Kids Art Workshops

Notification of Closure

After today we will be closed for a brief period while we spend some time in Haiti. Regularly scheduled after-school art classes will resume on Wednesday May 30th, 2012 and weekend drop-in art workshops resume on Saturday, June 2nd. If you are uncertain of dates, please check our calendar.

Also of note: We are doing our End of Season Art Show on Saturday June 16th, 2012. All past students from the 2011/2012 school year are invited to show off their great work at this special exhibition of art. We ask that each child bring 1-3 of their favourite pieces to Lisa the week of June 10th, so that they can be hung at Smock Café the night before the big show. Thank you and see you real soon!

For the love of Mom

Saturday May 12th, Art Explorers! Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – Secret Mother’s Day Project. We figure that 90% of the people reading this are Moms, so this project we’re keeping under wraps. You’ll see it on Mother’s Day!!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Art Explorers! Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Intro to Pop Art

Sunday May 6th, Art Explorers! Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – Andy Warhol’s Pop Art. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to do a ‘Pop Art’ workshop. This is the art I grew up on. I was especially influenced by the movement while studying Graphic Design at George Brown College in the mid ’80s (I am aging myself). This workshop discusses some basic print-making techniques – etching designs in recycled styrofoam containers (trying to make the best of a bad situation – will these please be outlawed someday?) and using lino block ink. My students on Wednesday really enjoyed this project as you can see from the image above!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Art Explorers! Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Unique Children = Unique Flowers

Satuday Apr. 28th, Art Explorers! Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – Pastel & Van Gogh’s Flowers. I can’t really call this a ‘Van Gogh’s Sunflowers’ workshop – although that is what we’ll be talking about. Since I don’t have any sunflowers to use as our still life subject, this class will be more of a freestyle flower drawing session — which co-incidentally, I find kids prefer anyway! When given the freedom to create, it is here when their inner unique-ness is truly cultivated. As with the class I taught Wednesday (pictures above), each drawing is as personal and individual as the child is him or/herself!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Art Explorers! Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Earth Day Collage

Sunday Apr. 22nd, Art Explorers! Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – Painted Newspaper Collage. I really love the look of painted paper. At the end of last week’s art class, I had the kids paint a bunch of recycled newspapers. I thought this could be a good springboard for talking about Earth Day and how when we re-use and recycle – we can make or ‘upcycle’ some beautiful creations. So on Sunday we’ll rip up the painted paper, and decoupage our collage! Afterward, we’ll add some finishing touches such as wispy clouds or – like in the case of my after school art class – add cherry blossoms with paint! Aren’t these stunning?

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Art Explorers! Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Birds and Fairies

Saturday Apr. 14th, Art Explorers! Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – Bird Feeders & the Fairy House. About a month ago I pulled an unopened, never-before-assembled dollhouse from my garage. It was donated to Art & Soul by a friend a long time ago, and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Then I got the idea to transform it into a ‘Fairy House’, after seeing an amazing one on a visit to Encinitas, CA (see picture) a couple of years ago. Spring is here, there is no denying it. Magnolia trees are in full bloom along with the cherry blossoms throughout our neighbourhood. Birds are singing beautiful songs and the robins who visit our front lawn are looking rather plump! So it seems timely to begin a bit of work outside amongst the beauty. Weather permitting we will begin construction of our Fairy House outside, if not — will be painting, decorating and building in the art room. We will make bird feeders for the fairy house, as well as feeders for children to take home and stick on a tree branch in their own yard!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Art Explorers! Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Easter Long Weekend 2012

All classes regularly scheduled are cancelled this weekend (April 7th & 8th) due to the Easter long weekend. Please join us when classes resume on the following Saturday April 14th. Thank you and enjoy your weekend!!

Easterrific!

Sunday Apr. 1st, Art Explorers! Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – All Things Easter. Love, love, love the colours that come out at Easter time. And for some reason when I think of crafts and Easter, felt comes to mind as the medium of choice… And feathers. I’m not really sure why, either. Thoughts aside – this Sunday’s art workshop will feature making brooches and bookmarks with some Easter flare. Who wouldn’t want to sport a stylish Easter brooch? Or give a bunny or ducky bookmark to someone special? And if there’s time – we’ll dye some eggs too. Got a simple, but stylin’ egg decorating idea up my sleeve. We shall see!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Art Explorers! Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Earth Hour Inspiration

Saturday Mar. 24th, Art Explorers! Kids Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – Upcycled Art. Inspired by Earth Hour which is happening next Saturday at 8:30 p.m., I’d like to talk to the kids about why it’s important to participate in it. I’d also like to touch on things we can do to help the planet in other ways as well. CD jewel cases are made with PVC plastic; non-biodegradable and non-recyclable in most communities. So during this workshop we’ll up-cycle unwanted jewel cases into art frames. It’s a great way to keep trash out of the landfill and proudly display our awesome creations! There are many different mediums that will work with these cases, but for this workshop we’ll be using homemade play-dough. A great supportive book to this exercise is authour Barbara Reid’s “Picture a Tree”. The talented Toronto-based artist creates all of her illustrations with plasticine, so we’ll use her style as reference for our pieces.

In addition, another activity we’ll do is recycle old broken crayons into new ones. Please bring your old stubby crayons and everyone will go home with new ones!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Art Explorers! Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Artistic Freedom

Sunday Mar. 11th, Multi-Medium Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ’til 11:45 a.m. – Jackson Pollock. Jackson Pollock was a very important American painter. His unique paintings are in museums around the world, including New York City and London. Pollock used an interesting technique when painting. He would put his canvas on the floor and drip paint onto the canvas! Nothing says artistic freedom more than J.P.’s abstract works. This Sunday’s class we will talk about “Abstract Art” and then do some freestyle painting with a twist.

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Multi-Medium Art Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Spinny Spirals and ‘Swirl by Swirl’

Saturday Mar. 3rd, Multimedia Art For Kids Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – Spiral Art.The book ‘Swirl by Swirl’ was brought to my attention by a friend who is in love with spirals. In fact, the logo on her website is a spiral and it has deep meaning for head Yoga Goddess Zahra Haji. For many, the spiral is almost a cosmic shape, a compelling and positive reminder of how nature, myth and mysticism are prevalent in the spiral and vice versa. Since I’m all about deeper meanings and meditative art (see Mandala art workshop), this spiral-focused book inspired a new workshop and seemed totally in line with what would make a great ‘Art & Soul’ class! We’ll do stamp/print-making out of spiral shaped plasticine in combination with paint on paper being spun in a salad spinner – of all things! It’s a fun project that kids get excited about — especially the spinny part (I tested it out on my pre-school art class this a.m.). We’ll also read ‘Swirl by Swirl’ by Joyce Sidman to ’round’ out the class. ;) Thanks Zahra!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Multi-Medium Art Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Little Art & Souls – WE come to YOU!

For the stay at home pre-schoolers, we offer ‘art & soul for pre-K’s’ weekdays in your home. Each class is 45 minutes – where Lisa comes to you prepared with a theme for story, art & yoga. If you’re interested in having Lisa visit your play group or kids with caregivers or nannies, please contact her at lisa@centreforatrandsoul.com. Minimum 4 per group.