I want to thank you for allowing me to share my joy in brush painting with your students.  We ended our year with joy and elation.  The students are so anxious to paint that they can hardly wait until I finish instructing and demonstrating.  This is an active, delight directed learning.  

Your students have learn a lot through our 10 lessons. You may review all that we did in http://joyousbrushclubatKincaid.blogspot.com/   They have gained an entry to painting, where drawing does not have to be the prerequisite as long as mental clarity can be developed through the process.  The images are formed by following instruction, which becomes the teaching tool for our mental clarity.  This process of learning through imagery manipulation enhance our traditional education of learning from words and sentences.

Being the creator of their work, your students learn to express all that they intended, understood and preferred in a visible way. Some are pleased with their work, some are disappointed, either way it gives them a honest reflection to grow from.  Many will develop a keen appetite to look critically at the objects they are interested to paint.  This will bless them with a lifestyle of observation, which is an active learning process at all times.  

In January I will offer 2 classes, one at 2:30 and 2nd at 3:40pm on 12 Tuesdays.   I will try to develop new curriculum combining flowers and creatures. Registration will be sending your way in December.  Attached please find the class demonstration.  I will love to see your students continue with this art form in the Spring.  

Have wonderful holidays.

Lesson 9

We did shrimp today.  Before they started, many thought it was too hard,  but when they followed the instruction step by step , they were surprised to see how attainable it is. I applauded them for following me courageously by faith and grew in confidence.  I realize that their strokes are still raw, but the form and the approach will remain in them with deep impression.  We will focus on stroke development in Spring when we do flowers.   

I have attached 2 paintings for your reference, one in black and white one in color.  Ideally if we spend 2 weeks on shrimps, the student's paintings will reflect the added confidence.  But we decided to move on to rodents for our last class.  

There will be no class next Tuesday 11/8,  I will see you on 11/15 for our last class in 2011. 

Have a great week.   

lesson 8

I was so proud of your children today.  They surpassed my expectation and rose to a new height.  

We did a ink painting on regular paper to clarify the form of gold fish.  Then we painted colored goldfish on rice paper.  Yes, we were rushed, but your students were so attentive and engaged every step of the way.  We did a black and white gold fish last week.  Most of them are struggling with both the form and the stroke.  We did them again, I see much improvement all around.  By the way, I realized I still have their black and white gold fish  from last week.  I forgot to give them back.  

Kincaid Foundation will let me know their decision for next year after their meeting in November.  I will keep you posted as soon as I find out what will be offered.   

I have attached a demo painting for your reference.  Please have your students bring their portfolio back on 11/1.  We will have more paintings going in.  

lesson 7 gold fish with ink

We did gold fish on Tuesday at Joyousbrush Club.   In our limited time, the students did their best to follow my instruction.  I can see the returning students have more experience about loading their brush with the appropriate amount of ink.  This is experiential knowledge.  I can't make it clear by instruction.  

We will do gold fish again next week in color.  Hopefully this revisit will bring some degree of comfort to this fast moving introductory class.  Brush Painting takes time to mature. Approach nature with simplicity and document it with elegant brush strokes is my goal.  Your students are following nicely with delight and learning by faith.  Even though I try to develop stand along projects, the understanding and the confidence requires much simmering. 

  “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

The students have more paintings displayed on the Hall in school.  They also received their red wallet profolio, which will come home with all the paintings we did at the end of our sessions.  

We have 3 more lessons left.  It's time to think about Joyousbrush Club in January.  I would like to offer flower paintings for so many students who have not had them.  The stoke drills are in the floral paintings.  Chinese language Club is another option for the Spring as well.  I will sent home some kind of survey next week to help me make the decision for Spring proposal to Kincaid Foundation.  

The class demonstration is attached for your reference.

lesson 6 frogs

Dear Creative friends

Last Tuesday we did frogs.  Even though creatures are harder than flowers.  But since there are a handful of returning students who are anxious to try new topics.  So I decided to dive in animals for this session.  This may not be fair for the New Students, since they have not had stroke training with the floral paintings.  In painting creatures, our first emphasis is in visual resemblance instead of stroke drill.  But I trust everything will come together in your student's creative venture if they continue to explore this classic form of painting with delight and courage.  

I regret in an incident when I corrected a student's stroke on her painting.  She was very upset. Later on I realized that if the student did her best and was satisfied with what she did.  I should respect that.  I will be more conscious about student's sensitivity toward their work.  

I did a promotional video with Young Audience in Woodruff Art Center.  You may view the clips from the link below.  

http://www.yawac.org/Special-Initiatives/The-Dream-Art-Contest.aspx  

I have attached the class demonstration for your reference.  We will try gold fish next week.

lesson 5

Dear All

We had an adventurous 
session painting the 
bees from their fuzzy thorax, striped abdomen,a head with  large compound eyes and mandible(mouth), wings and 3 sets of legs, although, in our rush, we missed their antennae and sting. we will try to recover them next time we paint them.  Watch how your students will try to put bees in their paintings from now on when they can.  

The joy of recreating nature on paper draws the students' relationship with nature closer.  All of sudden the bees become more intimate to them since they know how to paint them.  Most students will start taking a delight directed learning toward bees.  Their eyes are now opened to observe bees for painting purpose instead of seeing for  mere recognition. 

We placed some of the bees on the stage.  Our stage is the seed pod of a sun flower.  This give the students composition ideas.  Most students liked their bees.  Although this is only the 1st attempt to painting them in simple brush strokes.  The few who did not like their bees will either be more conscientious in growing their painting skill or they will find something else that they like better.   I challenged your students beyond their ages.  I am very please to see how they responded to my challenge and demonstrated to themselves that they can get anywhere by following instructions carefully.   Perfection is not my goal. Delightful learning is.  

I thank Valerie and Michele for helping.  I have attached my demo painting for your reference.

Lesson 4

I had to catch the new students on how to properly load their brushes.  So we did Daisies.  The returning students are challenged to stroke through the pedals while the new students may place the brush down for the pedals.  

We started the front view of the daisies, and move to 3/4 view, then side view, lastly the buds.  We then added the leaves and stems.  This is also necessary as the background for our bees next week.  

I have put up the student's paintings on the Hallway to Einstein.  You can see the birds and the angel fish they did.  We are having great time painting together every Tuesdays.  Thank you for Mrs. Doherty for her wonderful room.  

Lesson 3

We tried to capture the joy of the birds on our 3rd lesson.  The students followed me closely.  But many are disappointed that their birds did not look like mine.  This is normal.  There is a mechanism of visualization that matures with your students.  The painting process awaken's this mechanism.  Your students will develop keen interest in looking at whatever they try to paint. Their paintings, good or bad also teach them how 2 dimensional representation work.   This will develop in them a habit of effective observation.   

I explained to your students that when I eat chicken nuggets, I need to eat 8 to be full.  Even though I am still hungry after I eat the 1st one,or 2nd one, it does not mean I have eaten them in vain.  Because I can't eat my 8th one and be full without the previous experiences.  We will revisit birds including chicks, ducks or cranes to reinforce their mental picture of birds, for now I think the students need a little comfort painting to give them a sense of mastery.  We will do some flowers before continue with birds.

I will start exhibit some of their paintings on school wall next week.  I will pick some to represent what we did in class so far.  All students will have their paintings exhibited one time or another, but not every time. 

Thank you for allowing  your children to explore the visual delight with me in our painting adventure.  I have attached my sample painting for your reference.   

lesson 2

The children did great following my instructions in painting their 1st angel fish.  After that you can see their creative outburst in creating angel fish community and their habitat.  I have attached my sample painting for your reference.  They did not copy mine.  They created their own free hand.  Each person's stroke are unique, their preferences are different, this is only their first experience on the rice paper.  They did great with the line work and the control of the moisture in their brush.  

The students are allowed to take their paintings home.  But they have to remember to bring them back so we will have our portfolio in the end of the school year.  Most students left their paintings in my keeping.  I will request spaces in school to display their paintings down the road.

Thank you for sharing your children with me as we seek to multiply joy together.