T is for Triptych Three Times

Mine

7 years old

I stumbled upon (or rather Pinterested) a wonderful idea for a simple lesson that would work with my seniors. Divide a long narrow sheet of watercolor paper into three six inch squares. Triangles in one, squares, then circles. Use lines to create background shapes. Then color with Caran D'ache. The instructions were open-ended and the results were fabulous. Everyone 'got' the idea and worked well. Best of all, everyone loved the results. Aren't they beautiful?!?

Almost 13

eleven

So I decided to try with both of my kid classes today. It was a slam dunk with the young kids and a really great project for my sophisticated and skilled older kids. Oh, and I loved it too. I have done several of these now myself.

Senior Student

G is for Generating Lots of Ideas

Step 3

One of the fundamental aspects of creativity is the ability to generate MANY ideas. This is best accomplished without self judgement, and with a spirit of "whatever happens will be a lesson unto itself."

Because I am focusing on creativity in this AEDM challenge as well as in my classes, I am trying to learn to practice what I preach  - emphasizing the importance of play as part of the creative process. I also have lessons to plan.

I needed a simple project for my seniors today, and I am thinking about symmetry. So, in the spirit of letting the ideas flow, I began by dividing a page, writing my name is lovely script to fill one half of the space and repeating on the other side.

I liked the shapes, so I added lines to fill the space and create inner shapes.  I went over all of this with black sharpie. Then I colored with Caran D'ache crayons in a limited palette - remembering to do on one side what I do on the other. This would work for my seniors.

Step 1

Usually I paint over Caran D'ache with a brush. But I felt lazy and had an idea to try as a short cut. I wet a layer of paper towel and laid it over the drawing to see what would happen - and magic appeared. I created an accidental monotype print on the paper towel. Ideas began popping in all directions.

Step 2

First, I realized that this "printing" method would be a hit with my seniors. Easy to do, and a great way to talk about symmetry (and with great potential for a landscape with reflections for another day.)

Next, I realized that this is a perfect way to create unique fabric design in my fashion art classes. Then I started to play with the printed paper towel - bringing it into Photoshop to mess around. The results at the top are a digital painting created with lots of filters and techniques.

What a great night - I played for hours.

E is for Elders

I teach art to seniors. I was about to type, senior artists, but, based on my five years of experience teaching in an Assisted Living facility, almost none of my students consider themselves artists. In fact, as I have mentioned in this blog before, the most frequent comment I get is "Oh, I'm no artist." Yet, my ladies come to class, week after week. They learn, they practice, and mostly, they improve.

Some don't of course. My ladies (rare to see a man in class) are old. They come with a wide array of ailments that include blindness, dementia, arthritis and the effects of great age on the body and the ability to work. And sometimes they die.  But while they are with me, they form a group and not only draw or paint, they talk, they laugh, they share, and most of all, they criticize their work and praise everyone else's.

Carol M

I never wanted to teach "old people." My father, who did, always tried to convince me to teach as he did, at a senior center in Florida. I hated even going into the place. Yet, after he died, and my hair turned grey,  I felt the need to contribute something to my community and volunteered at the facility where both my parents ended their days. And somehow there, found not only a job, but a part of myself that is patient and caring and --- really enjoys the older people I have gotten to know.

Irene K

One of the major benefits of this aspect of my work is the effort I must put into preparing to teach each week. I need to consider the level of abilities and disabilities. I have learned many things about adapting a project. I need to meet the needs of  people whose vision is affected by macular degeneration, or fading color vision. I have learned to see beauty in the shaky lines drawn by hands effected by Parkinson's disease. I understand the value of repetition - both of projects and instructions. And, I always try to relate the project to events in the lives of my students - memories or current events and activities are great starting points.

I have learned to use strong black sharpie to outline shapes, vibrant NeoColor crayons for color, bright white, or neon color papers for contrast. In class, we keep projects simple, share the work of great artists who have reached great age, and experiment with different media and different processes. Monotype printing in my simplified style has been a great success. There is an awed reaction to the magic that happens when images appear as we transfer them from acetate to wet paper.

Most magical of all though is the work that happens. These examples are from last week when pumpkins were the subject. The rules were simple - at least one pumpkin (I provided a collection of cute little mini pumpkins and lots of pumpkin drawings for inspiration.) Those who could see it well enough used white pastel to outline on black paper - then we all used pastel for color. My intro drawing is at the top, the others speak for themselves.

 Many thanks go to MZ, whose help and guidance have been essential to our combined success. I could not do this without you.

C is for Creativity

 “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” ― Albert Einstein

Once again, Einstein has just the right words to express what I am thinking, and what I am doing in this challenge, in my studio and most of all, in my classes.

One of the biggest issues I confront in my senior classes (ages 73 - 102) is the oft repeated comment, "I'm no artist." Somewhere in their lives, so many (older) adults I meet have been convinced that they "can't even draw a straight line." As if that matters.

So I remind them, that art is not about straight lines (though they can be nice.) Art is not even about curved lines (though they definitely help.) It is not definitely not about getting everything right. So I bring them great art to look at. For the lesson I am writing about here, it was a slide show of images of Georgia O'Keeffe flowers.

I draw for them so that they see how it it done. I bring color and ideas, and I remind them every week that art is about fun and pleasure and experimentation. Art is NOT about perfection, or coloring neatly, or impressing anybody but yourself.


And then we make art -

The two flowers at left are my practice for a simplified lesson on Georgia O'Keeffe flowers - the idea was to fill the page and work large. We used Caran D'ache crayons on canvas board, and outlined with sharpie to make it easier for some of my older students to see clearly. After we colored, we used water to create a painted effect.

But creativity IS contagious. When I got home, I had the urge to continue playing with these large flowers, but to add lines with my well loved set of Prismacolor markers. The flowers at the top are just one of the pieces that resulted. This was so much fun, I did it again the next day, but this time, with my Young Artists. More about them later.

Cc is for Crazy for Caran D'ache Crayons

I first encountered them by accident. A practically brand new box of 15 Caran D'ache were part of a garage sale hoard of art supplies.From the first time I used them I was thrilled by their intense colors, and the variety of ways I could use them. Wet, dry, combination of both, rough surface or smooth - always a great result.

They have become a staple of my senior art classes because they are both easy to handle and bright enough to see, even with vision problems. And they ability to see work get better by adding water is always a huge hit.

So, if I wasn't crazy for these cool crayons before, my newest application for them would have put me over the edge. They are an amazing tool for use in monotype printing. I can use them to draw on even the smoothest plates and surfaces, and their water soluble nature allows them to transfer beautifully when wet paper is laid on top. I can't stop experimenting.

This is one of the pieces I have created. It is based on a favorite painting, and the colors are a close match to the original. The first print was a little light, but because the paper was wet, lightly going over the shapes restored all to full color.

Monotype with Caran D'ache on Arches paper. 16"x20"

Aa is for Art Accomplished

Today was a busy day. Art class in the morning resulted in three monotypes.

This one was created in class two weeks ago and I just got it home. It is the second print, created on the ghost of another. It carries the background greens and yellows, which I enhanced and then added the imprints of the flowers I carved and a butterfly stencil I altered to add more round shapes. This is a very interesting process - I have so much to learn ... yay.

Art class for my seniors this afternoon resulted in some "gourdgeous" work as we created patterned pumpkins and squash. I am always fascinated by the variety of images created, and how, once we get started, past the initial confusion and lost looks, silence and focus descends, and art is made.

I love this one by Betty.

Happy Thanksgiving all.

I is for Individuality

There comes a point in almost every lesson where I stand back and look at the group of people, whether young or old, who are quietly working on the same project, following the same set of instructions, using the same materials, and I marvel.

For many years, my teaching, learning and writing focused on the subjects of diversity and cultural competence. Our schools are filled with children and families from different countries, cultures, languages, economic and social backgrounds. It was my job to create lessons or materials for teachers and community members to help them see, understand and teach to individual needs and characteristics.

My work always focuses on how to make everyone successful ... It is easy for me now, with my small classes, but  when you have dozens or even hundreds of students to teach everyday, how can you see them as individuals? How can you appreciate what each person brings to the class, the community, the world?

For me, the answer is simple. Watch a group make art. It is through the creative process that we can begin to understand how each individual sees the world; better understand their skills and deficits as they manipulate materials, and learn more about them as we see how each expresses ideas in their own way.

When our group stands back to admire the work that each of us has created, I am amazed at the differences I see, the beauty that appears, and the fact that language, money and home are not part of the equation. Art is purely a product of its maker - a true reflection of the individual hands and mind that created it.

Instead of sharing my own art work today, these photos show just some of the wonderfully diverse students I am privileged to teach, and their vibrant art.

E is for Educator

I am an educator. I love to teach (art, writing, photography, image editing .....)

 I love to inspire students to be creative, and most of all, I love the moment when they create something that makes them feel successful. This is when I know I am succeeding as their teacher.

My students are 5 years old, or 12 or 87, or 94. With such a wide range of ages and abilities (and disabilities) in my various classes, a constant concern for me is coming up with interesting, challenging (but not too) lesson ideas to meet the array of needs I see, teach techniques and skills in an unthreatening way, and result in beautiful images that bring joy and satisfaction to the artist.

To find ideas, I take classes, search library shelves, websites and Pinterest. Also, and primarily, I do what I tell any student of art to do, I keep my eyes open for possibilities. And I keep my camera handy at all times.

Wikiup Reservoir

This summer, I arrived at a campsite on the edge of Wikiup Reservoir in Oregon - a stretch of blue and gold, light, sky and water.

Instantly, I saw a landscape project - simple lines, gorgeous colors and strong lights and darks. This scene would be perfect for both my youngest and oldest students. I photographed it over and over - at different times in different light, and from different angles, seeking the simplest image to use as an example.

When I brought the photos home, I did several sketches until I found the best medium to draw in - dry pastels were the clear winner. The effort was worth it. Students young and old were all successful in creating vibrant scapes of sky and water and light.

PLEASE VOTE for YOUR FAVORITE ART BY SENIOR ARTISTS

Frances Nishimura

My wonderful senior artists have boldly entered samples of their beautiful art work into the 2013 ALFA Senior Living Art Showcase. 

"The ALFA Senior Living Art Showcase, open to all residents of senior living communities, celebrates seniors’ overwhelming zeal for life and community. Through 2013’s theme, Celebrating The Beauty Of Life, this year’s showcase aims to honor the many way seniors add beauty to our world"

This year's collection is huge and impressive; true and inspiring proof that creativity, productivity and learning do not end at retirement, or even well into your nineties. 

To make it easy for you to vote for MY TEAM, I have created a lists of links to our art. Each of these links goes directly to art submitted by Leisure Care Resident Artists. Please vote by LIKING any or all of these, and please take the time to look through this incredible collection of art created by seniors in care around the country.

The three submissions earning the highest number of likes will be named Fan Favorite Winners. Three Grand Prize Winners will also be selected. One Grand Prize Winner will be an assisted living resident, one will be an independent living resident, and one will be a memory care resident. Winners will be chosen based on how well their artwork demonstrates the theme: Celebrating The Beauty Of Life. 

Each of the six winners will receive a painting party (valued at $500*) for their community and an official art showcase t-shirt. All winning pieces of art will receive recognition on ALFA’s website and at the ALFA 2013 Conference & Expo

The image that wins the most votes gets 

Frances flowers

Frances pears side 

Irene pear

Irene Poppy

Frances pastel pears

Rosemary Apples

Lillian Pear

Marguerite faces

Marguerite apples

Rosemary Pear

Carol Landscape

Carol Fish

Carol Lotus

U is for Up

 My "senior class" today was a delight. My preparation, which included printing a collection of large, vibrant flowers, and even pre-sketching a few, resulted in truly lovely work, and a relaxing  pre-Thanksgiving afternoon. To start the class I demonstrated how to mix and blend and deepen colors when working with Caran D'ache watersoluble crayons (which everyone loves). As my classes progress, my students (my "aspiring artists" as Lillian refers to our group) are growing more independent, and more skilled.

When things go well, and everyone enjoys themselves, and real learning has taken place,  I feel happy ... UP ... and I express that good feeling with color. This is pastel on black paper and lots of digital fooling around to bring even more color and texture to the piece. 

T is for This and That and Trumpets again

Today is Tuesday - the day I try to set aside for class project development. I have been very creative all day, working on three different projects, making changes to existing work, taking a drawing in a new direction and trying new techniques.

Tomorrow, in class with my elder students, we will use Caran D'ache to draw and then paint large flowers on watercolor paper.

I think my lesson will include a demonstration of the  way I build the colors, by layering, first the dominant undercolor, and then building one over another until there is depth, darks and lights, and drama.

So, to practice, I revisited one of my favorite florals - The Trumpets. This is from a photo I took in a botanical garden, and I have always loved the composition of the three flowers.

This time, instead of using pastel, I drew and then them colored with Caran D'ache NeoColorII water soluble crayons. Then I wet it all - blending the colors with a brush and adding more, dry over wet, and then more wet, as needed.

P is for Play and Q is for Quote

"We do not quit playing because we grow old; We grow old because we quit playing." 

Oliver Wendell Holmes

I missed posting yesterday, so I am combining two ideas into one today. I think they fit together perfectly.

The quote above hangs in the children's art studio at Multnomah Arts Center where I teach painting to kids age five to eleven. I stop to read these words every time I am in the studio, but, I think they really belong in art room at the Assisted Living, because I think they are  far more relevant to my students at the other end of the age spectrum.

My goal in teaching seniors has always been to bring pleasure and  and stimulation into the lives of my elder students.  On one level this is my attempt to create a model for a more enriched future for myself (and all my rapidly aging friends), so that someone will offer high-quality art classes when I am older and have less access to the classes and pursuits that make me life so rich today.

What I did not expect was that a few hours a week of art classes could result in so much .... so much learning, so much growth, so much new confidence, so much beautiful art, and most unexpectedly, so much fun and even laughter. To quote a student, "Drawing til your hands ache burns off stress, is a lot of fun, AND, you get a flower when your done."

I do not know who is getting the most out of this opportunity - but let me share some of the joyful work that has appeared in our art classes.

Lillain Pakos: Leaves and Patterns

Carol Mussler: Tree in Bloom

Add caption

Frances Nishimura: Trees

Rosemary Cramer: Inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe

M is for Many

Carnations

Last week the senior class painted in the style of Georgia O"Keeffe. One single flower to fill the page.

Tomorrow the topic will be many. We will draw  a bunch of flowers, real or imagined, to fill the space, using oil pastel on black paper. The challenge will be to draw big,  draw many, not too many details, and use lots of color.. There will be flower pictures for inspiration.

Each of the artists in my class has a distinct style. I look forward to the variety of bouquets that will appear tomorrow.

Carnations was drawn in oil pastels on black sandpaper.

G is for Georgia on My Mind

Dahlia ala Georgia O'Keeffe

One of the most effective tools I use to inspire and teach my senior students is a PowerPoint presentation. I regularly gather information and images to introduce and talk about an artist or a style of art.

My students all enjoy seeing the presentation displayed on a large screen TV, and for me, its a great way to show, not tell, what we are going to be working on in class.

Last week our presentation was on Grandma Moses. She, like many of my seniors, lived and worked in a farm community. Her work is simple and accessible, and very appealing. They totally "got" her. I loved sharing facts of her life, including that she came to painting in her 70's, and lived to be 101. In my research I learned that before arthritis made holding a needle too difficult,  she created paintings in needlepoint, embroidering in thread on cloth. Lots of my older students are or were very handy with a needle, so this small fact made painting landscapes is her style seem a little more possible.

Lillian Pakos

Today, my presentation is about Georgia O'Keeffe (lived to be 98). I have found, whether teaching kids or adults, whether aiming for realistic images or abstraction, drawing and painting flowers yields great results. So, the lesson today will be to draw just one large flower to fill the space of our page, and design and color it as we like. I will provide a wide selection of single flower photos from my own collection, and see what appears.

My dahlia above is an exercise in limited palette, 8x10, acrylic on canvas. The other drawing, by Lillian Pakos is a beautiful example of the kinds of work I see in my classes.

B is for Beginners

As an art teacher working with both young children and senior adults, I work with a lot of beginners. When a young child comes to my class, I expect that I will need to present the basics - how to use a paintbrush, complementary colors, how to draw a face or a flower or a tree.

But kids are not my only students who are new to making art. Over and over in my senior adult classes I am amazed to find people who have never made art before. "Even when you were a kid in school?" I ask. Silly city girl me ... I am often reminded that these older folks grew up on farms and had no time to play, and no access to such luxuries as crayons and paper. Some remind me that they grew up in depression era schools where the three R's took priority over non-essentials such as art. So, my very grown up students, retired and with time for new pursuits are often experiencing the pleasures of drawing and painting for the very first time.

In many ways, I find that teaching each of my groups is very similar. The major difference is that while seniors are better behaved :-), the kids have no fear. Kids are not only willing to try anything, they have complete confidence in the work that they will create.

The seniors on the other hand repeatedly tell me, in one way and another "I'm no artist." Yet they also tell me about the quilts, and dresses and wedding gowns they have made; about arranging flowers, decorating homes, knitting sweaters, embroidering, making lace ... on and on, all their lives. It makes me sad that they do not seem to connect the beautiful work of their hands with the process of making art.

So - in order to overcome the negativity, I work hard to offer projects that allow them to find success, work around visual and other limitations, and help them connect their own skills and interests with the new ones I am there to teach.

The image at the top of  this page is my sketch, done in water soluble crayon (more about that tomorrow) on watercolor paper -a  simple image in lots of color and texture, to inspire and direct a seascape lesson (complete with a Winslow Homer slide show).

Below are 3 examples of the art created by my "non-artist" students. Beautiful, right?

Frances Nishimura

Rosemary Cramer

Marguerite Gedrose