Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Art Class

The teachers at Ellie's kindergarten suggested that we find a way that she could start doing some art with someone who could provide some guidance, exposure to new media, and encouragement to further explore this world that she enjoys so much. The good news is that the “Werkstatt für Kinder” is literally a stone's throw (or, more literally, a stone's toss) from our house. The woman who runs it has been privately teaching children about art for 20 years. Ellie got more and more excited as she looked at the online gallery to see the various things children do there -- like building a giraffe-chair! So I sent her an email and phoned her up. The bad news is that she retires in just four weeks! But the good news is that she said Ellie was welcome to join her 5-year old group for the last four weeks as they started a new theme of "big painting".



So, off she and Crystal trundled this afternoon, where the theme was "magicians". Here's Ellie's masterpiece, a fairy princess with wand. The teacher used her technique as an example of keeping brushes clean so that you can get pure, rich colors without inadvertently mixing them together. They mixed their own colors and Ellie was a little shy about asking the teacher how to mix “peach” for the skin -- maybe next time. Although we only get 3 more weeks, we'll try to make the most of them. And maybe the teacher will have a suggestion of something else she can do at the end of that time!