Art Farm Preparing for Fall Line-Up of Classes

Art Farm's summer camp season 2010 came to a nice closing Aug. 15 with a great group of students. Thanks again to my wonderful staff: painting instructor Kris Finch; natural sciences instructor Jennifer Stowe; camp aides Emerson Coman, Max Giffen; AnneMarie Delfino; Erica Barrett, and Rachel Mehrberg. Thanks also to the San Diego Humane Society for bringing an array of animal ambassadors to share with students.

I enjoyed teaching introduction to charcoal teaching. At right is a fine drawing by Rose Wilkinson, age 11.

Molasses the Desert Tortoise Visits Art Farm

We get a number of interesting guest animals at Art Farm each summer. This week, Camp Aide Erica Barrett brought her 3-year-old desert Tortoise, Molasses, to visit with students in Science Lab class.

Molasses is an inspired name for a tortoise (you know, "slow as molasses . . ."), so I was surprised to see how fast this little guy (gal?) can scoot around. While Erica provided information about the care and feeding of a desert tortoise, Molasses made several laps around the table to check out the in-progress drawings students were sketching of him in their nature journals. Molasses mostly eats lettuce, and lots of it.

Later this week, Persephone, the flying squirrel, will be returning to Art Farm for another guest appearance.

Next week is the last camp for the summer season. There is still time to enroll. For more information, call 760-688-6147 or email us at director@CarlsbadArtFarm.com. Information about camp and printable forms are available at our website under the "Camp" tab.

One Last Chance for Summer Camp this Season

We are nearing the end of another great summer camp season at Art Farm with one more session to go starting next week on Aug. 9. There are still a few spaces left. To enroll visit our website, click on the camp tab, and scroll down to the bottom for enrollment forms. Or call 760-688-6147.

At right is a wonderful charcoal drawing of a baboon by Sarah Bauer, who is entering Grade 6 this fall. She attended camp last week.

Students in drawing class learn to use value (lights and darks) and look for shapes within the animal. This is different and much more sophisticated then simply drawing the contour of an object and then filling in the color. Charcoal is a wonderful medium for young students as it forces them to get away from hard-line drawing in favor of a style that has a more "painterly" feel. The smudginess combined with line drawing is what gives it life. Here the drawing is on a "toned" paper, meaning it has a color, in this case a sort of felt gray. The nice quality of the paper -- which grabs the charcoal and allows the paper texture to become an important element in the drawing -- also helps students be more successful.

Perhaps we'll see you this summer. If not, visit our blog often to see offerings during the school year for young students and adults. Currently, we offer our ongoing Saturday morning art class for students in Grades 2 through 8.