Wrapping Up the Winter-Spring Session: Exploring the Magic of Watercolor

As the winter-spring session comes to an end, we are thrilled to reflect on the wonderful artistic journey our Little Ashcan artists have embarked upon. In our last class, we delved into the captivating world of watercolor, creating vibrant and imaginative artworks. The versatility and beauty of watercolor never fail to amaze us, and it was an absolute joy to witness our young artists embrace this medium with enthusiasm and creativity.

Exploring Watercolor:

Throughout the session, our students learned about various techniques, including watercolor techniques. From the ethereal washes of wet-on-wet application to the precise control of wet-on-dry techniques. They experimented with layering, glazing, and creating textures, bringing their artistic visions to life on the paper. Watercolor truly offers a unique and expressive way for our young artists to communicate their ideas and emotions.

Upcoming Summer Session:

We are excited to announce that in our upcoming summer session, the Friday classes will be exclusively dedicated to the world of watercolor. Our young artists will have the opportunity to dive deeper into this captivating medium, honing their skills and becoming true masters of watercolor. But that's not all! Alongside their creative exploration, they will also learn about famous artists and their distinctive styles through watercolor. This combination of learning about art history and mastering a medium will truly enrich their artistic journey.

Becoming Masters of Watercolor:

Through the guidance of our experienced instructors, our Little Ashcan artists will continue to develop their technical skills and unleash their boundless creativity. They will explore the techniques and styles of renowned watercolor artists, learning from their masterpieces and incorporating their own unique interpretations. This immersive experience will nurture their artistic abilities, broaden their understanding of art, and inspire them to reach new heights in their artistic expression.

As we bid farewell to the winter-spring session, we cannot help but feel immensely proud of our Little Ashcan artists. Their dedication, passion, and growth throughout the session have been truly remarkable. We look forward to embarking on this exciting summer journey with them, as they continue to explore the fascinating world of watercolor and become masters of this magical medium.

Stay tuned for more updates and highlights from our upcoming Summer Session. Let the vibrant hues of watercolor ignite your imagination and join us in celebrating the artistic journey of our talented young artists.

The World of Letters: Exploring the Art of Lettering

Welcome to another exciting week with Little Ashcan, where creativity knows no bounds! Our young artists have been diving headfirst into the wonderful world of lettering, and it's been an absolute delight witnessing their imagination soar.

Lettering, the art of beautifully arranging and drawing letters, holds a magical power. It captures our attention, evokes emotions, and communicates messages with artistic flair. At Ashcan, we believe that introducing lettering to our young learners not only nurtures their artistic abilities but also enhances their communication skills and self-expression. Throughout this week's engaging lesson on lettering, our budding artists have been introduced to various lettering styles, techniques, and tools. From classic calligraphy to playful handwritten fonts, they've explored the endless possibilities of crafting letters that tell stories and create visual impact.

With each stroke of the brush or pencil, our young learners have discovered the power of lettering in conveying moods, messages, and personalities. They've delved into the art of manipulating letterforms, playing with different sizes, weights, and styles to create eye-catching compositions. Moreover, lettering has opened a new door for our students to express their individuality. They've discovered the joy of infusing their own personal touches into their lettering creations, whether it's through decorative elements, color choices, or imaginative flourishes. It's truly mesmerizing to witness their unique styles emerging.

Beyond the artistic aspect, lettering fosters crucial skills in our young artists. It hones their fine motor skills as they carefully shape each letter, encouraging precision and control. It also nurtures their patience, as they dedicate time and effort to perfecting each stroke and curve. If you haven't already, be sure to register for our upcoming summer session, where even more exciting art adventures await; from watercolor to still life and beyond.

Unleash Your Child's Artistic Potential this Summer!

As the summer season approaches, it's the perfect time to inspire and nurture your child's creativity through art. Our art program for PreK-2nd grade offers a dynamic and engaging experience that allows young artists to develop their creative ideas and technical skills. With a focus on exploration, self-expression, and learning from the masters, our program promises to ignite your child's imagination and leave a lasting impact.

Developing Creative Ideas and Technical Skills

At our art program, we believe in fostering each student's unique creativity while gently guiding them in basic art-making techniques. Our dedicated instructors introduce children to a wide array of tactile materials, techniques, and even art history, providing a well-rounded artistic education. By teaching students how to develop ideas and make works of art, we empower them to express themselves through visual and verbal language.

Watercolor Explorations: Fridays

One of the highlights of our program is our Friday sessions dedicated to the enchanting world of watercolor. We delve into the realm of great artists and their ideas, using watercolor as a medium of expression. Through vibrant brushstrokes and delicate washes, children discover the versatility and magic of watercolor. They learn about famous artists and their techniques, allowing their own creativity to flourish as they experiment with this captivating medium.

Observational Drawing: Saturdays

On Saturdays, our focus shifts to the art of observational drawing. Children learn the valuable skill of capturing what they see through still life compositions. Guided by our experienced instructors, they develop their ability to observe and translate their observations onto paper. Through this practice, young artists gain confidence in their drawing skills and enhance their perception of the world around them.

Enroll Today and Ignite Your Child's Artistic Journey! Registration for our summer art program is now open, with classes commencing on July 5th. Don't miss this opportunity to unleash your child's artistic potential and witness their imagination soar. Secure their spot today and embark on an unforgettable artistic adventure.

Unleashing Creativity with Young Artists: Inspired by Nick Cave's Masks

Little Ashcan embarked on an exciting journey of self-expression and imagination. This week, our young artists were captivated by the incredible artist Nick Cave and his mesmerizing masks.

Let's take a closer look at their extraordinary exploration of mixed media and mask-making! Masks have a special allure, inviting us to step into a different world and explore our hidden identities. Inspired by Nick Cave's fascinating creations, our young artists delved into the world of masks, using mixed media to bring their unique visions to life. Through a variety of materials and techniques, they unleashed their creativity!

In our studio, the Little Ashcan introduced to a wide array of mixed media materials. From sparkly tape and sequins to feathers, paint, and more, they had an extensive palette to experiment with. This exploration allowed them to play with textures, colors, and shapes, giving their masks a distinctive personality.

The journey of our young artists, inspired by Nick Cave's masks, showcases the power of art to ignite creativity and nurture self-expression. Through mixed media exploration and mask-making, they have discovered new dimensions of artistic possibilities. Join us on this vibrant artistic this Summer adventure and watch your child's imagination soar!

Masks Inspired by Nick Cave

Little Ashcan used mixed mediums for this project—sculpture and paint! Nick Cave is an American sculptor known for his Soundsuit series: wearable assemblage fabric sculptures that are bright, whimsical, and other-worldly, often made with found objects. This same methodology was applied to his masks.

This week, students had the opportunity to create their own masks inspired by both Nick Cave’s Soundsuits and his own masks.

How to Draw a Monster!

Nothing can be as fun for Little Ashcan students as creating their very own monster!

This week they are moving on from portrait studies to something more creative: monsters. Developing different types of monsters, from furry to scaley, these different creature allow the student to explore different textures—and more importantly how to develop those textures using pen and pencil.

A Portrait of Known People

Little Ashcan finished their portraits off strong! Probably one of the most challenging projects they had to face, portraits inspired by Paul Gauguin. There is a multitude of steps that makes an artwork complete, especially a portrait! From the planning, to the sketch, to an underpainting, to layering cool and warm tones. Regarding the study of portraits, a lot is taught, the basics of facial anatomy!

A Portrait of the Artist as a Little Ashcan Student

Continuing with the study of Paul Gauguin, Little Ashcan took the next steps in finishing their Gauguin inspired pieces.

With their already cool base, they added warm tones in the form of portraits. The dichotomy of warm portraits and a cool background provides a pleasing contrast. Like Gauguin, little ashcan experimented with color, likeness, and composition. The mild distortion of forms add to the primitive nature of the art.

Onto the Primitive Art Movement

The Primitive Art Movement refers to the art of various historical European periods and of non-Western societies. Art belonging to this movement paintings are typically simplistic in its approach to form and color. There is a lack in conventional ideals like values, linear perspective and other the concept of proportionality.

In the spirit of Paul Gauguin and his contributions to the Primitive Art Movement, the goal is to recreate the experience of the “primitive time,” in regards to place, and person, through watercolors. In his paintings, Paul Gauguin uses a specific color palette: prussian blue, cobalt blue, emerald green, viridian, cadmium yellow, chrome yellow, red ochre, cobalt violet, and white. This week, Little Ashcan learned to differentiate between these cool and warm colors, and began their painting with the cool colors. For the past few weeks, the students learned different ways to get started with a painting, like a pencil sketch! A painting sketch or underdrawing, is a preliminary drawing artists make on their canvas that will help guide where the painting will go. This week, they developed their preliminary “drawing” with the cool tones! Next week, they will finish off their paintings with the warm tones!

February Showers Bring April Flowers

Spring Break is quickly approaching and there is no better way to celebrate than painting some flowers! Little Ashcan got to choose their favorite live flowers and paint from life. From Tulips, to Sunflowers, to Orchids to Daisies—they had the opportunity to not only look at these beautiful flowers, but the ability to learn how to draw from life!

Drawing from life is an essential skill! This skill builds hand eye coordination, helps students understand shadow, light, and perspective. A consistent practice of still lives helps students notice the finest details: from composition, to shape and form.

Coffee Now Part of Their Daily Grind!

Last week Little Ashcan had the opportunity to finish up their natural pigment paintings and we are impressed!

The crushed coffee beans and tea leaves provided an excellent base for the students to create the illusion that they are painting on their very own cave. Other naturally occurring pigments they used were chalk! All very easy to use and require no special preparation. Next class, they are returning to the classic art supplies, watercolors!

Life Is The Flower For Which Watercolor Is The Honey!

Little Ashcan is traveling back to the present and learning about American contemporary realist painter, Joseph Raffael. A lot of his paintings are done in watercolor and feature various flowers. Last week, students experimented with a lot of watercolor-like natural pigments—from coffee to beet juice. This week, they are learning to use actual watercolors!

Little Ashcan is moving on from simplistic cave inspired art onto realistic paintings of flowers. Students will sketch these flowers from life, and paint. They will learn to paint from light to dark—so they can build contrast easily.

Back to the Past

Last week, Little Ashcan learned about the Lascaux caves located in France with paintings dating back 20,000—now they are learning about the types of animals and peoples on those caves! From Aurochs to Megaloceros, they got to see how they were depicted on caves walls and how to recreate these depiction with their own spin!

This week, they’re using their own natural pigments to mimic the warm tones seen in the images of the Lauscaux caves. Next week, they will create their own pictographs and complete their very own charcoal cave painting!

Collaboration of Paint & Clay

Our final week of sculpture has arrived, and Little Ashcan applied some painting techniques learned a couple weeks ago!

Unlike Beate Kuhn, Little Ashcan took a more colorful approach. As you can see, they learned how to apply paint to a 3D form versus a 2D surface. The application process is especially more complex when the sculptures have so much detail. Each student made it their own with their choice of color and where to apply that color. The use of gold is what brings these pieces together!

Want to see more of an up close look at some of these sculptures? Check out our instagram: @LittleAshcanArt!

Did You Know...

…that the first recorded use of charcoals as an artistic medium was in cave paintings? The Lascaux Caves located in France has paintings dating back about 20,000 years. The artists used pigments from rocks, animal fat, and dirt to paint various animals and people.

For this project, students will mimic their techniques by using natural pigments as well! From beet to coffee beans, students will explore how to use unorthodox artist materials to illustrate their own depictions of animals and people!

Bringing Thumbnails to Life!

Last week, Little Ashcan made thumbnail sketches for this weeks activity: sculpture!

Little Ashcan did a wonderful job bringing their ideas to life! Learning how to get started was imperative for this process. There was a lot to learn with Air Dry Clay, how much moisture it needs to stay moldable, how to form and sculpt, and how to seal it with a special mixture once they are happy with their forms!

Tune in next week when they paint their masterpieces!

Learning From the Beate!

This week Little Ashcan was introduced to Sculptor Beate Kuhn. She is a famous ceramic artist who creates unique sculptures using organic forms. The works are meant to be subjective, to be interpreted by the viewer. Inspired by this, Little Ashcan drew thumbnail sketches of the organic forms they have in mind!

Next week, stay tuned for when they bring their sketches to life using Water-Based Sculpture Clay.

All That Glitters is Gold!

Congratulations to Little Ashcan for completing their first project!

From learning how to do an underdrawing and an underpainting, these students learned how to start and finish a realistic painting full of rich detail! Each one of them had the opportunity to experiment with composition, patterns and gold! In contemporary culture, gold continues to convey a plethora of different meanings, primarily symbolizing prosperity, fortune and success. What better paint is there to use on their Year of The Rabbit painting!

Having a Great Hare Day!

This week, Little Ashcan got started on last week’s sketches and began painting! Using acrylic paint is a fun way to introduce painting to beginners as they dry quickly and are easier to handle than oil or watercolors. To begin, they learned the basics: organizing paints in a paint palette, how to mix paints in said palette, and using their establish layout from last week to apply brush strokes and begin filling their canvasses!

Little Ashcan learned to use an angled brush for heavy and fine lines and a round brush for finer lines and details, like fur! Next week they’ll be switching up mediums, see what they’ll learn about next!

Welcome to 2023: The Year of the Rabbit!

Welcome to those returning to Little Ashcan and those who are just starting their artistic journey with us! We hope you all had a happy and safe New Years! Little Ashcan is kicking off the new semester with wonderful activities that revolve around this period of time—from drawing the best memory of 2022 to sketching new ones for 2023!

Little Ashcan’s first project is inspired by the Chinese Zodiac. Each new year is represented by an animal, and this year is the year of the rabbit! For this project, students are learning about how to sketch, create an underpainting, and use acrylic paint. This past week students were familiarizing themselves with new materials, canvas, drawing, and composition. Stay tuned for next week!