Camping and Painting

Apples and Cherries. 8" x 8" oil.

Sculpey polymer clay butterfly magnet - by Sophia 4" x 4"

Murals done based on the four YMCA character values, honesty, respect, responsibility, and caring. Each mural was designed by a group and painted together. This took a lot of cooperation. 8' x 12' acrylic on paper.

Well I am in week four (of tens weeks) of teaching art at the local YMCA. Months of planning has gone into all the lessons I am teaching and the lessons my co-teacher, Amber, teaches. We decided this week we could have just let the kids play games and use Playdough and they wouldn't have cared. They are very social creatures but not super interested in making art. Well some of them are, but the majority are there cause that's where their parents put them. So, we are taking a deep breath and repeating to our selves - process not product.

In the mean time I am trying to squeeze in time to paint and summon the energy needed to make it happen. So I get up at 5:30 am and try to paint Tues. and Thursday for an hour before getting ready for work, and again on the weekends. I really don't know how people who work get anything else done. I am so tired I sure don't want to do dinner, or laundry or the garden or anything!. How do you do it? Is that what Rachel Ray means when she says "America runs on Duncan"? What about us non- coffee drinkers? What should we be running on????

Next week I am going to the Hudson River Valley Art Workshop in Greenville, New York to take a three day workshop with artist Carol Marine. She is a Daily Painter, doing mostly still life and I am super excited to paint with her- plus they have homemade chocolate for extra energy. I will definitely post some pics of that weekend. Here's a few pics from camp. (Sorry no kids pictures are allowed, just their work.)