Art Farm Camp Students Show Off Their Work

These session three campers display paintings completed on the last day of camp last week (click image for a larger view). During the week, students learn to sketch animals; color mix using a limited pallet; how to block in their subject for a painting; a little about animal anatomy, and then use the colors they create on their own pallet to render their subject (in this case: a bunny, chickens and a mouse on a wheel). These students will be entering Grade 4 this fall. First row center is Emerson Coman, who will be starting Grade 6 this fall, and whose mother, Perrin, owns and directs Art Farm. Directly behind Emerson is Kris Finch, who teaches painting at Art Farm.

For more on camp life, read previous recent posts on this blog and visit our website. Art Farm has several sessions still open for enrollment (see previous post) and our Saturday morning art class continues through the summer and year-round. Adults interested in taking classes this coming fall at Art Farm should email the director at CarlsbadArtFarm.com. Please indicate your level of experience and what type of classes you are interested in taking. Also, please type "Art Farm Classes" in the subject line so we don't delete your message as potential spam.

All registration forms for camp are available on our website under the "Camp" tab. When sessions fill, we post that information on our blog immediately. For more information, contact the director at www.CarlsbadArtFarm.com or call 760-688-6147.

Close Encounters of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Kind

Pictured here is a 3-Day-old Olde English Miniature Babydoll Southdown sheep bred at Sugarsweet Farm in Olivenhein. This little fella visited our art students at Art Farm on Saturday, where he followed them around as best he could, given that he's still learning to work those legs. He was beyond cute.

Babydolls are a miniature breed with sweet temperaments and faces that look like they are always smiling. They are hardy and make great little lawnmowers. Hobby farmers like them because they handily keep the weeds down without being tall enough to strip leaves and low-hanging fruit out of trees.

A reminder that Art Farm will be participating at Kid's Day at the Flower Fields on March 27, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is a free event. Art Farm will have a booth with an art project, as well as registration forms for summer camp and other information about Art Farm. We will also have a raffle. The winner wins a certificate good for a one-week session at Carlsbad Art Farm Summer Camp. Tickets are $1. We hope to see you there!

Registration for Summer Camp is now open. For information and registration forms, visit our website. For our latest postings and information about classes, seminars, camps, Open House events and other Art Farm news, we recommend subscribing to this blog as a follower.

For Whom the Carlsbad Art Farm Bell Tolls

We have just completed Session Two at Carlsbad Art Farm. Pictured here are campers and staff under the school bell (originally from my husband's family farm in Michigan). Click on image to enlarge.

It was a great week! Students kept busy making and filling nature journals, making animal soap, learning acyclic, charcoal, and pen-and-ink watercolor techniques.

They observed nature and animals, which they used to create art. Some guest models this week included "Lizzy" an extra jumbo-sized San Diego Alligator lizard and Molasses, a species of endangered dessert tortoise.

Picasso, our miniature mule, posed handsomely. Kandinsky, our $20 rescue goat, was, as usual, a delightful goofball (she ate my demonstration drawing, much to the amusement of my students). Our alpacas, Harry Potter and Mr. Weasely, allowed their fuzzy necks to be hugged as they were led about on leashes. Hilda, the camp dog, kept kids entertained as she continues to dig her ever-growing tunnel beneath a fallen tree stump. We're not sure where she's going.

Then there are the free-range chickens that wander through camp looking for bugs and worms. Students enjoy finding their eggs. Big favorites are Maude, Feathers, Patriot, and Egg Nog.

Our weekly Friday All Camp BBQ in the woods, to which we invite family, siblings and friends, was a big success. We cooked 65 giant hotdogs, 18 veggie burgers, and 80 ears of corn. Campers helped with the setting of tables. Parents had a chance to hangout at the campsite where they could admire their children's art and simply enjoy the beautiful setting.

Camps continue all summer into mid-August. All information is available online at our website under the "Camp" tab. Scroll to the bottom to find enrollment and other required forms. The enrollment form includes session dates. For mid-season session availability, email the director Perrin Weston (that would be me) at director@carlsbadartfarm.com.

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.

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.

Alpacas Coming To Carlsbad Art Farm

Carlsbad Art Farm Summer Camp is all about learning how to draw and paint and otherwise make art rendered from life. At Art Farm, students work in outdoor studios surrounded by 10-acres of rustic, woodsy land where they learn how to draw animals from live models. Last summer our students met Picasso the miniature mule and Kandinsky the goat, plus a host of other visiting animals: horses, burros, baby doll lambs, dogs, and more (but no swine, in case anyone is worried about that).

New this summer are two young Alpacas. They are arriving in May and will be ready to model for students coming to Carlsbad Art Farm Summer Camp starting June 15. These alpacas (photo by Mehgan Murphy) were photographed at the Smithsonian National Zoo in January. As soon as we get pictures of our alpacas I will post them (I neglected to bring my camera when I traveled to California Criations in Temecula to purchase them, but these two look very similar). One alpaca is coming prenamed "Harry Potter" because he has coloring on his forehead that looks like the boy wizard's famous lightening bolt scar. The other has yet to be named, so if anyone has a name that sounds like a good fit for a brown alpaca then reply to this post.

Goat Art? Why Art Farm Summer Camp is Unique

Summer camps abound in San Diego County. Art camps, too. So what's so unique about Carlsbad Art Farm?

Art Farm is a place where kids come to learn how to paint, draw, and otherwise make art from live animal models in outdoor studio classrooms nestled on a beautiful, wooded 10-acre coastal property.

At Art Farm students take a step back to a time and place where the emerging 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.

Kandinsky the Art Loving Goat (pictured above; she will eat your art work if you letter her get too close!), Picasso the mini-mule, Hilda the Soccer Dog, Maude the Mystery Chicken, and all our other animal models at Art farm loved meeting the many students who came to camp last summer and they look forward to seeing some new faces this summer

To see more of Art Farm and to download enrollment forms, follow this link.