Carlsbad Art Farm Summer Camp Enrollment Update

Greetings Campers!

Enrollment for weekly summer day camps starting June 15 and continuing through Aug. 14 is in full swing.

The only requirement to attend is that students be entering 2nd grade through 8th grade staring in fall 2009.

Art Farm is located on 10 rural acres just minutes away from The Village of Carlsbad and the I-5 freeway. We teach children how to draw, paint, otherwise make art through direct observation of live animals and the surrounding natural landscape.

Above right is one of our featured models from last year's summer camp. Other animal models included mules, horses, roosters and chickens, goats, dogs, and baby doll lambs. This summer we have added two young alpacas to the line-up.

We are getting many inquiries at our website asking about available sessions or if we are still enrolling. The answer is most sessions still have some available spots. We are still enrolling but starting now sessions start filling quickly. We do continue to take enrollments through the summer camp season if space is available. Enrollment information and forms are available for download at our website under the Camp Tab.

So what makes Carlsbad Art Farm different? Art Farm campers take a step back to in time to a place where the talents of young artists are treated seriously and nature serves as their inspiration. They cross our wooden bridge and leave behind cityscapes, stoplights, and pavement for a setting that looks much as Carlsbad did back in the early 1960s – when the director’s family first purchased and set out to preserve the property.

At Art Farm, campers work in small groups organized by age and led by artists who guide them in authentic art techniques, all while working in outdoor studios and interacting with animals. Our instructors are supported by aides and, together, they ensure that each student has their full attention every day. At the end of the week, campers leave with new skills that they can use long after they leave Art Farm – or which inspire them to return for more sessions.

At the end of their week, even campers who thought they couldn’t “do” art learn that visual expression is within their reach, and is fun!

Teaching art is our mission, but Art Farm embraces much more. Aides and teachers are engaging and kid friendly. We allow plenty of time to horse around with old friends, make new friends, greet animals, hunt for chicken eggs, and to simply run around. Kids get to be kids and enjoy the pleasures of country living. We're pretty certain that there isn't another art camp comparable to Art Farm in all of San Diego County.

We only have so many space available, so don't get left standing in the barn! Enroll today and join the fun.

Sketching in Nature Blog

Sketching in Nature is an international network of artists from all over the world "working from the best teacher there is -- nature!

This is a wonderful blog with links to other blogs by nature artists who keep detailed field journals of their observations. The blog lists artists by name and by subject matter. For example, this is a field note page concerning a piliated wood pecker posted by Artist Cathy Johnson in Missouri. Artists use their field journals to keep verbal and visual notes of their subject to be used in later drawings, paintings, sculpture or whatever medium they work in.

Think of it as a visual diary. In this sample, for example, Johnson has sketched the head of a female piliated wood pecker that is paired with written notations about the length of its beak, its coloring, etc.

Young artists should be encouraged to keep field journals the way young writers might keep a journal of their daily lives and ponderings.

A sampling of subjects listed at Sketching in Nature includes: botanical art, bald eagles, acorns, Australia, Italy, mushrooms, fossils, bugs, and skies. This is by no means an exhaustive list. To check out Sketching in Nature follow this link.Then go out and get yourself a pocket-sized sketch book and start sketching!

Alpacas Have Arrived at Art Farm

Alpacas have arrived at Carlsbad Art Farm just in time for the summer camp season. They are pictured here with my daughter, Emerson. They are unbelievably cute, like giant stuffed animals. The lighter colored alpaca is six months old. His name is Harry Potter because he has a zig-zagging spot of color on his forehead. The brown alpaca is one-year old. His name is Mr. Weasley.

The natural habitat of an alpaca is the high Andes of South America, but since 1984 they have flourished on farms throughout the United States. They are shorn twice a year. Alpaca hair is very fine and silky, and unlike wool it doesn't itch.

These are huacaya alpacas, which are known for their fine fiber and wooly coats. (There are also suri alpacas with tightly-wound fiber that looks like dreadlocks). A baby alpaca (birth to five months) is called a "cria". Harry Potter will be a "weanling" until his first birthday. Mr. Weasley will be a "yearling" until his second birthday.

Adult alpacas live up to 25 years. Their average height is 36-inches at the whithers. They can weight up to 175 pounds. Alpacas are camelids and are related to llamas and camels. They are much smaller than llamas and are a distinct breed apart. Alpacas are believed to be descended from vicunas, a wild camelid from South America.

Our alpacas will be serving as models for young artists coming to Carlsbad Art Farm this summer. And to answer a question that keeps coming up: No, Alpacas don't spit at people.

Why I Miss Chalkboards in the Smartboard Era

This is a still from a new "chalk animated" music video directed by Australians Lucinda Schreiber and Yanni Kronenberg. The video illustrates "Autumn Story" from The Bowery, the debut album of the Australian indie band Firekites.

To create the video, which took about six months, Schreiber and Kornenberg drew nearly 2000 images on a series of blackboards. As you watch the video, simple line drawings of humans, birds, fish, and more keep morphing into new images as they magically leap from one chalk board to the next, leaving behind ghosts of their own partially erased images. As the video ends, the camera draws away from the images to reveal a small circle of mismatched blackboards in an ordinary little room.

As mentioned in previous posts, a Smartboard is a wonderful teaching tool. But this video makes a case for blackboards and messy chalk in the classroom, or perhaps along a school yard wall. The janitors may not like the dust, but I remember how much I liked drawing on big blackboards as a kid. They just called out to me to pick up some chalk and make art. Smartboards really don't.

To see "Autumn Story" follow this link:


irekites - AUTUMN STORY - Chalk animated music video directed by Lucinda Schreiber and Yanni Kronenberg.

Cats: Learning to Draw from Life and By Example

If you are a young artist with a cat in the house your in luck. Cats make great models! They have lovely curves and, unlike many other animals, they nap frequently. The naps give you time to draw without the animal changing position.

In fact, cats make such great models that they have served as artists' Muses for as long as their have been domestic cats and artists.

A great way to learn how to draw a cat is to study and copy drawings made by other artists. French graphic artist Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923) is particularly noted for his cat drawings. Pictured here are two Steinlen sketches of napping cats on toned paper, one done in charcoal and the second in pencil. Notice the lovely line quality of the drawings. Also notice how he suggests features with simple marks of the pencil, such as the eyes and noses, and uses squiggly marks to render volume and shade. With the charcoal drawing, pay attention to how he uses values (areas of dark to light) to draw the cats as well as the texture and direction of his lines. To see more Steinlen cats, visit the Steinlen website .

Also recommended is "Steinlen Cats", a publication of the Dover Art Library, available for $5.95 through Amazon.com or BarnesNobel.com. If you really study these cat drawings and try to duplicate them (make sure to get a good quality charcoal paper if you work in that medium, and try it on toned paper such as the warm tan color Steinlen uses here) you can't help but improve.

And again, if you have access to a live cat, so much the better. Study Steinlen, and then work from the live model. In time and with practice, something will click. Suddenly your hand will seem to know what to do almost before you have even thought about it, and when that moment comes it will feel like magic.