Summer Activities to Nurture a Young Artist

When children are young, creating art is encouraged with abundant crayons, paper and praise. But as young children grow older, too often artistic activities are neglected in favor of academic projects. A career as an artist depends on many things, one being a nurturing environment to create art. Here are three activities you can do with your child this summer to create art and encourage creativity and expression.

3 Summer Kid's Projects to Develop Artistic Creativity

1.  Museum scavenger hunt: Take a field trip to your local art museum and hand your child a list of works or artists to find. Provide age-appropriate tips and tidbits as clues to find the artwork. For a pre-teen with a cell-phone try a clue like:

this pop artist is famous for his painting of a Campbell's soup can

2. Set up an easel in a park: Kids are used to drawing at home or 

at school, drawing outside with an easel and pad is a totally different experience. Some children are easily distracted when asked to draw outside: a viewfinder to define the scene can be helpful.

Make your own viewfinder: a piece of 8x10 inch cardboard with a rectangle cut out as a window, about 3x4 inches. viewfinder instructions here

3. Draw a night scene: When children draw nature, they're 

typically encouraged to draw daytime scenes: flowers, sun, blue skies. Take advantage of the nice summer evening weather and (no morning school alarm) to draw night scenes, encouraging different colors and shading than daytime scenes.

For inspiration, discuss Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night.

I'd love to hear how you encourage art in children!

à la prochaine,

Shirley

How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz - New Children's Book

Jelly Roll Morton claimed to have invented jazz - and many fans agree! A jazz pianist and composer, Jelly Roll performed across the country, but New Orleans was home to Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe.

Jelly Roll's music incorporated minstrel, ragtime, the blues and Caribbean sounds to create the sound that became known as jazz, and later performed swing. His hit recordings include:

• King Porter Stomp
• New Orleans Blues
• Dead Man's Blues
• Original Jelly Roll Blues
• Black Bottom Stomp

A colorful and popular musician who started Jelly's Last Jam.

performing in brothels at 14 and gained fame in the 20s and 30s, Jelly Roll died at the age of 50 (or close to 50, as there are different years attributed to his birth). His story and music regained popularity in the 90's when Gregory Hines portrayed him in the Broadway musical

How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz  is a new biography and children's book by Jonah Winter and beautifully illustrated by Keith Mallett (release June 16, 2015) that brings together two naturals: music and art.

Children have an innate love for both music and art, and as an artist and jazz fan I'm excited to share this new book that introduces children to the sounds and colors of jazz.

As an admirer of Keith Mallett's art, I highly recommend this book to share with a special child in your life - and you'll like it too!

à la prochaine,

Shirley

Wild Noise Comes to New York City

Wild Noise: Artwork from The Bronx Museum of the Arts and El Museo Nacional des Bella Artes is a joint exhibition that features a visual arts exchange between the US and Cuba. Running from May 21 - August 16, 2015, Wild Noise is the most extensive visual arts exchange between the two countries in over 50 years. The exhibit includes:

• an artist exchange with US artist Mary Mattingly and Cuban artist Humberto Diaz
• a teen exchange program
• educational and public programs
• a dual language exhibit publication

The exhibit exchanges more than 100 art works from each country, and offers visitors to The Bronx Museum an opportunity to see contemporary Cuban artists who have long been hidden to US audiences due to political tensions between the two countries. 

Wild Noise is taken from a poem by Victor Hugo, Ma vie est déjà dans l'ombre des la mort.

click to see images from Wild Noise

For details on Wild Noise visit: The Bronx Museum of the Arts

I admire the work of Juan Antonio Picasso, a Cuban artist and distant relative of Pablo Picasso. The Havana artist enjoys being relatively unknown outside of Cuba, and his art expresses Afro-Cuban history and culture.

Blue by Juan Antonio Picasso

A 1999 Spanish documentary about The Black Picassos and his first exhibit in 2004 have put a spotlight on Juan Antonio Picasso, yet he is still able to work in his preferred anonymity.

à la prochaine,

Shirley

Petit Déjeuner in Bordeaux

After several months of travel and spending the winter months in Puerto Vallarta, I'm happy to have returned home again to Bordeaux, France. Getting back to my familiar routine as the spring weather arrives gives me a burst of creative energy and inspirations.

One of my favorite routines of our life in France is Saturday morning petit déjeuner at my local market, les Marchés des Capucins in Bordeaux. Extremely popular with both locals, who rely on it for fresh produce and meeting our neighbors, and tourists; this traditional marketplace is an ideal location to enjoy the tastes, scenery and sounds of French daily life. My favorites at the market include the fresh seafood (I adore the oysters), the breads, flowers and of course, the wines.

One of our favorite routines is to enjoy breakfast at les Capu. Here you see my Saturday morning petit déjeuner of café et croissants. Petit déjenuer is the French phrase for breakfast, and literally translates to 'little lunch'. Déjenuer means 'lunch', and jenuer translate to 'fast'. So the phrase petit déjeuner means a small meal to break your fast. A traditional French breakfast is coffee and bread, or for children hot chocolate.

Bon Appétit!

à la prochaine,

Shirley

Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Art Lovers Rejoice: 

the Metropolitan Museum of Art has FREE art books to download

Met Publications offers five decades of Met publications on art history, available to read, download and/or search for free. Launched in 2012, Met Publications continually adds to their collection of free online books.

Every year The Met produces stunning art catalogues to promote their exhibitions: but if you don't live in New York City, and can't continuously purchase the many wonderful art catalogues, that art goes unseen. Now, art catalogues as well as other art books that are out of publication and readily available to the public through The Met's free download program. Virtual museum tours are a wonderful opportunity for armchair travel to some of the world's outstanding museums, the Met's online art books allow you to continue your virtual art education.

Met Publications books can be read online, or downloaded as a PDF. Each available art book lists:

• book title
• author
• description
• year released
• book cover image

Some of the titles available for download are:

Christian Dior by Richard Martin and Harold Koda (1996)

La Belle Epoque by Philippe Julian and Diana Vreeland

Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Barbara Burn (2006)

Ancient Egyptian Jewelry by Ambrose Lansing (1940)

Note: The Met also has over 400,000 free art images online for you to download.

à la prochaine,

Shirley

Spring Street Art Comes to New York City

Gazing Globes by artist Paula Hayes

When spring weather arrives to cities hit hard  by the winter's cold and snow, outdoor art installations sprout over night. New York City is blooming with spring flowers and public art exhibits, rewarding locals and tourists after an unusually brutal winter.

Madison Square Park in downtown NYC is home to an exhibit by artist Paula Hayes, Gazing Globes. This is Hayes' first outdoor art sculpture, and consists of 18 illuminated orbs filled with recycled objects from modern urban life.

Reminiscent of Christmas ornaments or snowglobes,  the clear globes merge memories of the city's winter streets filled with snow, sleet and ice dotted with street trash. Artist Hayes used:

vintage parts because technology moves at such a fast pace.  These play a role in the current landscape and how information is transmitted from one part of the globe to the next. I am making an illuminated landscape evocative of the designed landscape of Madison Square Park. Both are born of human imagination and technology.

~ Paula Hayes, artist

Gazing Globes in Madison Square Park

Gazing Globes in Madison Square Park

I'm invigorated by the burst of beautiful spring weather and public art sprouting up in cities and towns everywhere. What street art has popped up in your neighborhood?

à la prochaine,

Shirley

7 Motivational Quotes by Artists

Writer's get writer's block.
Painter's get painter's block.
Artists get artist's block.

Sometime's my creativity is blocked, and even though I want to be at my easel, paintbrush in hand, I simply can't express myself. When I'm experiencing artist's block, sometimes all I need are some inspirational words to release my creative energies, and allow my hands to express what is in my soul. I have many favorite artists, and here are some of my favorite artist's quotes that inspire me to paint.

7 Artist's Quotes to Motivate Your Inner Artist

1.  I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for. ~ Georgia O'Keefe

2. If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

3. Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. ~ Claude Monet

4. The only I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration. ~ Frida Kahlo

5. You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~ Maya Angelou

6. Il ya des fleurs partous pour qui veut bien les voir. ~ Matisse (There are flowers everywhere for those who bother to look.

7. Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist. ~ Pablo Picasso

I'm on Twitter - @6636ophelia - and one of my favorite Tweeters is @GreatArtQuotes - here's their profile photo:

What quotes inspire your creativity? I'd love to know!

à la prochaine,

Shirley