Labor Day Fun

This Labor Day Annie and I spent the day together.  Her mama and my Rudy both had to work.  We had a fun filled day!  Annie got to play 'dress up' while I cleaned house.  She had fun picking out which heels to wear!  Then we made 'magic boxes'  using a paper folding technique.  She found it a bit hard so I helped her complete hers.  Then we got hungry and had a nice lunch.  After lunch we took a long nap before returning to the studio for some art lessons and painting.  

Today we read a book about painting and paint.  Then our lesson turned into learning about color.  She is so smart!  She now knows which are the 3 primaries and which are the secondaries.  She also learned the words 'pigment' and 'papyrus.' 

Art Lessons resume

We made playdough today before heading out to the pool for the afternoon.  I promised Annie once I get back from New Mexico we'd start our real lessons again.  For today the playdough was fun!

Kissing Pears: Art Lesson no. 4

Today Annie learned about blind contour drawing.  We started by setting up a still life of two pears.  Annie thought blind contour hard and did several sketches before deciding on this one for her painting.

Next I helped her trace the drawing onto bristol board.  Then we both had fun mixing up some gouache in several shades of green.  We had to look very close to see that the pears had other colors besides green.

This is Annie's finished painting which she took home to show her mommy when she returns home from work this evening.  We had a fun afternoon!

Art Lesson No 2

Today we learned how to give FORM to our contour drawings by using hatch marks, stippling, scribbling and smudging.  We picked some lemons from the tree and used them as our subject for exploring these art concepts.  After our lesson Annie continued to practice with her artist eye.  She did a second drawing of the lemons adding color with water soluble crayon and then drew a piece of Italian candy from the stash in my studio!

Art Lesson No 1

Annie began art lessons with me today. After the lesson she decided to draw me with a giant ball of yarn!
Our first lesson today was in learning about a contour line and shapes and then doing contour drawings of objects in the studio.

Annie,

Your homework this week is to remember the two art words we learned today:

contour

shape

I also want you to see with your artist eye all the contour lines at home, your school and outside and think of the shapes that form everything around us that we see.

If you want to do another contour line drawing for me to bring next week that would be really nice! 

love, nina

Annie at the yarn shop

Annie went to the yarn shop, Closeknit, with her grandma and nina today.  The lady at the shop asked Annie to help her wind the skeins of yarn into balls of yarn.  Annie did a very good job!

Annie's Orchid

Annie says, "I love this picture so much!"

Annie came over this evening and we had some fun in the studio. This is her first watercolor painting. I wish sometimes I had this fresh approach to my painting! Now that the day is done we are going downstairs for ice cream!

On April 10, 2007 my grandniece Annie, my husband Rudy and I went on a grand adventure from Riverside, California to Los Angles. We boarded the Metrolink train for a 60 mile trip to Los Angeles....


Annie's sketches from her first trip to Los Angeles.

These are my sketches from our Adventure.