The Fairfield Art Association’s 2024 summer camp offered young artists a variety of art forms.
An outdoor watercolor class was held at Howard Park, and pond fish were printed on rice paper, where the children learned the Japanese “gyotaku” technique. On another day, collages were made using metallic foil and oil pastel and baseball caps were colored using a shaving cream method.
To create printed T-shirts, students collected a variety of leaves and flowers from the surrounding area, painted them on one side and then placed them on white T-shirts as if they were stamping. One exercise to learn to draw involved oil pastels and passing different fruits from person to person, quickly capturing the essence of each fruit on their paper.
One of Chihuly’s projects proved to be a challenge: he reshaped Dura-Lar panels into bowls, made colorful objects with markers and then further modified them with a heat gun.
A favorite project for students was learning mehndi, the traditional application of henna to hands and feet using repeating patterns. In our studio, they wore black plastic gloves and used bright, opaque markers to draw patterns.
All of these Art Camp classes were taught by artists and FAA board members who volunteered their expertise, including: Jasmin Bode, Deb Doyle, Jessica Garchik, Matt Guise, Eileen Hawthorn, Suzan Kessel, Wyndy Rutledge, and Werner Elmker.
The Fairfield Art Association held a summer camp in early August. The photo shows the young artists and their teachers. (Photo courtesy of Werner Elmker)
Suzan Kessel, volunteer director of the Fairfield Art Association, leads the summer art camp. (Photo by Werner Elmker)
Connor Allen paints mehndi patterns on his gloved hand. (Photo by Werner Elmker)
