Explore the world of watercolor in this fun, hands-on art program! From mastering color theory and creating nature-inspired landscapes to experimenting with textures and learning how light affects your art, students will develop creative skills and confidence in their artistic abilities.
The program content includes:Exploring Colors - Introduce primary, secondary, and complementary colors.Students are introduced to the foundational elements of color theory. They'll explore the relationships between different colors and how to mix them. The activity involves creating a color wheel, a great hands-on way to understand how colors blend and how complementary colors interact. This helps students gain confidence in using color in their artwork.Activity: Create a color wheel using paints or crayons.Skills Learned: Color mixing, understanding the color spectrum, and color relationships (primary, secondary, and complementary).Materials: Watercolors (or crayons), brushes, palettes, paper, and a color chart.Nature-Inspired Art in Watercolor - Connect art with the natural world.Students will focus on observing nature and translating it into art. Students will use watercolor paints to create a landscape, learning to capture the natural beauty around them. This encourages both observational drawing and creativity, pushing students to experiment with their painting techniques to convey the textures and colors of nature.Activity: Paint or draw a landscape in watercolor (this could be anything from a simple garden scene to a more detailed outdoor vista).Skills Learned: Observational drawing, watercolor techniques (like wet-on-wet and gradient washes), and creativity in capturing the natural world.Materials: Watercolors, brushes, paper.Texture Exploration - Experiment with textures using everyday objects.Students explore how texture can bring a painting to life. They'll experiment with materials like sponges, palette knives, and texture paste to create layered and dynamic textures. This allows them to deepen their sensory awareness and enhance their ability to add dimension and depth to their watercolor pieces.Activity: Create textured art using sponges, palette knives, and texture paste. Students will experiment with different textures to see how they can add complexity to their watercolor paintings.Skills Learned: Sensory awareness, texture creation, and building depth in artwork.Materials: Watercolors, brushes, sponges, palette knives, texture paste, paper.Final Art Showcase - Celebrate creativity and progress.The final week focuses on reflection and presentation. Students will select their favorite project from the previous weeks, refine it, and prepare it for a mini art show. This encourages them to think critically about their work and develop skills in presenting their art to others. It's an excellent opportunity to build confidence and celebrate the creative journey.Activity: Students select their favorite project, refine it, and prepare it for a mini art show, which could involve displaying their works to parents or peers.Skills Learned: Presentation skills, refinement of artistic techniques, and confidence-building in sharing one's work with others.Materials: Completed projects from the previous weeks, framing or mounting materials (optional).This course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to watercolor art and give students a balance of technical skills, creativity, and self-expression while nurturing an appreciation for the visual world around them.
I never thought that I would paint. When I was a kid, my mom sent me to a music school to learn to play piano. After several lessons, I realized that I didn't like it, but went on with it. One year later, I made my mom happy by performing my examination piece on a white concert piano for her. When I finished playing, I approached her and asked to take me to an art school, because piano was not for me. In a week, I started visiting an art school. I spent four years there, graduated and was happy. At that moment, I was feeling like I wanted to be an interior designer, but in the 11th grade I changed my mind and went to study Tourism, completely putting aside design and painting.
Many years later, after trying various careers, I got married and moved to the USA. My active life stopped and suddenly, on weekdays I was alone with myself. I had to start all over again in a new country. I asked myself: "What do I really want to do?" I couldn't find the answer, until the day when I bought some paints, brushes and a canvas . . .My first painting after many years was flowers. When my husband came home and saw it, he was the first person who believed in me, while I myself was skeptical.A few months later, my husband sent some of my artwork for consideration and participation in an art exhibition in Boston. It was a big surprise for me when I learned that my application was accepted. My main goal was to show my paintings to people for the first time and see how they react.On the day of the exhibition, my husband asked to take all my paintings and leave nothing at home. I didn't want to take two of them. These two painting were terrible in my eyes. Despite that, my husband insisted and we took them. My mood during the exhibition was awful: I was looking at these two paintings - they were spoiling my general impression of my exhibition. That day I received many compliments and saw that people like my work but the most unbelievable and memorable thing was that I sold two of them… Which ones do you think? Yes, exactly these two I didn't want to take! These two that spoiled my mood! I couldn't believe that and frankly, at first, I thought my husband asked somebody to buy them. But then I realized that of course he didn't. That day I realized: everyone has different taste and there are no bad paintings, there are just different ones. That day I learned new things about art and received compliments from many people for future inspiration. That day, a new chapter of my life began - expressing my feelings and emotions on a canvas and sharing them with the World.
Marina Karteva, https://www.marinart.land
Natalia Markelova
No Class Feb 19
