My newest work, acrylic on 11x14 canvas. No title yet.
Good morning world. I'm excited about this new app for my iPhone. I'm now able to update my blog and upload images right from my phone. I no longer have to rely on my computer to post content to my website. All this is great news because the next few months are going to be crazy and I won't have the time to upload images, resize them, crop and color correct them before uploading to Art E Studio website. Streemlinning my work flow is just what the doctor ordered.
The image shown here is my latest work. I'm using it as a test for this blog post.
This morning started just like every morning, make coffee, exercise, eat breakfast, check emails. Only this morning one of the emails had some exciting news that I'd like to share.
"Mayor's Awards for Achievement in the Arts for Youth was postponed to end of the meeting. And when they did discuss it, the commissioners voted to accept the recommendations made by the Education & Outreach Committee to give four awards and three Honorable Mentions.
The criteria used by the commission were: innovation, execution & technique, and dedication & discipline
There were 14 nominations and the recipients are: visual artists Maddy Cowee, Jaylee Wadell, and Jenny Zhu, and filmmakers Julia McCarthy, Georgina Quinn, and Sophie Zukoski (who collaborated on a full-length film). Honorable Mentions are awarded to Andrea Lopez, Po Ho Lo, and Maya Sousa. These awards will be presented by Mayor Ann Schwab June 4 at the City Council Meeting. And then at the June 19 Arts Commission meeting, the art works themselves will be shown, including a few of the film clips."
Jenny Zhu has been taking oil painting classes from me for over five years. She has worked hard on every painting she has created. Determined to bring out the best visual effect of each one. Congratulations Jenny, you really deserve this award. I'm so very proud of you.
Sophie Zukoski has been taking oil painting classes from me for just over a year. However, her win was not in recognition of her oil painting skills. Her and her two friends created a full-length film. All three of these girls are very talented.
Congratulations Sophie, Julia and Georgina. The three of you should be very proud of your accomplishments.
Today, Sunday, is my day off, well sort of. Sundays are the one day of the week I'm not in my studio. It's the day I catch up on household chores and go bike riding through the park with my honey. But today it's raining. So I'm sitting here in front of my computer thinking of things to write in this blog. I have lots on my mind, too many things in fact that my mind does not want to settle on anything particular. Rainy days have that effect on me. I could be painting right now or sewing more "Artist Brush Caddies" or start a great meal for dinner tonight. I could be researching more info about the art scene in Hawaii on the internet or what moving company we should hire.
I guess our move to Maui is the biggest mind occupier at the moment. So many things have to be done before the "BIG" day, July 1st. Such as #1, putting a list together of art teachers in the Chico area to give to my students. #2, Work on the up coming Art Fiesta kids activity booth. #3, learn how to use skype so I can communicate with the students who wish to stay connected with me. #4, up date my BIO. #5, add my "Artist Brush Caddies" for sale here on this website...and so on.
Being a goal setter, I know all the above well get done and then some. It's just that today is not the day for any of it to happen because I have the "Rainy Day Blues"
One of the things I enjoy most about teaching kids is all their enthusiasm and creative spirits. There are days when the creativity gets quite spirited and crosses over to goofing off. Most of my young students have a lot of pressure on them from their teachers at school and sometimes cancel art class to get overloaded homework done of cram for a test. I like to keep the art classes relaxed and fun for them so they can escape some of that pressure for a few hours. As you can see from the photos below there is a lot of relaxing going on in art class.
2011 was an active fun year for Art E Studio. As mentioned in my last post, many of the students entered their art in shows around the area. Such as the "Congressional Art Competition" for high school students. The three students who entered that competition were Tiana Smith, Jenny Zhu and Valerie Rominek. Tiana won second place. Jenny and Valerie tied for third. Next came the "Silverdollar Fair" with six students entering their work. All of them walked away with ribbons. Jenny Zhu won "Best of Show" with her beautiful turtle oil painting. You can see all the work entered by going to the "Current and Past Events" page on the left side of this screen and click on "Silverdollar Fair 2011".
The CN&R news paper put out a call to artists to paint their Newspaper Boxes. Seven of my students rose to challenge and worked as a team to paint one. You can view their progress by going to the "Current and Past Events" page and click on "CN&R Newspaper Box". The finished Box found a new home in front of Art Etc in Downtown Chico.
Art Fiesta was another fun and very successful event we participated in last May. I had a double booth, one was for the kids to create arty at. The other was to display my students work and sell my artist brush caddies.
The month of July was dedicated to my hard working students. I created a "Student Art Show" for them. The Studio walls were adorned with lots of beautiful paintings in oil and acrylic. We had a "People Choice Award" competition were everyone who came in to view the show was asked to vote for their favorite three paintings. But in order to vote they had to pay a dollar. The top three winners won the money. Take a look under "Current and Past Events" "July 2011 Student Art Show" to see their work and the winners.
The "Small World, Small Works" show and "Christmas Preview" were the last two events of the year. I don't have images in the "Current and Past Events" for the "Small World, Small works" show but there are plenty for you to view for "Christmas Preview 2011"
I want to thank all my wonderful, talented, hard working students and their supportive families for making 2011 a year to remember. Watching all of my students, young and old(er) grow and achieve so many successes has made me very proud to be their art teacher. The challenges we all faced this past year has also taught me a lot for which I'm very grateful.
With so many events happening the last two months, it's hard to believe December is nearly over. 2011 was a great year for Art E Studio. The student base grew to just over 40 students a week. Many of the students entered shows and won awards. Christmas Preview was a huge success with crowds of people viewing the live painting in the window. I wanted this, our last year, to be very remediable for both my students and myself and it was.
Now the New Year is just days away from starting and I'm thinking of the goals I need to set for 2012. Some of them concern this website, some the studio and some are for my personal art. All of these goals focus on growth and change. The biggest change being the move to Maui this coming summer. I'm excited, scared and sad all at the same time. Excited to see a dream come true. Scared of the unknown changes that will occur from this move and very sad to leave all my wonderful students here in Chico. They are all so special and talented and I love everyone of them.
2012 will be the year of great change and I'm ready for it. Are you?
Here it is Thursday morning the 17th of November and we are just days away from Christmas Preview. The students have been working on paintings for our winter show in the studio and the big group project for the window. I think this is going to be the best Christmas Preview of them all. I'm excited for Sunday and our BIG event. I've really enjoyed putting this one together. We started planning and preparing for it back in July. Many of the students did their Christmas paintings early to ensure they would be done on time. The big 40 x 60 group painting will be raffled off at the end of Christmas Preview. Come in and buy your tickets early or wait for the event.
Here are a few pictures of the progress on the Christmas Preview painting my studio kids are doing this year. There are 13 students working on this painting. Each one is assigned a special part of it. The images below show Ciena, Valerie and Karli working on their portion.
The older I get the faster time flies. It feels like it was just a few months ago we were busy working on Christmas Preview 2010 and here it is time to do it again. This year our window project will be a winter landscape 40 x 60 size. I have a lot of excited new students who are looking forward to painting in the window this year. We are gathering images and ideas for this painting everyday. The Canvas is stretched and ready for the underpainting and sketch. Both of which I hope to have done this week. I'll be adding pictures as we progress so watch for them in the "Current and Past Events" page on this website.
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