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 Times at The Studio 4

Thank you

for joining us in sharing some of our art news for the last term of Art with The Studio. 

Here are some of the amazing works of art from term 3 and 4 . 

The children come from many different communities and range from four to 16 years of age. 

These beautiful patterns below grew out of our discussion of Basotho Blankets.  

Below are 

some of the works of art from the family art group. 

 

Welcome to the 4th art news for this year. This has been a beatiful year of Art at The Studio and I will share some of the highlights with you all. 

I will begin with our annual art exhibition. 

This October, despite the wind that Cape Town often offers up, we shared some gfreat snacks and enjoyed our works of art. Below are some of the works from the day. 

One of the things I love about children's art exhibition, is that we get to share  the works we have created with one another. Someone said something to me resently which made me feel quite sad. " This is only childrens art". while I understand why the person said this, I felt that this parent had missed something of the profoundity of a child drawing or painting what I term , " real art". This is not craft , although sometimes there is an element of craft, but what I offer for art is a real, athentic space for children to begin the journey of observational art learning inclusing some theory and art history. This space is the very beginning or a journey where art engages with life. 

Our art exhibition shares osmething of this philosophy. Anyone and everyone can be an artist. 

During the October break, my family and I traveled to the town of Nieu Bethesda in The Karroo, near Graaf Reinett. The main purpose of this family holiday, was to visit the famous Helen Martin's Owl House. The Owl House is the centre of the community of Nieu Bethesda and has more fet through its small doors than our National Gallery. People travel from all over the world to witness the beautiful work of Helen, Koos Malgas and The Owl House. 

It did not disappoint. 

Here are a few of my photographs. 

 I have shared two photos that capture bothe the light and the love of The Owl House. It was a truly mystical and grateful experience. 

I would like to share a little about the making of the delightful bird sculptures from the exhibition. These artworks grew out of our exploration of The Owl House and the work of Helen and Koos. They were indeed a personal labour of love and patience and each child gave of their all to create these wonders. 

Art during the holidays - What can you do this holiday? 

There are so many wonderful art exhibitions and spaces in all of our cities in South Africa. From a small town like Nieu Bethesda to any of our large cities, many artists share their work. A few weekends ago Kirstenhof held their very first community market where many people exhibited their works. - as an example. 

The Norval in Tokai is always a must for a visit. The garden with all the sculptures by well known artists is a firm favourite. Take a small snack and enjoy this space with many shady trees. Maggie Laubser is still on show with her mesmerizing portraits and a lovley timeline of work on exhibit. 

Zeitz at The Waterfront is free for SA citizens on Wednesday mornings.There is an amazing exhibition of political resistance art from South Africa and many other parts of the world. It is extremely powerful. Not for children under the age of  12/13.

Galleries are also a wonderful space to pop into. The big galleries like Southern Guild, Blanc, A4 and Goodman etc are place on e can visit for free. Just check the internet for details. 

The National Gallery - this is a firm favourite of mine. It holds a beautiful collection of South African artists as well as artists from the world. The childrens gallery is bright , welcomming, with paintings at a lower level and bean bags to lie on. 

I end on this note. Thank you. Thank you for sharing in the exhibition . Thank you for encouraging your children in their artist journey.  To all those grade 7 children who begin a new year at a new school, go for it. Make new friends and keep on drawing. A reminder I have an art class for teens on a Friday afternoon. 

Have a peaceful, restful holiday time . I look forward to spending time with my family, new "family" and my 82 year old mom who is visiting us from Johannesburg. 

I look forward to see you next year. 

in art

Caren

Art Times at The Studio - 3

Good morning artist parents and guardians. This is our 3rd newsletter and the trickiest ne to write because I will need to be as secretive as I can about the art we have been creating for the exhibition. 

You will not be disappointed. 

As you may know by know, I have several different art classes including adult, teen, homeschool, family art groups, outreach work as well as the weekly general art classes for your children. These are all beautiful spaces where a mirriad of artworks are being workd on. 

In addition to these, I try and offer an art outing to an exhibition once a term and the above photo is an example of the adult group visitng the Zeitz Mocca art gallery in Cape Town to see the , "When We See Us" exhibition. Some of our children also visited this ehibition during the july holidays. It is an extrodinary exhibit of black artists work from the diaspora and I highly recommend a visit. Wednesday mornings are free for SA citizens. 

 

 

Surrealism is a genre of art that developed in the shadow of WW 1,as a response to the horrors of war. This art form wanted to express the ideas that are hidden in our dreams and sub conscious and key artists are people like Spanish Dali , French Rene Margritte and Max Ernst .

https://www.artlex.com/art-movements/surrealism/artwork/

These holiday and homeschool artworks which take an animal and then create something wonderful with them are along the ideas of this surrealist movment. 

Above is a little hint of what we have been building throughout this term. No more :)

Above is a beautiful frame made during one of our family art sessions. You are so welcome to book a slot and bring your family to share in art. 

On Tuesday mornings I visit a school in Mitchels Plain to do art with a small group of teens. We are exploring Surrealism too by creating collages which we will paint. 

Adults jind me for a morning of design and free work. This person took an old jacket and created this beautiful work reflecting HOPE. 

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If you are wanting to develope more of a purposeful art practice, then do follow The Studio on social media for idea and prompts. 

Below is a beautiful work done by a student this term. Most students have been able to manage 3 projects , which have all been on the go at the same time. Awesome. 

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Painting these wonderful creations is the very last part of this huge project. I am so proud of each child. 

Thank you for this opportunity to share art with all of your children as well as the adults who join and the families who have joined too. It is such a joy for me. 

Artist exploration - This term we have learnt about South African artist, Helen martins and her 'Owl House". Helen was born in 1897 and diesd in 1976. She lived most of her life in the little town of Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo of South Africa. She was quite and interesting person who , along with her hellow artist and helper, Koos Malgas built the wonders in her garden which can be visited today. 

https://www.graaffreinet.co.za/listing/owl_house_nieu_bethesda

This holiday, I am going to visit The Owl House with my family. I am extremely excited as this has been a life wish for me. I will let you know how this journey goes. 

Exhibition - please diariase the date of 28th October in the afternoon which will be our annual art exhibition. 

Yours, in art Caren

Please do not hestiate to contact Caren.Falconer - art@carensartstudio.co.za

Art Times at The Studio

News at The Studio - First Edition

 

Welcome to the very first news editin of art with Caren at The Studio. In this news broadcast, I would like share some of my thought on art as well as some of the work we have enjoyed this term. I have selected random pieces of work as a visual taste of our work. 

This has been a delightful start to the year as we began with our paper curling creations and then moved on to a pencil representation of these curls and twirls. It always amazes me what children can create. We always us a B pencil and a 5 or 6 B are the better ones for creating a range of darks and lights. During art classes , I like to introduce the children to art ideas and terms. VALUE is one of the elemnets of art and it refers to the shading of light and dark. 

In our art classes we ofte use visual objects or pictures as tools to create our work. If I asked you to draw a flower - one kind of picture would emerge , however if we talked about and looked at flowers and THEN you drew a flower - a very different flower would be created. I have become aware of some art classes, both children and adult, where the teacher or facilitator "fixes" the artists work for them. This is not the way I work because it is not my personal art philosophy. I will guide and point and show so that they child may practice. I hold to the truth that art is about problem solving and more than that , that we all learn when we have to struggle with the problem. 

 I have started a younger class in which we create and mess . This term we learnt a little about Picasso and his CUBISM phase and we created Crazy Faces out of cardboard. 

 https://youtu.be/FdbLYNfolDE

Jim Dine is a North  American  Pop Artist. Here is a link to some of his work. We learnt about him in our younger class and created heart, Jim Dine paper bag works. I wanted the children to think through Art being painted on many different surfaces, including paper bags. 

Sometimes in art, we embrk on some impromptu works. These deightful shelf works were an example of these. These children selected pictures of objects from magazines to place on a shelf or , in some cases, two shelves. Then they drew and painted these deightful drawings with watercolour paint. 

Art at The Studio has an Instagram page and a Facebook page. I share someof the videos we watch as well as interesting art from around the world. I also share a daily art journal prompt , such as the one below - the box of matches. I walk the artist through the drawing activity for the day. Practicing drawing is like any other skill - it takes time. 

Observational drawing is the heart f my art classes. EVERYONE is an artist and with some guidance and encouragement can create something unique and worthy. The younger art class had an opportunity to draw from nature. These are absolutley wonderous. 

I run a flourishing adult art class on Thursday mornings and offer one of art workshops for anyone interested. Below is an example of our wooden artwork project. We were inspired by Sou African Artist Hugh Byrne and his work at The Investec Art Exhibition 2023.

In both adult and children's classes alike, I love to share some activities that stretch the mind. Below is one such ctivity. We drew the scrunched up paper with long sticks( pencils at the end) . How can you show all the bends of the paper? Are you able to shade?  These activities "force" our brains to work in different ways and really create opportunities for us to see the world in new ways. 

This project below was based of long discussions and thinking about Architecture and in particular we looked at different buildings from around the world. These we truly beautiful reflections from these lessons. 

I run a once a month homeschool workshop morning. This term we have begun to make cardboard shoes. We looked at the history of the takkie and we had real takkies to work from. Then these brave and persistent children began this labour of love. I am so proud of them for pressing on. It was trick and tough going. We hope to finish these and spray paint them.

Yesterday , the younger group spent time thinking about different kinds of houses and we then began to draw - "our home" . It was interesting to me how they solved the problem of representing items in the house from both a face on and birds eye view. 

As this term draws to an end, I want to share some of the artists we thought about throughout this term. 

Frank Lloyd Wright - Architect

Frank Stella - North American Artist - 1936

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgaPuHDV8v0

Picasso

Jim Dine - North American. 

During this hliday, I am taing a small group of young artists to The National Gallery. I highly recommend this as a place to visit. The National Gallery has recently revampt itself . The walss are full of scrumptuous South African works as well as works from other countries. Last year we learned about Russian artist Kandinsky. See if you can spot his work hanging in the main hall. 

There is a beautiful Frank Stella work hiding among the works too. Can you find it? 

There is a dedicated childrens gallery where paintings are hung at a lower lever for smaller viewers. 

Please do not hesitate to ask questions about what we do at art and I do hope you have enjoyed this term with your children's work.