Wednesday, April 01, 2009

2009 Winter / Spring Art Classes

This past winter has been an exciting time for the Blackfoot Art Center! Our classes have been very successful, with lots of fun projects and creative activities for everyone. Our popular SHARK Art class is especially suited to the youngsters attending the Community Center's SHARK after-school club, but other children are invited as well (space permitting). This class is held on Mondays, running 3-4:30 pm.
"Giraffe" by Mitchell (12) Oil Pastel on Paper
In addition to monthly drawing lessons, the children paint, sculpt, construct, and create in a variety of media. They have a great time while developing small muscle skills, creativity, good work habits, self awareness, and respect for individuality. SHARK Art is $25 monthly.

On Tuesdays, 4:00 to 5:30pm we have Drawing, Painting, and More... This class, for ages 8 to 12, is for students who have a solid interest in art and want to develop basic skills while trying new techniques and media along the way. We practice our drawing skills regularly, while working in a variety of drawing media such as graphite, charcoal, oil pastels, soft pastels, and colored pencil. We also paint, sculpt, and construct. This past month we created papier mache' animals, which the children found to be a lot of work: formulating an idea, constructing the underlying structure, layering the papier mache, painting, and sealing. However, each step was FUN, and now they have wonderful animal sculptures to take home!

Finally, our Tuesday evening Adult Art Class has been working in watercolor painting since summer. In February we reviewed basic drawing techniques, especially for the benefit of our newer students - but always a good idea for everyone! April 7, 6:30 to 8:30pm, we will begin painting, both in the studio and plein aire, throughout the summer months. The majority of our current students will be working with acrylics, but oil painters are welcome as well. After "brushing up" on color theory and color mixing, we will find ways to loosen up and learn how to find inspiration; and then try our hands at some "no-stress" abstract painting. Abstract??? Don't worry... it'll be great fun!

We are always open to new class ideas too. Does your homeschool group want to meet for weekly art classes? We can arrange it. Let us know your best time and day. Do you know a few preschoolers that would love to do some messy art projects? We can do it here (and nothing for you to clean up)!

Our summer art class schedule will be posted here soon. Special note: we will have weekly Summer Art Day Camps during the month of June 2009.