Week #2 had us looking to Emily Carr, Tom Thomson, and the Group of Seven for inspiration. We looked at examples of their work that depict the wildness, beauty, and diversity of the Canadian landscape.  

We focused on Emily Carr's work, and learned about what an interesting woman she was - with many pets, including a monkey named Woo!

And once again, we practiced stillness. What a serene time! Focusing on lines, colours, ripples, jagged branches, reflections, shades of green. I came away from this time feeling a little bit more calm and content with the world in general. 

We experimented with acrylic paints, then decided which part of the landscape we wanted to "frame" in our picture. Holding up little frames helped us do that. After sketching, we used black pastels and acrylic paints to work on our pieces.

Here are our works in progress! The time passed too quickly again, so we'll finish these another week. We loved how the same view (the big pond) produced nine totally different works of art - each unique, like their creator.

Introducing... The Group Of Nine!

What an amazing time we had at our first Painted Turtle Art Club! The weather was beautiful. 

Here we are - off an our first art adventure - sketch books in hand (or on head!). 

We stopped by the side of the pond and listened to Shauna read Ish by Peter H. Reynolds, a book that encouraged us to experiment with our artwork - to make mistakes, to think in "ish-ly" ways, and not worry about getting it perfect, or about what the final product would look like. It's about the process, and the response that our artwork generates - in ourselves, or in others. 

We learned a bit about Georgia O'Keeffe, and looked at some of her close-up paintings of flowers and leaves. Here's a site that tells a bit about her, and shows some of her most famous paintings.

Then we were off to do our own sketching, spending time looking at the intricacies of the things in front of us.

What a calming thing to do... to study the fine details of a flower, a leaf, or a frog's eye. :) I found that when I was sketching, there was a part of my brain that wanted to hurry, and there was another part that told me to SLOW DOWN. A great skill to learn, even for (maybe especially for) us adults!

We also reflected on how each leaf and individual flower is different, and has its own beauty and imperfections. 

Just like us.

We even had a painted turtle keeping watch over us while we sketched. Do you see it peeking through the reeds?

To celebrate Grandparents' Day on September 13, we hosted a Grand Bug Hunt at Huron Natural Area. We set off, with nets in hand, for the meadow trail. We spent a while searching through the long grass, listening for sounds, and looking carefully on plants. 

We were not disappointed! We found:

• grasshoppers galore!
• crickets
• ladybugs
• wooly bear caterpillars
• ants
• praying mantises
• black and yellow garden spiders
• daddy long-legs

Some of these creatures were more photogenic than others. 

Then we explored a bit of the pine forest, looking under logs to see what kinds of creatures were there. We found:

• worms
• slugs
• pill bugs
• spiders
• millipedes
• red-backed salamander

Our last stop was at the pond, using our aquatic nets to see what insects we could find. We looked under rocks, too. We found:

• leopard frogs
• water striders
• water boatman insects
• dragonfly nymphs
• and more! We're still discovering their features (and their common names!).

All in all, a great way for 3 generations to spend a beautiful afternoon together! 

A lot has happened since then, but way back on June 29 we celebrated International Mud Day! We had a mud kitchen, did some mud painting, and had mud face painting. Then many of us went for a hike to the pond to see what we could see (there was some mud there too!). 

Here are some photos from that mud morning: