Summer Vacay Art

This past two weeks i was at my sister's summer cottage in the Laurentian mountains, outside of Montreal, Canada.  i did not plan any activities like last summer's hand painted scarves or jewelry making.  but i did go to the famous canadian dollar stores and bought several canvases, paint and brushes.  then at an art store i bought some nice glass beads on sale, 7 for $1, which i could not resist.  I purchased 4 canvases of various sizes and gave them all a background of blue and white paint - blended to create "sky".  I created the painting above.

My inspiration was a nature magazine with a hummingbird on the cover.
My sister's niece Tianna wanted to help me - so i gave her a canvas and told her to go for it!

Tianna is 9 years old and helped me paint last summer - so i said just create a flower from your imagination.  Her mom helped her with the outline of the bird - but she did ALL the colours herself!  (i did tidy up the edges just a bit).

Well her mom Tammy was so impressed she wanted to try it herself.  A talented artist with pastels, she has little experience with paint - but she did an awesome job!

Tianna flipped through a Quebec art magazine called  magazin'Art i always pick up when i am in Canada.  They have great paintings and sculpture by local artists.   i asked T to find something for me to paint - and she picked this.  Other than the creepy "wave person" we thought it was cute.

Tianna ran around all week at the lake in her itsy bitsy teeny weenie, polka dot bikini - so i changed the child in the picture to look like her!  All the paintings above were created with less than $10 worth of art supplies!

Here are two of three glass bead necklaces i made at the lake.  I used metal wire and crimp beads to separate the beads along the wire.  Tianna helped me with the crimping!  these used aqua and green beads, the third was hot pink and matched my niece's outfit - so she got to take it home!  I like to wear these two together  - so fresh and summery.  I've received many compliments and they were SO easy.  And for $1.00 worth of beads?  super cheap!

Here is another painting from the art magazine.

My niece did her own interpretation using water colour paint.  She really captured with essence of the watery highrise buildings.

and then, one rainy afternoon i had the cousins gathered to help me make clay birds in the style of the chicks we made with Jenny Hernandez back in the spring.

Erica, Tianna and her sister Talya all created a cute bird with styrofoam egg bodies and heads.  Skewers were used to join the heads to the bodies and for the legs.  Once they dry they should change to white and we could paint them.

however - since i used cheap clay from the dollar store, well they all cracked and fell apart.

:-(

but hey - it was still a fun rainy day activity!