CAMP and GIVEAWAY CONTINUES!

That's right! It's time to start planning for the summer. Due to anticipated family reunion to celebrate my amazing Mother's 90th birthday I'm only planning one week summer camp for Picasso's Basement. The rest of the summer will be spent in the company of family from all over the globe! Yay!
So here is the big announcement:

Picasso's Basement ROYAL Camp

Girls and Boys Ages 5-11

MONDAY, JULY 16^TH – FRIDAY JULY 20^TH

10AM-12:30 PM

16 LAUREL PLACE,  FANWOOD NJ 

• Design your own Coat of Arms
• Build mini catapults to use in the dreaded MARSHMALLOW WARS!
• Fight off the Invisible Knight!
• Create incredible castle Drawings
• Make and eat medieval snacks



THAT's RIGHT! YOUR CHILD COULD MAKE THIS!
Well, not quite but they'll have fun trying!

• Much much more!

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FEES, DETAILS AND REGISTRATION FORM: YE OLDE ROYAL CAMP REGISTRATION FORM. 

DUE TO THE SIZE OF THE STUDIO CAMP IS LIMITED TO 10 ROYAL CAMPERS SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SIGN UP.

I will also be having some SUMMER ART DAYS throughout the summer for Middle School and PreK kids but unfortunately right now I'm still determining what to do when!

Please also remember that I STILL HAVE A GIVEAWAY CONTEST underway until Friday. You can read the details here GIVEAWAY INFO!! but all you have to do is leave a comment and sign up as a Google "follower" on my blog. I'm telling you, this is an amazing book that I will send to you for FREE! I'm astonished that something can be given away for FREE! in this world and only 2 people have responded. 

Look forward to hearing from you all! And now I must go walk my schnauzer....

Draw Like an Egyptian

OK, OK, I know it's a TERRIBLE title for this post. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart.

Day 3 of Art Camp: Sarcophaguses

This was a very ambitious project for one day. Maybe too ambitious. But it worked out pretty well. 

Sarcophagus and Mummy

It required the following:

• Pictures of Sarcophaguses for reference
• Pictures of Egyptian Hyroglyphics and Symbolism
• Pencil 
• Brown Craft Paper
• Craft Acrylic or Tempera Paint and brushes
• Wide Permanent Markers (All hail the Sharpie!)
• A pre-made snack
• A lot more time than we had

We looked at many pictures of Egyptian art and architecture but in the end settled on some of the most fascinating elements: the burial techniques and the beautifully decorated sarcophaguses.

The children took turns lying on the ground on top of a strip of kraft paper and we drew their outline. Then we formed the shape into a  sarcophagus and the children drew in their faces and body shapes. I asked them to look at how the hair was drawn, the headdresses, the facial features and the symbols used on the bodies.  We discussed the symmetry of the design and I was excited to see one artist completely disregard this and make hers intentionally asymmetrical. The artists sketched in pencil first and dove right in to the paint. I bought a nice high quality gold and they loved using it.

As the paint dried we ate hummus, pita, and olives (along with fruit snacks and goldfish, of course) and played the mummy wrap game. This was a bigger hit than I imagined it would be and it was played several times.

Lastly we returned to our work stations and added detailing and outlines with our markers. A few kids chose to finish up their work on another day.

In hindsight I wish I'd saved this project for a regular art lesson rather than camp so the artists could have taken more into consideration: how to hold their arms, whether to give their sarcophagus a staff to hold, etc. But the artists created some very very beautiful work.

Around The World With Picasso's Basement! First stop: New Zealand

I’m incredibly excited! I am planning Picasso’s Basement first Art Show complete with a Gallery Opening. (Yes, I'm excited enough to feature BOLD TYPE!) It will be held at the Scotch Plains Library in N.J. on Saturday, September 10th from 1:30-3:00pm and the work will remain on view afterwards. Highlighted will be the art created during our weeklong Around the World Art Camp.

This was my first attempt at an Art Camp and I’m thoroughly convinced that I had even more fun than the kids! Each day we went to a different country, created a piece or two of art, had an appropriate (although at times disastrous) snack and played games. It was hard narrowing down the countries and I did my best to vary it up. This week I’ll try to do a post for each day. Most of the lesson plans were self-created and most of them were even successful.  Less successful was attempting to get my older son to man the phones. Many thanks are owed to my wonderful teen assistant, Nancy, who helped all the kids and kept me from making too many mistakes!

OK: Here goes the week! 

DAY 1: NEW ZEALAND, The Maori People and their art 

After learning of how the Maori people traveled to New Zealand and were it’s first inhabitants we looked at their absolutely gorgeous art. Exquisite intricate carvings, amazing tikis, and beautiful tattoos. Virtually everything the Maoris wore, lived in, or used was adorned with incredible swirling designs.

The Artists looked at pictures of the Maori sea monster, the marakihau, a mermaid like evil creature that was thought to have a hollow tongue that could suck up the sea, boats, even men! Using pencils they sketched pictures of their own sea monsters and then created a finished drawing with oil pastels. Then, using a black tempera wash, they painted their papers. Pop! Nothing like a little water-based resist to make your oil pastel colors really stand out!

Following that we drew facial tattoos.
Even the Maori women tattooed their faces: in fact some still do. The kids enjoyed their tattoos a heck of a lot more than the “banana scallops” that we made (think Fried Plantain Ala Kellogg’s). Most of them chose Goldfish crackers instead. Ah well, more for me!

Campers sporting facial tattoos. I'm not sure if their parents were happy about this!

As a last activity we looked at the huge variety of tiki faces and everyone made a tiki necklace out of recycled paper. We “laminated” them with clear contact paper and by the end of the day we were a mighty festooned bunch!

Whoa. I’m exhausted just thinking about all we did! But I guess it wasn’t TOO much activity because they all came back the next day!

IN OUR NEXT INSTALLMENT: Picasso’s Basement’s trip to Russia! See you back here for more fun!