A couple of my students belong to West Horndon Art Group and invited me along to run a session. So at the beginning of the summer I went along to teach a session on Skylines.
They're a really lovely group and the work they produced was incredibly varied and talented.
Here's my skyline of London, painted in a traditional style, starting with the darks then adding highlights and then the mid tones.
I had such a great time with them and was delighted when they asked me back to do another session last Saturday, this time on Street Scenes with People.
I wanted to paint a really quick painting as the session is just for the morning so I went for a more modern Impressionist style using a flat brush. So in preparation I painted this landscape with sun bathers first which I really enjoyed painting in oils. I couldn't believe how quick it was either, less is more!
Then I wanted to prepare a street scene and having just come back from France I wanted a French scene and started on this portrait one. There's far more detail so it was taking me longer and it was feeling a bit too busy so I zoomed in....
and had a go in acrylics. Which is working better as a composition. I painted this super quick as well but it turned out in a more traditional style than expected. That's the great thing with painting and art you just never know how it's going to come out!
West Horndon Art Group are based in the Village Hall and meet every Wednesday and Saturday mornings. For more info check out their website:
http://www.westhorndonartgroup.org.uk/
If you belong to an art group and would like me to come and teach a session just get in touch at kirsten@iaminspired.co.uk. I teach a wide range of media and subjects including drawing, pastels, oils, acrylic, and watercolour.
I know everyone says it but... the summer just flew by. Now the girls are getting older we did a lot more exploring with day trips, lots of country parks, a family holiday to Euro Disney, and then to the coast to recover .....
Then all of a sudden some little (well very tall) girl turned 6 and then they were off to school. Here's Bethany looking very happy on her first day....it didn't last : )
but they are loving being together and they do love to match....
and I love having extra time to get creative : )
We had an end of year Exhibition of all my students work from the past year in the Ingrebourne Visitors Centre at Hornchurch Country Park and the work was amazing. It's incredible to think that most of the learners haven't picked up a pencil or paintbrush since leaving school years ago. What they create and progress onto is amazing and I always feel incredibly proud.
To top it off they even sold some of their pieces to people who came along and just fell in love with their work.
Then the work was displayed at the Learner Achievement Night at the Queens Theatre....
Fancy joining a class? Then check out all of my classes at:
http://www.iaminspired.co.uk/classes/
For a long time now Eloise has been asking and asking to see the mummies at the British Museum. Having seen them in books and cartoons she fell in love. So she could not believe it when I told her they were at the museum. Last half term we finally headed to the British museum to see the infamous mummies.....
I dont think the real life mummies lived up to their cartoon image and she found them all a little scary. She now has a new found obsession with death and keeps drawing dead characters like this one from one of her books showing a dead mouse who has been stabbed in the back just like Gebelein man. To think I taught her this.... how do you explain that to the teachers : )
After all that her favourite part of the day was climbing up and down the steps in the atrium area. Here they are
with their rainbow and cupcake protest badges...well I guess the world
can never have enough cupcakes or rainbows : )
About a month ago my sister asked me to come into the school to help her make an igloo from milk bottles. The children had been saving milk bottles for months and they were super excited to get going.... Two weeks later we finally made it to the top of the igloo feeling very happy with ourselves. From the outside it looked really cool, if a little wonky.
Here's the 2 cheeky scamps playing inside it....
Having finished it Friday night we left it over the week end only to find it Monday morning like this, completely melted....
I was determined to finish this after all of our hard work. So I went back in on a Friday afternoon with 30 very excited and very helpful little children to put it back together. For anyone else attempting this you really need a base when starting off to hold its shape, which we thought we didnt need, oh how wrong were we! So we moved it into the corner of the classroom so that the corner walls could support the shape and began again to put it back together.
30 Glue gun sticks, 1 roll of gaffa tape & 1 large bottle of PVA glue later and we were back in business.....
Again we left it over the week end to fully dry out and hold its shape with a little help from some garden canes I found in the shed. When we came back in on Monday morning we found it....all in one piece... hurrah.
The children were amazing taking it in turns to help collect bottles, arranging them into sizes, then working out how many would fit into the rows and spaces and most importantly holding them down to make them super strong. They often worked as a team always offering help and assistance to each other. Whilst they were waiting for a turn they made lots of snowflakes and clouds to add the finishing touches.
Who said learning has to be boring.
Next year we'll be experts : )
Another week and another topic, this week we looked at seascapes. Here's my seascape of Holywell Bay in Cornwall which always brings back happy memories. It's looking a bit empty at the moment but next week i'll be adding life into paintings so I'll add some people and a good old wind breaker.
Here's all the lovely students getting creative...
January has been full of germs for me but that hasnt stopped any creativity, maybe slowed it down a little : ) My classes are in full swing and we have one more session until half term, where does the time go?
Last week we looked at a winter snow scene in my Oils and Pastels class and I did a little simple scene working wet on wet. It can be quite frustrating work wet on wet as the paint moves around a lot! But if you go with it and have a little fun experimenting it can be a fun way to work.
I'm always blown away by the work of the students and there's been no stopping them so far this term. Here's what they created.....
I love the fact that everyone is different and they all bring their own
unique quality to their work which is always a joy to watch.
