Cherries from JFK school demo!

At the end of January I spent 2 delightful mornings chatting about art with the 5th grade students at John F. Kennedy school in Windsor, CT. I showed them some of my illustrations and fine art then did a quick demonstration on blocking in color using pastel chalks on a flip chart. These work best for me when I need to show (quickly) how I break the shadows and highlights into geometric shapes. After the pastel piece, the kids gathered around me at a table and I worked in colored pencil on the same drawing of cherries on a smaller scale – showing them how i work in my studio, the tools I use and how I make changes from my original reference photo to enhance the drawing.
The kids were fantastic; they asked great questions and kept me on my toes. They were polite and gave me lovely thank you notes – I even received a beautiful painting from one sweet girl!
My goal was also to let them know that, everyone make mistakes – I showed them a portrait I’d nearly finished that had to be started over because the proportions weren’t right. I draw a little every day to hone my drawing my skills and was thrilled to see most of them love to draw too!
Their enthusiasm was infectious and I would be happy to come back every year!
Special thanks to Carol Giardi, art teacher at JFK for asking me to come in and speak with the kids!

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