Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you my friends!

Houses are all wrapped in Christmas decorations...there is the smell of chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla in the air. The time of fairy tales and miracles.

My daughter and her classmates (I drive them to school) tried to find out whether Santa Claus actually exists. They are 11 years old. They know everything. They told me that Santa in the mall is not real, and that gifts are purchased by parents and relatives... What did I tell them, you might ask?

In turn, I asked them a question of my own. Do only those things which you can touch truly exist? What about Love...can you touch Friendship or Joy? Those miracles cannot be touched and felt with tactile senses...

Miracle - it is what we can feel all around us this wonderful season.

I invite you to admire the gallery with new works of my students, who are from 3 to 12 years .




Good holidays and all the wonderful New Year!

Fall leaves

When my family moved to Canada, Calgary greeted us with gray-brown colors because of the early autumn frosts, but the sky was beautiful and unusually colorful for us. We had never seen such colours of clouds, sunrises and sunset anywhere else. We were told that it is because of the mountains. Well, if it is not possible to enjoy colours on the ground, we will admire the sky.

However, the autumn makes us happy  last few years with the weather and a variety of colours. It is simply necessary for me to use such a luxury.







The groups of different age have different tasks.


The youngest children learn how to make spots and  mix colours, this is introduction to colour theory. As a result they have green, orange and purple colors on the picture, instead of just red, yellow and blue that they have on the palette.

6-9 years old group of children are solving other problems.What background is best to choose and why , how to arrange the leaves. If the leaves have the sky as a background, they are on a branch or the wind picked up and they are free of whirling ?

The oldest of my students know and understand a lot.  They need to find the contour of object, better tone to show it in 3D . They need to make a decision about the tone of the background to push up the object. Graphite pencil is grey. Boring... no! Let's add some colour! Construction paper is perfect! We steel learn about negative areas, tones and lines, but new cheerful and bright way!.

 








The other pictures of my students you can see in the Gallery.
Alla Kireyeva

Beginning of learning year.

My students have returned to their studies , not only to school but also to art lessons. They  are full of the impression that the children want to share. My goal as a teacher to direct them in the right way. The impressions we put on the paper and try to  keep  a summer mood .

It  is good  start with soft pastel for younger children . If we  hold the pastel  as a pencil, you can draw different lines in thickness and shapes . And if you put it and to the side surface, it is possible to paint large surfaces quickly and evenly.











This is a very important to prepare lesson for children  that the skills will be taken easily .We play with the materials in the classroom: "Look, I can do that , and now you try ." After the warm-up exercises students use their  skills on  the  picture .

In the beginning of the lesson we shared summer experiences.
Many of my students  visited  sea or ocean shores, someone was on  lakes .That's why  we choose landscape with water. Students were gladly playing with taken technique, and then added  lines at the bottom of the picture. The  blue space became water. And then added the yellow sand , but ... oops , when dust of soft pastel was rubbed  into paper, the yellow color was mixed with blue and turned .... well , green. Spoiled the picture ? No, no . We're artists! So, some grass appears on sand and it made the picture more interesting. Older children played with shading technique , and then added the white highlights on the surface of the water and the clouds, and the picture has become more alive like.

 May this learning year be all fun and creative.

Sincerely Yours,
 Alla

Schedule for 2013-2014 academic year

Hello everyone!

 

Summer is not over yet but it is high time to start thinking about studying and  planning your time. It is also necessary to think about your child, and which of his/her  hobbies you will encourage and support.

  

Attention! Please check out the 'Schedule' tab.

Currently, I am forming groups for 2013-2014 academic year. Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed or called me in advance. I would like to ask those of you who are still hesitating to make their choice as soon as possible.

The Drawing Lessons are held on the basis of a program for children ages 3.5 to 12 years. They do not only help develop fine motor skills, eyes but also teach to admire beauty. 

Children get genuine pleasure not only from the fact that they are learning something new and experimenting, but they also enjoy the results they get.  Kids charge their works of art with positive energy that  can be felt by the beholder. Try showing the picture that was created with love  to a child who is distressed by his failure or who doubts himself. Try showing it and shortly after he starts smiling because this picture is a tangible  confirmation of his own success. It will also boost the child's confidence.

Show your child his first drawings and allow to compare with what he has learned. Noticing his progress helps anyone to become more positive about themselves. Your child will learn to seek, find, and appreciate his  own ways, and not to envy or compare himself to others.

Many great physicists, mathematicians, and scientists were also drawing and playing music, they had a well-rounded education. There is no secret that they were successful in one area because they were developed in many different fields.

In addition, drawing  not only helps  to develop a sense of color harmony, attention,  but also it creates strong link known as “eye-brain-hand”.

What a great experience when you can catch the moment of beauty, which cannot be stopped even by camera!  And how exciting is it to draw a picture from your imagination! Just give a child an opportunity! And if  your child will  not choose the profession of an artist in the future, he surely will not ever forget this feeling of creativity. 

Yours sincerely,

 Alla Kireyeva

Exhibition of children's work in June 2013

Another school year is over. We celebrated a small exhibition. Children talked to each other, presented their paintings, admired pictures made by others, took part in games and competitions and got small prizes. Then we had a small party.

 I was really enjoying the process of preparing the slide show of my students' art works, which they did over the past year.  My students improved greatly, they became more confident using different materials and tools.
  
It is always interesting to observe beginners. At first, they repeatedly raise their eyes at me in search of approval or support. After some time they are less and less in need of my help. Students whom I have been teaching for two or three years confidently go from ideas to  finished work. They know right away what material to choose. It can be seen during the working process when they consciously pick something on a shelf given a free choice of materials.

After the student has worked with several types of material, received his/her own practical experience, he can  accurately recognize these materials in well-known masterpieces. Children do start looking at pictures a little differently, not as at something impossible or unattainable. They begin to realize it is possible to create such beauty on their own. They generally say: "Oh, I know! It was made with gouache. And this was done with a sponge! I can do that too! "
It has to be stressed that if at this stage a child is provided an opportunity to see the real paintings in galleries and museums or even see them online in virtual museums, then it will leave a great positive impression on the child. Maybe someone will find his/her rightful place in this world and create their own masterpieces. Please visit 

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project (suggested usage under adult supervision)

I wish you all a wonderful summer and lots of excitement!

I am going to get some impressions during my summer break and also complete some courses in order to share my knowledge with students as we begin a new school year.

 See you all in September.

Your Alla Kireyeva

P.S. I worked  on my schedule and made ​​some changes.

New addition to the blog “My works”

People often tell me: “You make it sound as if art is the most important thing in the world”. Well, of course it is! Will you ever say that it is not to my students who run home with passion in their eyes to show their parents what they drew in class today? Or will you ever tell that to a kid who is a bit older and has already convinced himself  that he cannot draw? 

You will show him how to work with paint, teach him little tricks with a brush or even fingers, while drawing on paper, cardboard or canvas. You will go from simple things to complicated ones.

“It is all about how you feel materials and drawing tools, and also your understanding how it works and what you want to do with it. You have learned a lot, keep growing! Play with the material – it is fun!”

 At this very moment tell him that it does not really matter, it is not important.  Will you be able to?

There is so much information in our world nowadays, and it is constantly changing making it very hard to keep everything in mind and understand profoundly. How do you manage that?  It is simple. Stop and think about what YOU feel…It is just as important as strategic and calculative thinking. You can read a lot of interesting information on the topic on Betty Edwards’ website about drawing using your right brain hemisphere (http://www.drawright.com/). I like the idea that in order to be happy and successful, one should not only have the ability to think rationally, logically and mathematically, but also have an ability to feel.

I have always admired people like Boris Rauschenbach. He was not only a great scientist, physical-engineer and a person who played an important role in Russian astronautics, but he was also a respected paintings specialist who wrote a lot about building perspective in art. Boris used to say that feeling is just as important as thinking and calculating. (http://www.peoples.ru/technics/rocket/raushenbah/)

One of my favorite authors Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a well-rounded individual. Everyone knows that he was a writer, a pilot and a good artist. There are not many people aware that in addition to all that he was also a successful engineer who patented a number of his own inventions. Once when he was still a child, he was on a train ride. It had such a great influence on him that the very next day he started drawing trains and soon after was able to replicate trains' mechanisms on paper with astonishing accuracy. Drawing is a natural need for anyone. It is not just a way for us to express ourselves, it is also an opportunity to explore the world around us. It is a way to live in the world and see it through the prisms of ourselves.

Make art and let your children experience it. Give them this inspiring opportunity! And please make sure that you and your kids have real paint, paper, etc. 

I have created a new tab in my blog called “My works”. The pictures there are the result of my preparations done before the lessons. Many art teachers have encountered a very interesting problem: when you draw – you stop explaining what you are doing to others, but when you start explaining – you stop drawing.  I am no exception. That is why I draw the pictures according to the lesson’s topics beforehand.

You can also find there the icons I drew.

The icon of St. Barbara was drawn by the late Alyona Martynova (May she rest in peace).

http://alenamartynova.blogspot.ca/

I was working with her as a student and as an apprentice. At the same time, I was also working on an icon of St. Irina in order to independently try out and practice new techniques. 

After Alyona’s death I was the one who finished the Theotokos of Kursk she left behind. The icon is currently at The All Saints Church, Calgary (http://www.allsaintsroc.org/All_Saints_Roc/Glavnaa.html)

I will post all my works  in the blog’s gallery. Please leave your comments, opinions and critique.  I am hoping to update the gallery with new works on the regular basis.

Children’s art exhibition at the “Spring Birds” fair

On May 11, there was a spring fair, which took place by the St. John Chrysostom church, Calgary. The fair was organized to help and support the church. Our parish has a great historic building, which nevertheless requires maintenance, this is why, from time to time, the parishioners organize these charity fairs. You can take a look at the history of our parish and the photo gallery, as well as the article about the spring fair at this website: http://calgary-orthodox.ca/events/ptichij-dvor-11-maya-2013g/

There was a concert and traditional Russian food. Aside from a plethora of other things, there was also an arts exhibition of kid’s works. Since the theme for the fair was “Spring Birds”, the children of course drew birds and their interpretations of spring. For some of the kids this was their first experience with art exhibitions, however all of the works presented there were all beautiful without exception. I would like to thank the church’s priest Father Stan as well as to the Sisterhood of St. Barbara for the opportunity to exhibit children’s works and for the organization of such a great event. I will put all of the kid’s artwork in my blog’s gallery. 

“Let’s Draw Happiness”

Spring finally made it to Calgary as well. With the sun shining bright, the flowers started springing up, everything turns green. I have only been living in Calgary for 5 years now, and I still can’t get used to the swiftness of its spring. Piles of snow coupled with cold wind, overnight turn into green grass and hot summer sun and all of a sudden everyone is wearing shorts. Only a couple of days ago there wasn’t even a sign of any leaves on trees and now they are rustling on every branch there is. Everything is growing and springing to life so fast, you can almost hear it. 

There is so much that happened over spring, that I don’t even know where to start…First I would like to talk about the international arts exhibition called “Let’s Draw Happiness”.

Everything began when I first stumbled upon the website of Mila Naumova and…I got sucked in. http://www.mogut-vse.ru/ludy/ She is great! Working on the program of my art lessons, I sometimes peek at what other teachers do to solve a certain type of problem. When I saw the consistency and the presentation of the materials, the amount of passion and love Mila puts in her work, I thought “That’s how it is done” and became a constant visitor on her website. I took a couple of her lessons to teach to my students and even bought her book to lend to those people, who has the wrong impression about their inability to draw, even though they have always dreamed of it. 

I have always admired people that love what they do and are willing to share that passion and energy with others and this is precisely what Mila Naumova does. As a regular visitor of her website I was given the opportunity to send my student’s works to participate in an international art contest “Let’s Draw Happiness”. And now I’m sharing this happiness with you. All this certificates are in Russian language, sorry about that. The site is new http://art-grd.com , but very interesting.  

Spring is coming

 It is still cold, snowy...but anyway spring is coming! My student create the spring mood in my studio. And I would like to share this mood with you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!















                                                                                                                                                  Heart, hearts ... What else can you come up with new?It turns out that even  such unpretentious character you can play with. So, draw a heart with a pencil and  ...














Watercolor on wet paper, on dry paper, play with shape, color, blow drops of paint with straw, do not forget about the background, pour salt and  etc. 



Just show how does  it works  to children and  then they will create their masterpieces. They will be able not only enjoy the process but also be proud of result.