One highlight of my summer is teaching The Secret Garden art class to young creatives. This year was exceptionally enjoyable. First, there were returning students who bring so much joy to the class, and secondly every student was focused on their art, listened and used their own unique expression to create their pages. Here are photographs of special moments in our class.
Graffiti garden is our first lesson. This represents how the garden appeared before Mary Lennox and her friends begin to tend the plants. Using black and white copies of art journal pages for floral shapes, a brightly painted green background, and markers for highlights, this two page spread is used to introduce students to simple shapes and values. Our next lesson was Mary Lennox and her happy thoughts. Mary lived and played on the moors in England. Set at the turn of the century, her attire was a dress and boots. Students designed Mary with their own whims, and the bright circles surrounding her on the two-page spread represent her happy thoughts. As the garden comes to life, after much tender loving care, the blooms open up, color splashes in every corner, and the little band of friends are filled with glee as this unfolds.
Using a special art tissue, these colorful pages were created. Water on the page, a piece of tissue, a bit more water and then time to dry. Once the pages were dry, the students added acrylic paint to create blossoms in the garden. Each artist had their own interpretation of blossoms and how they appeared. To create interest, I encouraged the studenst to have 3 different sizes of shapes: large, medium and small. This is a tried-and-true rule for making art interesting.
On the graffiti page, there was also an opportunity for written words. How about ‘love’? Yes indeed, a virtue to be valued.
The theme for the covers was “looking through the keyhole into the secret garden”. For this class we painted together. I demonstrated how to create the sky, garden path and wooden door. Many of the students cited this as their favorite page.
In the Bemis School of Art by Sparky LeBold’s mural. I took classes from Sparky years ago!
Many thanks to Brigita, a family member, who volunteers to make these beautiful floral headpieces for our class.
Let the tea party begin! With my mother’s China, a cherished family heirloom since she passed away in 1983, macarons, cookies, candies, and of course tea, we celebrated our last day of class. We talked about how high tea is served throughout the world, played a couple of games, and each student was absolutely lovely and patient as the goodies were passed around and tea served by yours truly. Afterwards, it was out to the park for games.
J O Y J O Y J O Y
Beautiful gifts from my students…do you see the little paint palette created with seashells? A very clever and intricate creation. And an origami crane made with art tissue from the blossoming garden class, and a beautiful jewel. I am a lucky girl!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing in the special moments of The Secret Garden art class at Bemis School of Art.
Responses welcome...