Art News at The Studio 2025 term 2

Welcome to the second arty news from The Studio with Caren. 

I would like to welcome all the new parents and children /teens to art class. It is always a joy to share my enthusiasm for art with new people. 

This term we have been enjoying work from all sorts of spaces and themes. For the majority of the classes, we have been thinking deeply about the idea of symbols in art. We talked at length about signs and emojis and how pictures can hold place for meaning. It is the same for symbols in art. Recently, I have visited The National Gallery's Sue Williamson Retrospective exhibition. More on this latter. 

Sue's work has used chairs in many places and exhibitions. For her, the chair represents loss and  grief , in the case of " The Last Supper" - the story of forced removals in District Six . In the case of " A Chair for Ray Alexander", the chair represents relationship and listening. Holding spaces for conversation. 

Many artists use chairs in their work as symbols of many things. Van Gogh painted chairs as representations of self and of his friend Gaugin , both artists. He juxtaposes the chair as representations of each artist, as if they are having a conversation with one another. David Hockney paints chairs in many of his works. The one we looked at uses the empty chair as a representation of holding space and missing a person. All these ideas came from the children with very little prompting from me. Very young children in my art class were able to land on very big ideas such as loss, grief and loneliness. I was remined again on the immense power of the visual image. 

Needless to say, we have spent much of this term creating chairs in art. Some of the artworks below, are examples of these. Please note: I do not choose any works here based on any specific criteria. They are randomly chosen. Please know we are going to have our annual exhibition in time and all these amazing works will be on exhibit. 

I will be attaching an invitation to my holiday art classes. Please take note of the art gallery visits. There are 2 dates available. The visits will be to the National Gallery in town. 

There are 2 exceptional exhibitions on at the moment. Each outing will focus on one exhibition. 

Day 1- Motherhood exhibition

Day 2- Sue Williamson Retrospective ( suitable for children aged grade 4 upwards)

Not all the art you see here comes from my weekly classes. The one above( incomplete) and the paper flower below, are examples from my family art classes. If you are interested  doing a one off morning with your family, please do book a spot. 

This very sweet hot air balloon story art comes from  the  family homeschool class I run each Monday morning. It is a delightful space where moms and their children share an art morning together. This story art comes from a game we played. Musical art. Just imagine!

On a Wednesday afternoon I run a class for younger children. Young children process and explore art ideas in different ways. Having these 5 year old's in a class together affords us all time to slow down or speed up where we need to. We also explored the chairs as a symbol in art theme and their charcoal drawings were delightful. Please do feel free to invite any children who might want to join this sweet and exploring class.  

The teenage class takes place on Friday afternoons. Often tired teenagers stumble in ready to think all things art. Ths class is a beautiful mix of many different aged teenage from many different spaces. Some are homeschooled with others are in traditional school spaces. We have been thinking about and playing around with Abstract art all year. Abstract art and abstracting are interesting ideas to wrap our heads around. Together we built up each week by have some exploring collective sessions until the group was ready and armed with tools to launch into a self designed Abstract piece or two. They were able to use any medium.  This has rolled into thinking about masks through the lens of abstract art. Some amazing ideas and creations are emerging. 

In all my classes I aim to introduce the children to artist from around the world and particularly in South Africa. As an artist, I know that my work is fed and built by enjoying the work that other artist exhibit. Cape Town as many opportunities to enjoy art. Many are free. 

First Thursdays is an opportunity to gather some friends and enjoy time out either in Cape Town or in spaces such as Kalk Bay and Muizenberg. I recently visited a First Thursdays event in Mitchels Plain which was dynamic and encouraging. 

The Norval has a beautiful exhibition by artist Billie Zagewa. This art exhibition is a gentle way to introduce young children to art. Billie creates the most delicious artwork out of silk and thread. Please do visit this soon. 

Lastly, spaces like Kirstenbosch continue to be wonderful places for children and families to enjoy a quick browse of some worthy artworks. 

I count myself deeply fortunate to be involved with teenagers from disadvantaged legacy spaces in our city. If anyone is interested in supporting the work f these NGO's , lease do not hesitate to get in touch. 

Lastly, our city is bathed in creativity. Keep you eyes open for murals such as this delightful bird painted on a wall in Observatory. Share you finds with your children and with us too. I would love to have new art finds. 

I look forward to hearing all about your finds and exhibition visits too. 

Art News at The Studio 2025 term 1

Welcome to art with Caren at The Studio 2025. 

It is a great joy and privilege to share art with your children and indeed with you too. 

This term we have launched with a term project. We have been thinking about coral reefs. 

We began the term with drawing. I like to start with a pencil drawing because drawing is the foundation of all art and it is the space and place that most children feel most comfortable. The observational drawings of shells were delightful. 

We have spent most of this term constructing our beautiful coral reef works of art. We began with creating process artworks with bilateral drawing. These became the papers which we made the coral reefs with. These were placed onto our very watery backgrounds. Beautiful to say the least. 

Below is a wonderful expression of the bilateral drawing process artwork. 

Bilateral drawing is drawing with both hands at once and it is wonderous way to de stress. Try it for yourself!

Our family homeschool class embarked on creating these beautiful giant fish. I absolutely love these so much. From the youngest to the oldest, the careful layering and detailed expression of these rainbow fish were such a delight for me to enjoy. 

 Did anyone get to The Investec Art Fair? What did you think. Below is one of the many artworks on exhibit over the 3 days. 

 

Please be aware of these workshops happening. Book a spot. 

Below is an example of the work the teen class is doing. We are thinking about abstract art. Abstracting is a difficult concept and the teen class was very honest when I introduced this theme. Some of them expressed their dislike for abstract art and I totally get this. Abstract art is difficult to understand and more difficult to create.  I set myself the task of changing minds . 

We have spent the term looking at different abstract artists and creating little versions of artworks that spring from these ideas. Ultimately, the teens will come up with there own abstract artwork. Watch this space. 

 Finally I would like to recommend a beautiful art exhibition that has just opened at The Norval Foundation. Billie Zengwa is a fabric silk artist. her work is beautiful. Her colours are calming. You will all enjoy this exhibition. 

Art At The Sudio Newsletter-3

Teaching art is a great joy. I invite you to join with me on Saturday the 2nd of  November from 2-5, as we enjoy the work that your children have worked on. 

Children and art 

 Many people seem tothink that primary school children are not creating authentic art. I would like to change this narrative. From  the earliest age, a child will grasp anything and as soon as they are able to make a mark with this on a piece of paper, they will.  Children are born to explore, to see the world with fresh sight and to notice everything, no matter how small and mundane. Art is about ways of seeing and children come to the artistic process with an abundance of these present. Seldom, will a child struggle to enter into the art process. I have experienced the great joy of children of all ages , places and schooling types or philosophies, embrace the act of seeing, creating and enjoying art. 

The art we practice at The Studio, is a classical observational art. At the heart of much of what we do is helping or allowing children to use their ways of seeing and exploring while creating. I try very hard NOT to interfere with this process but rather guide them through it. 

I aslo try to balance the term with some imaginary or intuitive work as well as intriducing a variety of artists from around the world as well as South Africa. 

This term we learnt about Paul Cezane with a focus on his still life work. We experienced clay, as well as stenciling and some process art work. I find process art extremely interesting. All children,no matter their age, emerce themselves in the process of printing with simple, everyday objects to create patterns. It was particularly satisfying to see these children, this year, spend a great deal of time hidden and emerced in this process. 

 

Teen art

On Friday afternoon I run a teen art class. Please do join it if you are leaving for high school at the end of the year. This class started with one and then two committed artists and now has grown to a good size and a beautiful, funny group. In this group, they have greater freedom to explore and express. The theme for the two terms has been portraits. We learnt a great deal about what portrait art is and some of the history while looking at different artists along the way. The body of work is varied and wonderfully wacky. Please do spend time enjoying these young artists work too. 

Family art

I have two family art groups where parents AND children create art alongside one another. This is a beautiful and carefree relaxed space for everyone to create and enjoy time  together. We have enjoyed making art from the storybook , "The Dot" as a sourse of inspiration as well as looking at artist Imi Knoebel. These art classes intersect with the themes from the general classes aswell. 

Homeschool art

On a Tuesday at 1:30, I have a delightful group of homeschooled children who dash into art and throw themselves into the art project.

Personal work

Many of you will know that I am involved with art on a Tuesday morning with a group of young people in Mictchells Plain. Many young people in our city and indeed in our coultry have no access to  the arts in the way that schools in ;eafy suburbs offer. This is the legacy we live with as a country. I am privileged to share something of art with these wonderful young people and in return, they teach and share so much of life , with me. 

Twice a year, I also have the great joy of running two art workshopd with grade 10 girls from an NGO programme called ISEEU. The theme is finding your voice and we spend the morningooking at the history of resistence and protest art in South Africa and then explore what issues could be expressed in the artwork they make. This is one of the highlights of my year. 

Finally, I am pleased to announce my first exhibition of my own artwork to be held with fellow artist and friend, Mareliza Kirschbaum. Please see the invitation below and do pop in for a coffee and chat. 

I look forward to sharing all our art with you in November. 

Thank you for the joy of shring time and art with your child. 

The Studio art exhibition will take place on November 2nd from 2 to 5.

Please bring a plate of eats to share. 

I do not want to share the artworks in THIS newsletter so as to keep all the beautiful work, a surprise. 

Dates to diarise. 

Art at the Studio - Newsletter 2- 2024

Esther Mahlangu, South African artist, born in 1935 is the artist we focused on this term. Her work is a visual art flourishing and delight of the cultural patterns and desins of the Ndebele people on their homes. She is known around the world for her canvas versions of the walls she grew up with and still inhabits at the beautiful age of 88. 

We began with looking at pattern and the ways we can create pattern using the elements of art. There are 7 elements of art which are very much like the ingredients of a recipe. 

Line

shape - Flat

colour

value - shading in tones

texture

space

form - 3 D

We began by creating patterns of interest and then recreating pattern onto our boards

The idea to build ontop of our pattern boards, creating 3D structures using line made out of paper helped us to think about art in a differnt way on on different levels. 

Homeschool art groups offer a creative and artists space to explore and create and share time with friends. This beautiful , board, pattern project flowed naturally into learning something of Ester Mahlangu and Ndebeble artworks. These are the patterns created by children and include these bold and contrasting frames. 

What do we do with colourful paper we have created? 

The Studio Newsletter 2024

Welcome back to art with Caren at The Studio for 2024.

Here is what we have been up to so far. 

We began the year with beautiful nature drawings of seed pods,  cones , seeds and the like. Children often really enjoy a pencil drawing experience and these are no exception.  

What pencil to use for drawing? 

Find any good quality B pencil - 3/4/5/6/8 will do. A good quality sharpener and eraser is also helpful in the drawing process. 

The art we engage in at The Studio is traditional , observational artworks as a starting point. Much like gathering information for any work, even works of imagination, we gather and use resourses to create artwork. Very young children have excpetional observational skills and create wonderous works. As do older children and adults , however the older we get the more  self critical we tend to become. 

This term we have focused on self-portraits. 

We learnt abut the proportions of a face. 

Where do we put our eyes? 

Where does the nose turn around at the end? 

What abou the position of ears? 

and then, there is the mouth? 

For the background or negetive space, we looked at  North American artist, Kehinde Wiley. This well know artist was asked to paint the portrait of Borack Obama. he has turned the way portraits represent people today, right on its head. :)

Link to his work. https://zeitzmocaa.museum/artists/kehinde-wiley/

Kehinde Wiley paints orate, highly decorative backgrounds full of nature including meaningful and thoughtfully chosen flowers. 

We hope to finsih of the term with these amazing self reflective works. 

Adult Class- Thursday morning

This year we started off adult art class with all things giant. Each artist is working on their own work of art and idea. The way I like to work with adults is to provide a project idea and then let the artists fly. Some or working on enormouse flower works while some do works in watercolours and chalk pastels.

 Follow Art at The Studio on social media. This year I am focusing on encouraging us all to draw every day. Spending 10-15 minutes every day creating art will change your perspective and really improve your art skills. 

Art at The Studio has 2 family art sessions. This work below is from one of the art sessions. The idea is that children and their parents enjoy an art session together, while working on the same project. It creates a space for beautiful conversation and sharing. 

Art in Cape Town

This year we have enjoyed The Cape Town Art Fair once again. Each year this exhibition is held in the CTICC and is a real celebration of many South African and African artists. 

Highlighting - Esther Mhlangu

 Dr. Esther Mhlangu is a national treasure of South Africa. 98 year old Esther has an exhibition on at The National Gallery. Her familiar and beautiful Ndebele art pattern works can be enjoyed by the whole family. I don't know about you, but I long to be creating in my 90's. 

Art with teens

Art at The Studio works with teens. On Friday afternnon we have our wonderful teen art class. T Shirt painting is the order fof the day to begin the year of 2024. 

We are learning all about how paint works on strtchy fabric. The works are not yeat completed. lookout for them next term in the newsletter 2. 

I work with teens in Mitchels Plain too. These beautiful teens are also creting T shirt art and this is a safe and relaxing place to express and explore.