Children Helping Children Workshop

Our local art supply store, Opus Art Supplies, holds a youth art exhibit every year at this time.

For a donation to Children's Hospital, they will give you a 10X10 art board for a child 16 or younger to create a work of art upon using any medium of their choosing.

You can read all the details here, http://opusartsupplies.com/kidsartexhibit

I had picked up eight boards thinking I would just incorporate them into one of the camps and then give the kids the option to submit the work for exhibit at our local Opus store.

And then I started thinking that wouldn't it be even better if I created a workshop so not only would the kids have an opportunity to participate in an art exhibit, but also the opportunity to raise funds for Children's Hospital?

And so I created an hour and a half workshop called, "Children Helping Children" and all the proceeds for the class were donated to the hospital. 

win/win

6 year old, Basquiat inspired acrylic painting, "eyeball man"

Each artist could use whatever they wanted in the studio, although most stuck with acrylic, and do whatever they wanted as far as style and subject matter.

The above six year old came with two of his favorite figurines. He then proceeded to sketch out a very simple skull inspired by his figurines and told me that was what he wanted to draw. 

I looked at this simple, small drawing and thought, "yikes. it will be completely lost on the board". But looking at the sketch reminded me very much of Basquiat's work and knowing this little boys'  personality, I thought he might really respond positively to the energy of this particular artist. I got out my iPad and showed him a variety of Basquiat's paintings and sure enough, he was hooked. He focused in on one particular painting for inspiration and created the above work from his skull sketch.  He captured Basquiat's style amazingly. I was blown away when I looked up and saw what he was doing with the board.

11 year old, acrylic  "stuck in tree"

This is his older sister's work. 

Quiet, pretty, serene, just like her. She was going for an impressionistic style and did a great job capturing it. I was concerned she would not complete the work before the workshop ended, but she finished just as the parents showed up. I think it is just a stunning pretty piece and think she made some great color choices.

11 year old, acrylic.  "bowl of cherries"

If that bowl looks like one at Anthropologie, you are right. It seems many recognized it when I put it up on the Kudzu Studio Facebook page too! This artist worked hard to keep her paint strokes very broad and loose and mixed all her colors directly on the board. I love it and this makes me want to go buy some more Bing cherries.

7 year old, acrylic, "Hibiscus"

This little girl was in the Silk Painting workshop the week prior and evidently one of the other artist had a profound effect on her. She came in and asked if she could create a hibiscus flower like the other artist had done in the silk painting workshop. While she was creating this work, we talked about complimentary color, along with warm and cool color. The next time I came by to check on her, she was putting in this beautiful orange background. This is such a pleasing work of art.

7 year old, acrylic. "horse jumping over the moon"

This is my artist who loves to draw horses! As she was sketching a jumping horse, she mentioned it kind of looked like a cow jumping instead. I told her she should do a twist on the nursery rhyme about the cow jumping over the moon and instead have the horse do it! She giggled when I exclaimed why should cows have all the fun? And boy did she take that concept and run! I adore how cute this turned out.  So sweet, just like the artist.

6 year old, acrylic. 

My Kandinsky lovin' six year old student wanted to paint a mint ice cream cone.....which somehow turned into a blue ice cream cone because he loves all things Kandinsky and Fauvist. It's just fantastic, just like him, with a cherry on top no less! Well done hot shot!

5 year old, mixed media  "cupcake"

This was an exciting day at the studio! This five year old has been dropping off her older sisters to do art for a couple of years now and finally she too was old enough to join in on all the fun. This was a perfect introduction for her and she was keeping up with everyone in the class. She wanted to do a cupcake and given her age, I wanted to suggest a project where she would keep adding upon the work to hold her attention. So first she put on red, blue and white paint and mixed it up, creating her favorite colors of pink and purple. Then we dried the board and she cut out a cupcake stencil. After she had cut the stencil out, I had her place it on the board and put white acrylic paint everywhere. She then peeled off the paper stencil, I once again dried the board, and handed her oil and chalk pastels and let her have at it.  Again with the cherry on top. It was just that kind of day.

All of these works will be on display starting August 1st at Opus Art Supplies in North Vancouver. If you have a moment, stop in and take a look at all the works on display created by children.  It is such a great experience to give kids the opportunity to participate in a show while at the same time raising funds for such a worthy cause.

I am thrilled to have had the studio participate in this event.  Congratulations to all these amazingly talented students.