ART CLUB | Day 1: Colour Theory

As with any job I take on, no matter how big or small, my Motherhood anxiety kicks in and i procrastinate by stuffing my face or scrolling through my FB/IG feed.  I'm not sure why I was having anxiety over leading kids through an art project but it was there.  Day 1 was a success and I am now super stoked for Day 2, no anxiety.  So, because I had my hands full, this post looks more like photos of my house as opposed to photos of the kids in action.  That said, I think it turned out to be a pretty sweet environment for the kids to work in, especially considering it's my dining room.  I made my first trip to Welk's back in January, and one of the purchases I made was an art card collection of one of my favourite artists/topographists: Jessica Hische.  It's been on the backburner to have a set of the Alphabet framed for the hallway but it just hasn't happened yet.  I have also had this giant blank canvas sitting on our wall for probably almost 6 months.  These two potential projects came together perfectly as the backdrop and display board for this Art Club class!  HA! 
 

Day 1 would focus on basic Colour Theory.  What better book to start with than Peter Reynold's THE DOT.  If you haven't read this book, pick it up.  We've had it for a few year's now and it continues to be an inspirational favourite.  And if you have read THE DOT, then you can probably guess which book is hiding under it...  FIND OUT TOMORROW!

Can I just say that after a year of living in our little ranchero, I am finally falling in love with what is happening!!!  I LOVE IT.  I had 2 girlfriends over for a Birthday Breakfast and asked Kevin to throw on some Velvet Underground on the record player.  When I saw that he had put the sleeve up on the shelf with Andy's Banana I wet my pants a little.  This is now the designated record spot.  It has changed since then, but what better record cover than this for Art Club, right??? SWOON.  That's Chloe's self-portrait from the portrait painting session I led last month for Eve's birthday party.  And those super rad fantastic crazy animals are the ones from Mexico that I said I never wanted to show anyone.  I went back to Welk's last week and bought a bunch of mini succulents for these new little shelves.  The cute bowl beside the record was part of a pair, the other pair being the one that Chloe accidentally broke in the store and therefor we had to buy them. 

Alright, enough of my gloating, onto the nitty gritty.  The kids blew my mind.  I designed a simple Colour Wheel template the night before because I only work at the 13th hour.  I was surprised when nobody knew what it was and had never done one before and then I realized I had never had my kids do one either.  THEY were surprised to find out that I had painted the entire wheel using nothing but the Primary Colours.  We began with Primary, of course, then moved onto Secondary.  PIECE OF CAKE.

Tertiaries proved to be more challenging as they had to mix the Secondary Colours a total of 3 times.  Everyone needed a little assistance with a colour here and there, and everyone took turns holding out their brushes asking me "IS THIS THE RIGHT COLOUR!!! IS THIS OK?!!!"  I was impressed with their perseverance, nobody gave up, and there wasn't a single complaint.

Inspired by THE DOT, I had them move onto a few projects that required more mixing: Painting a GIANT dot in their favourite colour, painting different sized dots in different colours to represent each person in their family, painting a dot by not painting a dot (negative space), and then painting a dot party! 

Each class ends with a button making project where they use what they have learned that day to make a button to take home, sort of like a badge!  I'll try to take more photos during tomorrow's class, hopefully it's a sunnier day! 

 

The Pauhaus presents: ART CLUB!

there are a lot of things in motion here at The Pauhaus!  i've got a plate full of delicious projects for the next couple of months and i couldn't be more excited.  first things first, i will be hosting a trial run of Art Classes for kids ages 4-6 over Spring Break.  i love diving into arts, crafts and creative things in general with kids because they are blank slates, they haven't had rules slammed into their heads that can often dampen free expression and the openness to make mistakes and just keep going.  week 1 is officially FULL with 6 more spots available for March 21-25 (including Good Friday).  Visit ART CLUB for the details on the class and register now!

xo

 

DIY Light Table

I've been juggling a variety of projects the last few weeks, including a commissioned illustration for my friend Saara.  They will be moving into a new home a few months from now and she wanted to have a family portrait to frame and hang in their entry way.  Long before photography and long before children, I had thought to dabble in illustration and had a collection of prints that I would sell at Craft Shows, a few which she had purchased and inspired her idea to have a family portrait done in the same style.  My illustration process includes piles of sketches that I often have to trace and retrace and retrace, so a light table is really a godsend.  Kevin made me a light table a hundred million years ago which neither of us have any idea on its whereabouts, so he put a quick one together for me the other day.  

Clean, lightweight, and portable with a long long cord and a fantastically sleek LED bulb in place of a regular incandescent bulb which would always heat, melt and warp the plastic over time.  Out of pocket, it cost $7 (Home Depot) for the bulb with everything else being scraps we had laying around the mudroom.  If I wanted to, I would "request" to have these painted in bubblegum pink… or black… or white.  And that gold ring (fixture loop) that the cord runs through I would change that to a flat black or something and obvs that brown cord would have to go… but this was for HURRY UP I NEED TO GET THIS JOB DONE! so i'm all smiles.

Here is a Before and After or rather a With and Without the light table.  I mean, really, I could make out the image enough to trace it but this speeds up the process so much more.  I actually have used my iMac screen as a light table a handful of times, but it's absolutely awkward and uncomfortable.

And another example...

Hoping to have this illustration complete by mid-week… fingers crossed!

Throwback Thursday: Quilling

I've had these photo held up here in a Draft since April 6 2014.  Having jumped back on the quilling train this past week after a few fallow years, I figured this was the perfect time to resurrect this post.  

I was drawn to quilling after stumbling across the work of Yulia Brodskaya on PInterest.  We did a few single initials for birthday gifts and this full name for Chloe's first birthday back in 2011.  We kept this for a long time, I think we must have finally parted with it last year, all the letters except the O which I'm pretty sure was Kevin's contribution.  Being the more meticulous one who also happens to enjoy pin-striping as one of his many hobbies, he has taken over the quilling projects.  I choose the font and the paper colours and leave him to do the majority of the work.  When areas of contention come in to play, I contribute potential solutions.  We are a good team.  Here are a few documented photos of the CHLOE prior to its disassembly and discard.

I'm so glad I took photos of this before tossing the C, H, L, and E.  We currently have the O framed and hung in the kids' room.  When I told Emily that we had tossed the other letters, her eyes rolled out of her skull:

EVEN THE "E"??!!!!!!!…..

Her daughter's name is Eve.  My girlfriend Caela also freaked out because she wanted the C.  We definitely could have done a better job, and have done better ones since, but it was the first one we made so, you know…  It's pretty obvious how different and thoughtful Kevin's "O" is from the rest of the letters I did with nothing but curlicues.  Anyway, Eve just had her 5th birthday this weekend and I've decided that Kevin needs to get back on the quilling train.  What better way to get the quilling juices flowing than to do one for one of our very best friends!

So, first things first: Shooting these guys dead on is not the way to show them off, but it's gotta be done.  They are meant to be admired from multiple angles to really get the full effect.  I love how his decision to create a scene with the white background: the sun, the leaf, the waves down below and the beautiful bird.  The bird was initially without beak detail or the legs, those were my contribution  - ATHANKYOU - and I just can't get over how perfectly the bird blends into the background but totally stands out once you notice it.  I think one of the next pieces definitely needs to be some sort of jungle foliage with a few colourful birds in a similar style.  So pretty.

IMG_7957.jpg

More to come in the next few months!

xo



Eat Drink Love in Mexico: A Day in Sayulita

OY.  It is truly taking me forever to get through these photos and blogging with a handful of other projects and the usual Family Life on the go!  The vacation halo has officially worn off!

The wedding finished off with comfy clothes, lots of water, a few coffees and chatting until almost 4am.  Ok, maybe a few instances of nameless barfers (whether from food poisoning or drinking, we will never know…) but all-in-all a nice chill easing out of wedding mode.

The next day was a free for all.  I had anticipated the wedding night would have hit new heights of celebration.  With this in mind while designing their wedding itinerary trifold (a separate post to come…) I made the 29th RECOVERY DAY.  It was.  The morning was slow but lovely.  Pretty much everyone had plans to go into town, myself especially!  I needed to take the bus back to PV  at some point that day, so I was in a hurry to explore the town as much as possible.  Breakfasts were being cooked up on both the bride's side and the groom's side, coffee and VIP view included.  I took my plate outside and enjoyed the warm morning sun, overlooking the town with bridesmaid Dorothy.  Everything about this trip has been unreal.  Absolutely everything, all the people I got to spend time with, to freely enjoy both worlds, one-on-one adult time and a few doses of family/kid times.  As ridiculous as it may sound, having garlic fried rice and mango with my omelette and bacon totally made my morning.  It was such a treat because even though I grew up with these foods (Filipino-Chinese background) and fusions of Asian-Western food, I don't ever integrate it into my own life.  I might start replacing my morning egg + toast with egg on garlic fried rice.  And maybe eat more fresh mangoes in the morning once they are no longer $8 each at Thrifty's…  

I got dropped off in town with my camera bag.  My suitcase was taken to store over at Edwin + JP's place in town so I wouldn't have to climb the daring hill back to wedding headquarters when it was time for me to catch the bus.  It was like a tiny downtown Vancouver, except cobblestones, sometimes with questionable liquid that made me cringe to roll my baggage over.  I spent the first while going through the first few shops, taking careful notes of things I wanted to get before deciding what to splurge on.  I had no checked baggage and therefor very limited space in my camera backpack and carry-on sized roller suitcase.  My predominant obsession was the stuffies.  Like, I don't even want to post them because I am so greedy, I don't want anyone else to have them.  If I had the choice, I would have bought every single last one in Mexico.  Also, I kind of have plans to just start making my own…  I also was tempted 100 times to buy the pom-poms but I kept reminding myself of the 10 POM POM DIYS I already had on Pinterest.

I trekked down to the beach in between my indecisive stuffies anxiety.  I had whizzed by the beach on the back of the golf cart on the way to the wedding the previous day and was determined to check it out.  It ended up being an overcast day despite the initial sunny morning, so not quite the hot beach I was hoping for.  Still, it was beautiful.  Super crazy crowded but really so beautiful.  Lots of people catching waves, lots of families just playing in the surf.  I wished countless times that my fam could be with me to soak in all of this excitement and beauty, to run into the waves with my kids and laugh our butts off, to see whether Malcolm would love or be terrified of the waves, to see Kevin relaxed and enjoying himself for once in his life... but with each wish, I reminded myself to let go and to enjoy the freedom of being on my own, on my own schedule, on my own terms, JUST ME.  It was almost an out of body experience not being with the family for 5 days straight.  I have never done that in all the time that I have children.  And even before having children, I went only as far as Vegas a couple of times with Kevin and then to Cuba for our Honeymoon.  It was definitely a deep and very holy breath of fresh air for me after 7 years of motherhood.  

I retreated from the beach and just happened to run into Jade who taught me how to haggle.  I was impressed with her haggling and needed to see it in action because I am a PUSSY.  By the end of the day, I left with a mermaid, a unicorn, a giraffe, a crocodile and a donkey.  I got a great deal on the unicorn, but ripped on the donkey + crocodile from another table because I had gone to the table 3 times and it was pretty clear that I was in love with them!  Dude knew the Asian with the black hat would be coming back, he saw the suffering in her soul, that she could not live without his crocodile + donkey hahaha!  

We eventually ran into Rob and his gang in the town square who then walked me to their place to grab my luggage.  I hadn't planned to stay much longer but I ended up catching the 8:30pm bus in the end!  On the way to grab my luggage, we passed a cafe where the photographers/videographers were lunching with a few other pairs of photographers.  I was waved over and I said I would be back.  It was a while before I returned but I eventually found my way back just as they were finishing up.  They invited me back to their headquarters, Las Cupulas, which was friggin BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!  It is now lodged in my brain that I would like to stay here the next time I am able to visit with a few other people!  

I said farewell and thank-you to the photo crew and ventured back into town.  I had to pick up those last two animals!  I had to!  I also hadn't found Evoke the Spirit yet, the popular store to check out with all the cattle skulls.  I wanted one so badly but there was no way I could have carried it around with me and I was nervous whether or not I would be penalized or have it confiscated at the airport since it was an actual animal.  Plus, when I came home and told Kevin, he said he hated it and would not have let me put it up hahaha.  I guess it doesn't really match the mid-century look we're going for.  I found a good little street with all the flags and NO cars for a picture.  I checked out a few more stores and then decided to walk to the busstop to check how late and what time the busses were running.  They went quite late and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast so I went back into town via the beach to find a place to eat.  I was propositioned by an eccentric looking dude as I trudged through the sand:

Do you have a lover?!!
Yes, and 3 kids!
Oh ok! ok! I love you!  I love you!

I was getting stressed, super nervous about the possibility of getting sick.  It was dark now.  I eventually found Burrito Revolution after walking up and down the streets and waited a really long time for fish tacos.  They were worth it.  I put all three sauces on, mild medium and hot, and then stopped to take a few crappy photos, and drink my margarita, and savour all the flavours.  I'm mad at myself for not taking any night time photos of the town.  So mad.  I messaged The Stones that I would be on the 8:30PM bus back to PV and started walking back to the bus station.  

Me waiting at the bus station.  So sad to be leaving so soon, but so happy and so invigorated to have had the opportunity to explore the little town all on my own with no binding schedules or little lives to put before my own.  I boarded the bus which filled up quickly with tourists and locals mashed down the aisle.  I asked the driver a few times to let me know when we got to the Wal-Mart, but he still took me past it and all the way to the airport.  I had to loop around back and cross the street.  I felt bad, not realizing the Little Stones were in the car, probably very restless and impatient!  We headed towards their second dwelling, a family friend's place.  It was dark, but going out onto the patio and looking out, I knew I was in for another breath-taking view in the morning...