The Painting Workshop I designed and conducted is composed of eight (8) hands-on session module, 1 hour and a half per session, with 1 day for an art tour (I posted the Earth Day Tour earlier) and one extra day for those who missed some sessions and to finish some plates. The culminating exhibit was held for one day, May 10, at Architect Manosa's residence in Ayala Alabang where the sessions were also held.
The Workshop was both fun and challenging. With the feasibility ratio of 1:2 (1 facilitator per two students especially for beginners and participants in a mixed age group), I have to facilitate the session for 8 students with a regular of 5 to 6 kids per session (some students have to go on short vacation trips during the workshop period!)
Here are the highlights of the workshop:
First Session: Still Life on Canvas
The first session is an exercise on brush techniques and color theory. Children were asked to use only the basic primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and learn to blend colors to achieve secondary colors like green and neutrals like brown and tonal values. I included a little "art talk" on Realism with photo illustrations.And here some of the participants plates done in less than two hours!
Powee Celdran, age 10
Dipper Lachica, age 10
Kalina Yu, age 5
Iya Oracion, age 10On Exhibit!
Second Session: Landscapes on Canvas
This session focuses on space, distance, lights/highlights and tonal values and color blend with focus on secondary colors. Art Talk: Impressionism.
Kalina Yu, age 5
Paula Fermin, age 8
Iya Oracion, age 10The works on exhibit!
Third Session: Seascapes on Canvas
This session is an exercise on color blending on the fish, the deep water (blue, green, white blend), the sand, etc. Art Talk: Color Theory.
Powee Celdran, age 10
Paula Fermin, age 8
Sandro Manzano, age 10
Kalina Yu, age 5The children's works on exhibit!
Fourth Session: Sunrise/Sunset Abstract on Canvas
This session is an exercise for children to "abstract" their own version of dusk and dawn. They worked on colors, moods, shadows and forms. Art Talk: Abstract Expressionism.
Luis Leonio, age 10
Iya Oracion, age 10
Kalina Yu, age 5
Dipper Lachica, age 10
Powee Celdran, age 10On exhibit:
Fifth Session: Surreal Tree in Black and White on Board
This session now challenges the participants to paint their own surreal tree using only black and white paints. The result was simply fantastic. I really marveled at the children's creativity and effort to experiment on several tonal values of gray. Art Talk: Surrealism.
Kalina Yu, age 5
Joaquin Ermitano, age 9
Sandro Manzano, age 10
Powee Celdran, age 10
Iya Oracion, age 10
Dipper Lachica, age 10On Exhibit:
Sixth Session: Portraits
This session is an exercise on figurative works. I showed a portrait of my dog Sweepy when he was a puppy. For the session, I made the children paint their own figure and challenged them to paint the wooden frame too. This is an adventure on "faux finish" techniques (they love and know the value of Yellow Ochre by now!). Art Talk: Portraiture and Figurative works.
Joaquin Ermitano, age 9
Paula Fermin, age 8
Powee Celdran, age 10
Sandro Manzano, age 10
Iya Oracion, age 10On Exhibit:
Seventh Session: Mixed Media
This session introduces the children to mixed media works and challenges them to make a plate on recycling nature's trash, a fitting tribute to the program's annual theme of environment. My sample plate have my usual "trash" (yakult bottles, wires and clips, paper, etc.) painted, assembled and embellished to show that recyclables can be made beautiful and functional again.
Kalina Yu, age 5
Dipper Lachica, age 10I must commend Dipper for all his effort this year. Dipper missed 5 sessions and he has to do and finish all plates in time for exhibition. On the day of the exhibition, he was there with another student Luis Leonio to finish his abstract and mixed media plates!
On Exhibit:
Eight Session: Flower Mural on Canvas
This session is an interactive session on doing large-scale works focusing on floral burst theme. I assembled the canvas boards and did the line drawing of the floral burst and made the children choose their part of the "mural".
The 16" x 20" individual canvas when assembled together became a 40" x 64" mural! As exhibited:
The Art Tour Session with Artist Jomike Tejido
These works were the interaction banig paintings done by my students and those of Bambi's with artist Jomike Tejido during the Earth Day tour of CCP and Jomike's exhibit.
My apologies if I can not include all the works since it was difficult for me to document all the great works of the children and download it here. I will try to download more plates in the coming days.
This year's CreativeKids program was a success and I am proud to be part of it. The works of the other children as young as 3 (which Bambi handled) up to the young teens (who made scrapbooks) were all equally creative, inspired and simply great. Congrats to Bambi, her husband Vince, cousin Robbie, Angie and the Manosa family for all the wonderful support. One of the things in my Wish List is to curate a decade of Bambi's children's program plates to be shown for a month to the public! Hopefully, I will be able to do this soon.
