Clay & Canvas Summer Art Camp - Daniels Family Pottery, Eugene OR

Tuesday: We painted on canvas with acrylic paints. First we looked at the web site of Marla Olmstead, a five-year-old painter whose paintings were mature enough to consistently sell out of galleries for thousands of dollars each.

We talked about expressing energy and how we feel inside through exaggerated color and form, rather than just trying to paint how things look outwardly. I gave the kids "assignments," or inspirational ideas, which they were free to either attempt to follow, or not.

The first assignment was to make a painting of something that frightens you. The second was to paint a picture that tells about a memory when you felt really happy or really sad.

The third was to paint a moody sky that shows an emotion or a feeling: angry thunderstorm, sad rainy day hopeful sunrise, joyful rainbow, excited storm, wild tornado, peaceful night sky, etc., using bold colors. Show the movement of the weather with lively brushstrokes as opposed to one solid color. Give your sky a place: mountains, forest, village, garden, calm green rolling hills, angry rock mountains, a lively city skyline, etc.

The fourth was to paint a city with wild colors where everything is colored to fit your mood. Don't paint gray-colored concrete, flesh-colored skin, and brown hair. Use crazy combinations. The fifth was to use unusual, imaginative bright colors to show the peace in the countryside.

Then we went to the park behind our house and each found a scene to paint.

Clay & Canvas Art Camp August 2009
		Monday: We worked with clay, making textured tiles (improvizing with tools, rubber lizards, shells and plants), pinch pots, coil pots, and small tigers. I read to the kids a passage from the book "Finding One's Way with Clay," by Paulus Berensohn: "The most important lesson I have been learning from my own little boy is to relearn to ask the question "'What if?' What if I were to make this bigger? What if I were to add a feather to it? What if I were to roll it in ashes? What if I were to write 'I love you' on it? If I like this so much, what if I were to keep doing it?...I'm learning to ask that if you ask 'What if?' often enough, you begin not only to believe it but to know that it is possible to play again ('playing' can be very serious indeed), to make things that aren't happening for you, happen. That you can turn yourself on or in by asking yourself and your clay, or your husband, or your child, or your yarn, or your paint, or your day, 'What if I were to put a cherry on top of it? What if i were to take away all the decorations and let you stand naked?'...If you set about to pinch a candleholder and it turns into a goblet, the shift may be an important discovery or the result of laziness, or lack of control. Only you can know this. And it's even possible that your very lack of control may bear fruit: by moving you from one vision to another, by not moving you where you wanted to go, or by inspiring in you the need to set about finally to gain the control you now want...only we know if we are fooling ourselves, and that's something to know."

	I brainstormed some pinch-pot ideas: goblet, footed bowl, pot with more than one opening (two, eight, fifteen...), teapot, pinch in response to a sound (clock, heartbeat, hum, music...), pinch while walking in a circle, pinch a clay letter to a friend, a napkin ring, a candleholder, a container for light, a valentine, a story, an explosion...then we looked on the shelf at things my kids have made, for more practical ideas.
Tuesday: We painted on canvas with acrylic paints. First we looked at the web site of Marla Olmstead, a five-year-old painter whose paintings were mature enough to consistently sell out of galleries for thousands of dollars each. We talked about expressing energy and how we feel inside through exaggerated color and form, rather than just trying to paint how things look outwardly. I gave the kids "assignments," or inspirational ideas, which they were free to either attempt to follow, or not. The first assignment was to make a painting of something that frightens you. The second was to paint a picture that tells about a memory when you felt really happy or really sad. The third was to paint a moody sky that shows an emotion or a feeling: angry thunderstorm, sad rainy day hopeful sunrise, joyful rainbow, excited storm, wild tornado, peaceful night sky, etc., using bold colors. Show the movement of the weather with lively brushstrokes as opposed to one solid color. Give your sky a place: mountains, forest, village, garden, calm green rolling hills, angry rock mountains, a lively city skyline, etc. The fourth was to paint a city with wild colors where everything is colored to fit your mood. Don't paint gray-colored concrete, flesh-colored skin, and brown hair. Use crazy combinations. The fifth was to use unusual, imaginative bright colors to show the peace in the countryside. Then we went to the park behind our house and each found a scene to paint.

Wednesday: We made stepping stones out of concrete and broken tile, then we worked with clay again.
Thursday: We painted again, using more "assignments" for inspiration: paint a face that shows a feeling or experience using bold colors. Instead of painting with normal skin colors, use wild, pure colors. Don't mix your colors. Keep the colors solid. Paint bold black outlines. Use large and simple forms and clear colors. Second, paint your thoughts. Paint the world inside your mind, using colors, lines and shapes. Third, make an abstract picture with patterns, designs, and shapes, that shows an emotion. Choose an emotion and ask yourself what shapes remind you of that feeling. Fourth, make an abstract painting of shapes and colors that shows sounds. Fifth, paint lines that show movement and feelings. Choose a subject (dancing, spinning, jumping, wind, roller coaster, tornado, skating, swimming in the ocean, flying in the air, riding on a train). Paint lines that show that movement. Make repeating patterns (dashes, swirls, stripes, spirals, circles). Although I hadn't planned on working with clay again on Thursday, the kids talked me into it.
Friday: We glazed the pottery that we had made on Monday, and made new stuff with clay. Then Steve did a wheel-throwing demonstration and the twelve-year-old in the group successfully threw a bowl.
"We were very impressed with the large amount of clay pieces as well as stepping stone and 6 canvas painting that our daughter Kaya produced at Leonie´s camp this summer. But it wasn´t just the pure amount of art pieces that impressed us but indeed the stories and experiences that had settle in Kaya while doing the art work or while being encouraged by Leonie to try a certain thing out. We are all looking at these pieces in a special light and when many of them will be gifted for Hanukkah and Christmas this year they will be accompanied with these stories. We will definitely be coming back!" ~ Line Morkbak, 2009 "Art Clay Camp was so much fun for my daughter that she begged for a second week of it! Leonie and Steve are delightful and pay just the right kind of attention to children to bring out the best of their own individual creativity! Felicia grew from her time with them." ~ Sarah Strand, 2008 Phone: (541) 343-7882 Email: stevo@danielsfamilypottery.com Address: 2740 Madison Street, Eugene Ages: 4-15 Cost: $250, all materials included Dates: August 24-August 28, 2009. Time: 9:00-1:00 Camps will be offered throughout the summer, as well as winter and spring vacations. Please contact me to schedule a date that works for you. ~ Leonie Daniels
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