Today was the first day of the class I am doing with the homeschool students. It was fantastic to share my space with these students who clearly love learning, life, and art. After I laid out some info about life in the studio (don’t lock yourself in the bathroom because there is no doorknob! and watch out for those unexpectedly dangerous objects like that thing which looks like a pen but is actually a very sharp knife), we had a special guest teacher come in with a Power Point presentation she put together for a college course she just finished. Helen did a great job on the slide show, and the kids, being homeschooled and all, do not have the slideshow burnout I had as a kid. They found the presentation entertaining as well as really cram packed with knowledge. We talked about the color spectrum as we see it in our everyday lives, about mood and temperature of colors. They also learned about gesso, what a substrate is, and we discussed the direction the class will take for the first four weeks. Today we used large, flat brushes to keep them loose. As the kids got down to the playness of making a painting, we talked about ferrules, palette knives, acrylic properties, and were introduced to using medium and water to extend the working time and increase transparancy. They are a quick group, good listeners, excellent conversationalists, and all-around great company. I worked alongside them on a panel for our missing student, so that next week he can join us as we learn about new brushes and techniques, and using color temperature in rendering objects by painting objects on top of our abstract backgrounds. Well, that was the plan anyway, but seeing how these paintings turned out, I think I may have to revise it so that they are preserved just as they are. As class ended, we decided to take the leftover paint from our palettes each week and use them on the patio table where we work. I’ll post a picture of that later.
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