Nature Notebook Children's Workshop

I'll be driving over to the mountains this weekend to present...
Nature Study Handmade Books at the
Daura Gallery at
Lynchburg College, Lynchburg Virginia
Sunday January 20

This is a fabulous workshop that combines observing, writing, drawing, painting, print-making and assemblage. It all begins with 'I Spy with My Artist’s Eye', a warm-up game that helps young artists see the world of nature through their “artist eyes.” Through this exercise, students learn to identify an “artist’s alphabet” of the elements and shapes found in nature and inspired by the journals of Leonardo Da Vinci. Once the students have begun to use their “artist eyes,’ they explore the immediate environment using field guides as they sketch birds, insects, plants and animals. These initial observations are refined using the “artist alphabet’. Students transfer the drawings to watercolor paper and enhance them with paint. Next, they create simple, but bold Scratch-Foam prints using water-soluble inks. Finally, the young naturalist/artists adhere the drawings, paintings, and prints into books with handstitched binding and natural glass bead embellishments.

This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is funded, in part, by the Jean Stafford Camp Memorial Fund.