holiday's for holidaying

The challenge with a small business is always the balance with family life and after a heavy class schedule these holidays, our little family was craving some 'holiday time'!
Throw in the beach, camping, a stunning holiday house and some magnificent friends and we totally covered it! A little sickness is only a 'slight' distraction in this setting, well that's what I told myself...!

:: our soccer stars will set up anywhere...!

:: holiday's wouldn't be the same without an impromptu 'beauty parlor'!

:: I am well-remembered as the 'nest-weaver' on holiday's and children spent hours showering me with vines to weave....payment was in good coffee!!

:: collections aplenty...

:: the fish were jumping...but only on to the children's lines!

:: ahh, exhale.....a little week of bliss x

loving winter classes!

Our holiday classes continue this week and they have been filled to overflowing with talented, enthusiastic, creative children!
I have many more snaps of yesterday and this morning's creativity still coming but thought I'd share a few I took on my Iphone this morning...
Isn't the painting above spectacular - I am still blown away by the diversity and origionality on the same theme. Children in the acrylic + collage class were encouraged to paint an antarctic landscape, finished with collage elements. More to show soon - they were wonderful!

:: Our second class today was a repeat penguin painting and with smaller numbers, I was able to snap a few cute pics!

:: The fine motor skill developed required much concentration and resulted in a good degree of quiet - we really need some good music in our studio!

:: The cheeky wooden penguins were photographed in front of antarctic scenes created in oil pastel while the layers of paint dried on their penguins! So sweet...

weekend wonder

Not quite the weekend but close enough for me after an intense week on many fronts, we visited our wonderful local GOMA on friday for a taste of art+creative fun! My children always love to go and sketch their favourite paintings and even though the regular gallery was being refurbished, we still found much to entertain...

:: I have been eyeing off this kind of fibre art across the internet recently and we found some in a glorious corner here!

:: Fiber arts gathered in the entry installation to form a giant tree full of texture and colour

:: Dreamy watercolour, when you peer up close, stunningly intricate linework awaits!

:: bold hessian curtains

:: and double story abstract works

:: voluminous natural dyed fabric and mirrors

:: We love being surprised by what creativity awaits in the children's corner - the 'fly away home' exhibition saw us engaged in making birds + nests for hours [it seemed!]

:: There were wonderful wooden tree's and stunning wallpaper to complete the experience

:: and of course the most majestical work of art on display this day was the brilliant warm sunshine after a cold week of rain!

[I do apologise about the lack of credit for these splendid works of art - you'll just have to go to Queensland GOMA and see for yourself - we had too many children in tow to take notes!]

more class fun!

Our mono printing class on Thursday afternoon was full and fun!
Children concentrated very hard to grasp the new skill, and after a few practice prints, ensuring the wet consistency of the paint and understanding how to build up the printed layers, the children's confidence grew! We took our inspiration + colour palette from the many textures and colours of the Australian snow gum trees.
The following are a few snaps of their finished work [the one above is sensational don't you think?], printed on natural clipboards - a wonderfully personalised take-home-tool for future sketching and creating!

:: trial prints on paper, grasping the background, mid and foreground layers!

:: experimenting with textures and printing techniques - love the beaming smile!

:: This one made me smile - he'd just been to a science class and was inspired by a 'new invention' he was planning - love!

:: Beautiful and diverse linework

:: wonderful natural winter scenes!

Winter class sneek peek

Snowy winter magic sets the scene for our winter creating these holidays and both days of creating have been full and focused! Children are concentrating so hard there is often silence - very unsual! The fine motor skill required for penguin painting yesterday and the slow art of weaving today, both required a bit of extra attention - and the results were stunning - the children should be very proud of their new-found skills and beautiful artworks!

:: preparing the beautiful natural branch looms for today's class

:: oil pastels have been used to great effect on grey-winter backgrounds

:: and so the weaving begins...

:: over and under...using the great snow gum trees as colour palette inspiration!

:: age determined the degree of help each required with the younger ones finishing quickly with slightly less accuracy yet still texturally beautiful!

:: the older took to the weaving with beautiful precision and great results!

:: those finishing earlier were asked to draw their tree's, concentrating on the beautiful patterns and colours they had chosen!

:: What a tallented bunch of weavers and beautiful work!

artful

We are about to launch into our holiday classes tomorrow, starting with the particularly popular 'penguin painting'! I thought this wire sculpture by Theo Kaccoufa was fitting inspiration to kickstart our week of winter creating!
I will post here as often as I can, sneek peeks into our busy creating space!

weekday weave

Oh yes, it is the last week of school here before the holiday's and the last week for mad material dashes before the delightful onslaught of classes!
Lesson plans are done, material's list's being checked off, images of inspiring artwork are being gathered and then the labor intensive process of packing class upon class of kits begins! It is now a somewhat familiar frenzy as children wind down to holiday's, mama winds up to an intense period of art class work!



:: I'll never tire of finding these sweet little creatures around our house!
Children can paint and plan their own winter imaginings with these perfect penguins..





:: Tangles of delicious wool and beautiful natural branches are coming together.
The woven branches are a beautiful slow + textural work that look striking in a vase on display...



:: Who would have believed I would need to buy a store out of wooden clipboards!
What a useful way to combine children's artwork and ongoing creativity - use your unique monoprinted clipboard for holiday nature or gallery wanderings - an opportunity to sketch is always at hand...



:: ahh the clay! This is the one medium my children constantly wish to raid in the studio - can there ever be any shortage of ideas with a ball of wet clay in your hands!...



:: We are so inspired by the amazing images of the antarctic found in national geographic and such magazines - these will add wonderful surrealist contrast to our painted acrylic backgrounds!....



:: One of my children's favourite winter activites is fingerknitting! They are rarely seen without a ball of wool running in that familiar manner through fingers! We are looking forward to sharing some creative ideas to use those loooong lengths of knitting and some beautiful winter garlands too....