This collaborative painting by my 4 year olds happened to be one of my most treasured pieces that I helped guide the children through from start to finish. I was most impressed by the beautiful abstraction of this bowl of lemons. Still life paintings may have the intention of representing a real subject, but I feel that the abstraction of the subject is even more challenging. I helped guide them in drawing, selecting a custom mixed color palette in acrylic paint, and taking turns to paint this composition. In my opinion, it belongs in a museum.

Tempera paint on craft brown paper

Collaborative Mural painting with children

Tempera paint on brown craft paper

Collaborative Mural painting with children

Tempera paint on craft brown paper

Collaborative Mural painting with children

This is a self portrait painting private lesson with a 10 year old. My student studied their face in a mirror and started with a sketch. The sketch was then transferred to a canvas and further interpreted through an original acrylic color palette of his choice. He was introduced to planes as shapes within the face, negative vs positive space, and composition.

I had the pleasure of working with a family in Montecito with 3 talented boys. Here the 9 year old is steadily working on his abstract still life study.

I had the pleasure of teaching private art lessons to a family with 3 young boys. In this photo, this 11 year old is diligently working on his abstract still life study and expressing himself through his own chosen palette of colors.

I had the pleasure of teaching an art workshop to a 4th grade class in the Berkeley, CA area. I introduced perspective, form, light and shadow, and finding the horizon line in a composition. Materials ranged from graphite and pen to pastels. I helped guide these children through an exercise of "drawing with eyes closed" based on the landscape we observed outside in the Bay Area. This exercise was introduced to me by my cousin Peter Maslow; an Internationally acclaimed artist painter. The children loved this creative outlet and continued after their 3 minutes of eyes closed for the remainder of their class finishing their artworks in their own preferred style.

I recently volunteered my services and set up “ The Artist Corner” at Montecito Union School’s annual Carnival. We had several watercolor stations set up and a giant collaborative mural design going on. There must have been at least 100 kids and parents that stopped and made art. I have done this before at birthday parties and also for adults. It’s a great way to let loose and explore creatively. Contact me for any inquiries.

I offer private small group and individual watercolor lessons. This day I had the pleasure of working with 2 twin girls very eager to create their own perspective of their surroundings. They learned about horizon lines/pov, foreground/middle ground/background relationships, intro to color theory and mixing, sketching from observation/not memory, and much more. The girls then took it from there and created such lovely unique paintings. For kids I usually do sessions of 90 minutes each.

Guiding a 5 year old on a journey of self portraiture through acrylic paint. Blocking forms, studying a palette of color, and going for it your own personal style.

Teaching children to find the horizon and therefore configure their foregrounds and backgrounds accordingly. Here we are working with acrylics.

I have been working on this mural at Bright Start preschool for quite some time. It is a double panorama of Santa Barbara; from the harbor to the Mission. This particular day, I was grateful for my two little helpers, whom with specific instruction were able to help paint in details of the mural.

I guided my 2 year olds on an adventure of mixing materials; from paint to pebbles.

Acrylic on canvas

Pebbles

2019

I worked extensively with my 5 year old class in the depiction of the Golden Gate Bridge. We started with a projected image and tracing from an actual photo. The children then learned how to mix a palette of paint colors that represented the imagery. While working in small groups of 3 at a time, the children proceeded to paint this outstanding work.

One of the most important themes in my work with these children was sensory exploration through creativity. With a Reggio Emilia based education, the students were able to touch all materials; therefore making it experiential rather than just agenda driven. This project was also inspired by the colored sand mandalas from Tibet.

Every day in class I would introduce a different category of music before we embarked on our creative journeys. This particular day I decided on Opera and pulled the black ink out for my 5 year olds. I was very impressed by the collaborative composition of paintings they created while listening to an intense Opera by Maria Callas.

My students worked a lot with natural materials to further explore their creativity. Here I provided pebbles, stones, leaves, corks, pods, and a flower. The Mandala is an expression of balance and harmony.

Every week in class I would introduce a seasonal fruit or vegetable to do Still Life Studies. The children would first pass it around to feel the texture and grasp the shape, and then they would sketch their own study. I mixed a custom palette of colors that were representative to the fruit or vegetable. In this case they used watercolors to represent the avocado. After this assignment, we all took pleasure in tasting the avocado that I had brought from my orchard.

Acrylic paint. Dragon Fruit color palette mixture

My 5 year olds took inspiration from Vincent Van Gogh and painted their own rendition of “A Starry Night”. Instead we decided to go with a monochromatic color scheme and develop “A Stormy Night”. The children first traced the image from a projection. We then outlined the drawing in charcoal and created a palette of color. They took turns in small groups painting.

One of my most enthusiastic students loved to smother his hands in color. I highly encouraged the kids to get dirty while in art class with me and of course apologized in advance to their parents for their clothes by the end of the day. The most important point was that they were having fun in the process. Here one of my 3 year olds explored with powdered tempera paint. That color purple is just glorious.

I loved working with my 2 year old class because they explored so much of their creativity with their bodies. Here one of my students decided to paint her entire arms. I find this to be art in itself.

My 5 year old students constructed an entire “bug hotel” with a myriad of materials. I taught them the basics of set design, and together we built many dioramas with an emphasis on a variety of interior decor styles.

I taught an introduction to Costume Design to my students. We pulled out an array of fabrics and dressed a mannequin together in multiple ways. The children explored ways to tie fabrics together, used safety pins, and mixed and matched different looks. We spoke about how costume design is portrayed in characters in movies.

I frequently worked with natural materials in my classroom. Children were able to feel materials and express that through drawing in a medium such as charcoal.

This week in class I brought in a sugar cane stick for the children to study. We worked in pastels and acrylics.