Santa's Theatre is Now Open!

Lesson planning is difficult when you are trying to think of ways to both educate and entertain a large group of fussy first graders. They're still trying to grasp basic concepts, learning how to communicate, and decipher words on paper. They even struggle to read their own writing! Which makes writing assignments extremely difficult and time consuming. A mixture of poor teaching skills by their day-school teacher and no pressure at home to practice reading and writing makes for some bad news for these little guys. They are so behind in their reading and writing skills that I have to do something to get them excited about writing and story telling. I mean, they ALWAYS want to tell me stories...So why not give them their very own theatre!

For the theatre lesson, I taught the kids about story elements (character, setting, problem, solution). They are then to create their own Story map in prep for their very own story telling assignment that will end in them telling their story via puppet show. After creating their story map, the students must write 4 sentence about what happens in their story. The kids, so far, have done alright. They still struggle with a lot of spelling, grammar, and coherency...buuuut I'm getting them to write and think about how their story progresses. So, that makes me happy. 

For this task I used a large cardboard box, made a few cut outs and added some color. Thus became Santa's Theatre. I'm excited to see their reactions to their theatre. I'm hoping the kids will be more excited about writing!

...From what I hear, there will be some ninja elves. hehe

updates: The kids LOOOOOOVED their little theatre! :)

Still Life is Real Life

             11"x15" Watercolor                   5"x6" Watercolor & digital edit

How about some flower power for this rainy hour! There is something soothing and refreshing about the sound of rainfall, the wet grass, and the silence that the rain brings as every living creature heads for shelter and cuddles closely. Yes, even us humans take part in the "head for shelter and huddle around each other for warmth." If this isn't you then you're probably the part of the group that runs outside to splash in the puddles and catch the rain drops on your tongue. Then there are the few that may be reading this, grumbling at the mention of rain. To those few I say..A HUMBUG!

Now on to the paintings, which require WATER. :) The first painting at the upper left hand corner was done in my High School art class. I still remember my art teacher's name, Christina. She was pretty awesome. She really liked me, probably because I was one of the few students who took the class to learn and actually made effort. Seriously, it irritates me when students take art courses thinking that it's going to be a breeze and that art is not doing any 'real' work. Well, you know what!? Art does take a lot of thought, design, and effort. I've taken enough art courses, and done plenty of art projects myself to know that it is a lot of actual work. There is strategy, design, math, engineering...Just want to make that point for those doubting the talent of artists. Of course, I am not defending those sham artists, which are probably those kids who grew up taking art courses to pass an easy A.

Now as I was saying, the top left corner watercolor painting was done in my art class in H.S. Actually, both of the above images were painted in H.S. Both were also painted from an image. This was my first successful use of watercolor. The teacher was also thoroughly impressed as she persuaded me to enter the County Fair Art Exhibit and even sell my my painting. SELL IT! ...she believed my painting was worth something in dolla dolla bills y'all. That seriously gave me an ego boost :) I still have the painting till this day. It's a constant reminder that I am capable of doing more than I know. I could have sold it yes, but it has the sentimental value of your first dollar bill on the opening of a new business. So it hangs on my wall wherever I go.

Now, the smaller painting on the right upper corner is just a quick paint of a flower on an image. It really is a small painting that took the first page of my first sketch book. I really liked using orange/yellow/purple together. Light colors contrasted among the deeper purple color looks attractive. That is why one day I plan to create a flower bed of lavender and yellow/orange flowers. Oh, the smells and sight!

Onto our next two. The bottom left painting was done at home in So Cal, taking a few flowers from around the house (roses) and placing them in a small saki cup lying around the house. note: I painted both paintings from real life not an image. I used a different type of paper (drawing paper) rather than watercolor or sketch paper, so the colors are a more muted and the painting looks more wrinkled...rrrr rough. The painting to the right was done while on a stroll through the UC Davis Arboretum. If anyone ever visits the school, do make sure you take a stroll through THE WHOLE arboretum. At the eastern end there is a gazebo, a garden, natural art, a mosaic bathroom, and large areas of open grass to soak up the sun, play a game of frisbee or have a picnic. The arboretum is my favorite place in Davis. FAVORITE. haha. Any way, the right painting consists of a few flowers from the Arboretum garden. The colors are a lot more vibrant than shown here. You can tell the difference from the painting left. The dark frame surrounding the painting gives the painting a more shadowed look. I really loved the soft pink and white against the darker pink flower and brown background. Again, dark vs. light. The best part of these two paintings was sitting outside among nature and contently painting in beautiful weather.

Maybe when the weather is less rainy and I am not busy writing lesson plans and gallery data entering I can start up on some new material for my blog. I could really use a nature retreat outside of home. Sounds like an adventure!

               9"x11" Watercolor                                  9"x11" watercolor

<3 Arrivederci!

My dad calls my room a "girl cave" because I practically hide out and hang out and live in the place. Well, that is kind of the reason I spruced up the place. The walls were all green prior to the paint project. I love the green color, but blank walls are so 10 years ago. After my sister moved out and I, recently graduated, moved back in I took the liberty of making MY SPACE a nice little place to retreat.

 I love being outdoors and looking out at the critters playing among the branches. Yes, although these trees have no leaves I didn't want to overwhelm the walls. I wanted something more simple. Also, the leave-less trees work well for adding little details here and there to the branches. I have since added some pressed/laminated flowers and pictures in place of the leaves. Not too many though. I don't want my trees to look like the Bead tree in Florida :/...

The trees were drawn completely free hand. I drew the trees with chalk first and then splashed on some paint. They came out pretty good!