From Peacocks to Piranhas

Peacocks roam the grounds of the art school and would often come to our door completely distracting the kids from class. Sometimes the only way to get them back on track was to ask them to draw the peacocks with crayon and oil pastel...which they did quite well after a quick chalk board lesson on how to draw a peacock. Kids at this age (4-5) are unsure of their skills, but once shown how to draw something, can usually run with it after practice.


Royal dog


Princess self


Whale shark in the moat!?

Crock in Monet's water lily pond ;-)


Royal pooch


Princess self


Castle line drawing


Piranhas in the moat!


Peacock beauty

See Deep Space Sparkle blog for more wonderful lesson ideas!

Kid's Royal Selfhood

Since the theme was Castles, Kings and Queens--we added a royal crown to the children's self-portraits. They got a real kick out of it!












Lesson plan inspired by Deep Space Sparkle.

More kid art

Knight in shining Armor

Sophie's princess self portrait

Interpretation of a Royal Dog


Sendak inspired Monster

Palace at night


Crockodile guarding the castle lily pond


Castle line drawing


Palace on a starry night


Royal Pedigree


Sendak Monster

Special thanks to Patty at Deep Space Sparkle for her inspiration behind most of these lesson plans. I had to alter them somewhat to fit the class theme and the three hour time span, but I would have been at a total loss as to what to teach 4-5 year olds this summer without her help!!!! So, thank you so much Patty!

My new favorite discovery was how much kids love watercolors...just give them a sharpie and then have them watercolor in their drawing--they LOVE it! And clean up is so EASY for me!!!

Kids summer art classes at Laguna Gloria

Piranhas guarding the castle moat


Royal Pooch


Princess self-portrait


Royal pet


Castle Jester Clown Color Wheel

Thanks to Deep Space Sparkle for her inspired lesson plans!

Summer Classes at Laguna Gloria

Self-portrait


Phillipe in Monet's Garden is a great book to go with this exercise.


Self-portrait


Recycled Robot


Royal dog

Thank you Deep Space Sparkle for your lesson ideas!

Live Swim Drink!

I carry your heart with me

By ee comings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

One Art

By Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster,

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three beloved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) a disaster.

Art pARTy! Friday June 25 6:30 pm

Wine Goblets by S'zanne Reynolds

Friday, June 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Cafe Monet at the Triangle
4700 West Guadalupe, Ste. 11 • Austin, Texas 78751

Time to get your creativity on with "Monet & Merlot" night!
Join me for an evening of painting and festivities. Invite your friends or make it a date night. Leave your mark on a pair of wine glasses: paint your own unique vision, or copy one of my designs. It's easy and fun!

REGISTER IN ADVANCE, as seating is limited:
Call Cafe Monet at 512-906-2200.
$35 per person.

The evening will include dishwasher safe glass paints and two wine goblets. Be sure to BYO drinks, snacks or delectables of choice.

Mark your calendars and I'll see you there!

Art Benefit and Party Thursday at 7 p.m.

July Flower Power Art pARTy

"Sunny and Clear" 8x10" acrylic by S'zanne Reynolds

Friday, July 23, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Cafe Monet at the Triangle
4700 West Guadalupe, Ste. 11 • Austin, Texas 78751

Flower Power with Monet & Merlot
In July, we'll be painting close-ups of floral faces with Austin artist, S'zanne Reynolds. Discover your flower power as you learn to mix vibrant colors in a rainbow of lights and darks. With a little guidance from S'zanne, you'll take on this happy sunflower or, paint from other garden stars like the rose or iris. We'll provide the paint, canvas and photos...you bring the drinks and munchies.

Best of all, you'll have some fun and get your creativity on...and bring home a painting for the wall!

REGISTER IN ADVANCE, as seating is limited:
Call Cafe Monet at 512-906-2200.
$35 per person.
Vicki's singles group: If you register a friend, you both get $5 off.

Mark your calendars; see you there!

To like my art is to find yourself in it

"I believe I would rather have Stieglitz like something--
anything I had done-- than anyone else I know of....
If I ever make anything that satisfies me even so little--
I am going to show it to him to find out if it's any good."
--Georgia O'Keeffe, 1915

"Those drawings-- how I understand them.
They are as if I saw a part of myself...."
--Alfred Stieglitz, 1916

Ah, to be understood. Even the best-known female painter who achieved fame and success in her own lifetime, Georgia O'Keeffe, struggled to feel validated by her favorite outside source--Alfred Stieglitz--her lover, companion, curator, photographer, husband and betrayer.

(Check out the DVD, Georgia O'Keeffe, starring Joan Allen. It's awesome!)

So, to like a fellow's art, is to see yourself in the work. That's pretty much just it, isn't it? People buy artwork usually because they see a part of themselves or their life in the work. So it's almost as if the viewer is also seeking validation from the artist who sees the viewer's self in her painting. It's how we all recognize each other...how we acknowledge the human condition, accept the not so perfect, and encourage the divine in each of us. It's how we know we are alive and were here...to make our mark and find ourselves in another's painting.

Human beings need us artists, just as we need others to appreciate our art. We artists validate them, substantiate their world, defend their beauty, affirm their hopes and dreams--or dream for them when they cannot, and live large and sing loud when they don't know how.