Artist Series with Denise Stewart at RestorationATL
We were so happy to partner with a new organization Restoration ATL this year in a series of seven art programs led by the talented Denise Stewart! Restoration ATL was created to help redefine local missions in the city. They are working to create an environment where being with is valued over doing for, which in turn would lead to transformation for all.
Our first project took place on March 7th with Paint Love artist Denise Stewart and was hosted at City of Refuge. Denise is a docent at the High Museum of Art and is so talented at sharing her love for art. Our project began with a quick information session on Van Gogh. After that, we worked with the kids to create oil pastel pieces inspired by Van Gogh's great works.
The rhythmic mark making and focus soon transformed the room into a safe creative space. Laughter and smiles were traded as quickly as oil pastels.
On March 21st, Denise led a project focusing on artist Lascaux Caves. On March 28th, She introduced the students to Piet Mondrian and his color block art! Take a look at our gallery of images from March 28th below!
On April 11th, Eric Carle and his Very Hungry Caterpillar were the focus of a new project! Take a look at pictures from that event below.
April 18th, brought a break in the artist focus and taught the students a fan favorite: Flower Making! At Paint Love, we are always challenging ourselves to create new and exciting projects for our students, but many times we forget that "old" projects are just as new and exciting to our young students. It is always fun to be reminded of the joy we had the first time learning how to make something as simple as a paper flower. The students loved it. What we didn't realize until later that night is that a relative to one of our students and friend to several more had lost his life due to a tragic car accident that week. We found out many of our students were carrying their paper flowers to the site of his accident. Our hearts were broken for our students and their families. We were reminded that we will never fully know what is going on in the heads and hearts of the students we serve. We are here to love them and give them a creative outlet. It's odd that we broke the artist series this week to make flowers, but maybe it was exactly the project these students needed. We will never know the full impact of the work we do at Paint Love, but we will continue to bring amazing and loving artists like Denise to carry this work out throughout our community. She formed an incredible bond with these students over the seven weeks she served at RestorationATL.
Joining and assisting Denise throughout the project was her daughter Andersen Stewart. Andersen became such an essential and loving part of our team! We couldn't image these events without her!
On April 25th, Denise taught the students about Matisse and how to "paint with scissors." After five previous art lessons the students were starting to get in a routine and were diving into the projects quicker than ever. They diligently cut and planned their creations and were so proud to show them off at the end of the lesson!
May 2nd was our last meeting of this series with Restoration ATL. It was time to bring out some paint! We brought watercolors for the students to work with. We taught them the difference between warm and cool colors and allowed them to make works of art reflecting the different groups of colors. It was a fun way to end a great series of art!
