Last week, my young friend, Grace and I invented our own “art camp.” She stayed with me for four nights and we had 3 full days of creative fun. I sure hope we get to do this a couple more times this summer. Hanging out with young people fills my cup, especially when they are as enthusiastic about life and learning and creativity as Grace is. It was super cool that we got to do so many projects and have some adventures. I promised I’d show her how to make a blog post, so next time, we’ll publish some tutorials. Enjoy our photos!
Tag: painting
Budding Artist
Ema spends Wednesday afternoons with me at my studio. She is meticulous, creative, precise, funny, cheerful, interested, respectful and persistent. I enjoy her company immensely and I truly look forward to these afternoons. For the last few weeks, she has been working steadily on a mixed-media artwork. Ema started with some image transfers onto a canvas, then used water-soluble colored pencils and collage to complete her piece. I’m always impressed when a young person can sustain interest in a project over a period of days or weeks, and she certainly did on this piece. She finished this one yesterday. Let her know what you think in a comment. 🙂
Wild Horses and our Naturally Wild Souls
We decided to gather for an evening of art making and camaraderie every month. Something artsy. Something to connect us. To each other. To our souls. To the Earth. Last night we made horses and gave some of them to Whitney, who is going to be giving birth any day now. Her little boy will be born in the Year of the Horse. He will have a herd wild horses to remind him of his naturally wild joy. With a mama like Whitney we know he’ll grow up snorting with laughter, jumping with glee and letting his wildness out into the world.
Wood, Trees and the Spirit of Nature Opens at 1+1=1
Come on down to the 1+1=1 gallery at 335 North Last Chance Gulch in Helena, Montana. We will be open from November 8th through December 8th. The exhibit, “Wood, Trees & the Spirit of Nature” is a pairing of fine studio furniture by Tim Carney with photography and mixed media art by Maureen Shaughnessy, both of Helena. Hope to see you there!
Luke’s Dream
I recently finished “Luke’s Dream.” My sister, Kat and her husband, Jerry, commissioned me to make a mixed media painting to remind them of their sweet rottweiler, Luke, and their sailboat, the Splendid Mane. It was really lovely to be able to deliver it to my sister in person and to see her reaction to it.
Kid’s Art: Root Creatures
Have you ever wanted to make an imaginary creatures? Here’s a DIY tutorial. All you need is a few driftwood roots and some paint. You can make whatever you can imagine when you look at the sticks.
Kid’s Art: Dribble and Blow Drawings
A fun kid-friendly art project for ages 6 or 7 up. Adia (age 8) calls this technique “Strawmania.” I call it dribble-and-blow. We set out to make some random scribbly looking painting/drawings that we would later turn into abstract detailed drawings or monster drawings.
3 Ways to Have Fun in One Summer Day
There are so many things you can do with sticks. There are even more things to do with kids to have fun. Combine stick things and kid-things (kids-of-any-age things) and you get even better fun. Today we painted driftwood sticks in colorful stripes and splotches. Tomorrow we are going to turn these sticks into hanging mobile-like sculptures. Check out our summer kid-friendly art project.