Found a Gem on the Shore

It's amazing how one can live in a place for years and not know everything that the area has to offer. A Mom at dance talked about how her girls love the drop in art class at a local museum and my ears perked up. Art is a class that I need to outsource and I'm not in a position to pay the going rates for art teachers so I was super interested in this free once-a-month art class at the Ward Museum.

Each month a local artist provides a self-paced, mostly self-directed, art class based on their expertise. I was assured that the teachers were comfortable with any age so I took Aliza, Josiah and Anna this past Saturday. I was hoping that Jeremy could take them as he is much more artistic (he had some art classes in college and one of his pieces from high school hangs in the Worcester County Board of Education) than I am, but Saturday morning our pipes were frozen so I figured it was best for him to stay with the house and Isaiah.

This month's class was Relief Printing. I don't have pictures of every step, but first they used a dull colored pencil to draw a picture or design in a piece of styrofoam. Then they painted, what was supposed to be, a thin layer of paint over the design and pressed it on to a paper. The design was supposed to be white and the rest of the page the color of paint chosen.

After a try or two, Josiah started to figure out the technique.

After her first try, Aliza decided to go back and retrace her design to make the indentations deeper. She also used less paint. She was very pleased with how her Frozen design turned out. Aliza even signed her name backwards on the styrofoam so that it would be forward on the print. I think she ended up doing about four different designs.

Anna is up for anything. She was the only one who was really excited to go. Every day Anna asks me where we are going. True to form, she whipped out a design in 10 seconds and was ready for paint. She had lots of fun with the paint...brushing....mixing colors...getting it all over her hands. I stopped her after three designs because I just couldn't keep up with everybody's needs.

We saw a preview of the project for next month and it is pretty cool. I think Aliza and Josiah will be more excited to go next time. And Jeremy gets to take them! =)