I mention patience, that is probably the skill we are working on the most.  We really find ourselves competing with this fast paced computer age where instant success is so available.  We are constantly reminding them that art is a process and slow is better, there are no mistakes just new paths to learning, challenges are good and practice, practice, practice while you learn to relax.
Over my many years of teaching, I have noticed that the students are more and more stressed and very hard on themselves.  Even my own kid is really tough on herself.  So, in the studio we are working on learning to be patient and nice to ourself.   So, stop and smell the roses and relish every moment with your precious children.

Thank you for allowing us to teach them!
We have the BEST jobs in the world! 

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A New ART Year and A New BLOG! by Ms. Heide

9/29/2014

4 Comments

 
Over the 28 years I have been teaching art, I have always wanted to share lessons, art ideas and just some helpful and maybe not so helpful tips.  I've thought about doing a blog for quite some time but always chickened out.  My lack of proper grammar, terrible spelling, my over use of run on sentences and my undiagnosed dyslexia had always stopped me in my tracks.  However, now that I'm 50!  What???!!!!  I figured I better stop making excuses.  So, here's the maiden voyage of the Studio Claremont Blog,  with all the run-on sentences, grammatical errors and sentences that don't make sense.
So for everyone who asks us, "How did you get the kids to do that?",  HERE IT IS!!!!  I will try to post as many lessons as I can for all of you who are interested.  Just keep checking our website and newsletter for new posts.

Our first project of the year was to create...
BIG HEADED MONSTERS
they will go on display for our 
Annual Halloween ART SHOW.  
 "THE MONSTER MASH"
Please join us,
Saturday October 25th
6:00-8:00
at 
Studio Claremont
Enjoy spooky art, sweet treats and a haunted basement.  
Wear your costume if you have one.
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First we had to make paper mache balloon balls using newspaper, balloons and starch.
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The next week when the paper mache was dry we put a strong coat of primer paint on them. Since primer paint is so sticky to the kids, we lotion their hands first and cover the tables.
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The primer paint dries really fast, so then we could paint the heads with a base coat for their monsters. We also added features like teeth, eyes, lips, ears and nose out of paperclay. To make sure the paperclay stuck, we had the kids use some glue.
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On week three we added an acrylic wash, watered down paint. We love to put washes on just about everything because it really plays up the texture and adds so much depth and value. So, yellow heads got a green wash or orange wash, white heads got a blue wash and black heads got a purple wash.
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Then it was time to add those fine little details with the fine little brush. During this time is when they hear me say, "Go slow, take your time, use the tip of the brush" and guess what? THEY DO IT! They really listen and are so AMAZING!
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We also had to make the base and for many of our new students it was their first time with clay. So, it was a lesson in rolling coils and balls. WOW! We are really using our fine motor skills!
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Once the bodies were dry enough I fired them in our kiln to 1888 degrees! They come out all nice and strong and ready for the painting of clothes.
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Ah, it only took four weeks to get to this point but they look AWESOME! Now they can get their accessories like hair, skirts and hats. Then they can go on display for the big Halloween ART SHOW in the front window
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We've got all of our paint and our accessories and we are ready for the front window!
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