The Messy Nest

To celebrate ‘world book day’ we looked at children book illustrations. We drew a chalk and charcoal self portrait in the style of Tim Burton, thanks to .teacher.thats.me for the wonderful inspiration. The children then designed their own book covers and created their own imaginative story’s. I was so impressed with the group yesterday. They worked so hard and their creativity blows my socks off everytime!!!!

Happy world book day

The adult art class had such an excellent time looking a the wonderful work of the Californian artist Erik Abel. We created our symmetrical bears by drawing one side in soft pastels, folding the paper over and transferred the chalk lines onto the mirrored side. We then painted the shapes with acrylic paint and added details over the top with soft pastels again. Such a handsome crowd of bears, utterly joyful. 🐻

We had a lovely Wednesday celebrating the emergence of spring. We painted watercolour catkins with admiring feathered friends.
It was good to practise our observational drawings of that beautiful delicate catkins before using stippling techniques to paint their unique texture.
A fabulous afternoon. Can’t wait for this Wednesday where we will be have a deep dive into the gorgeous artwork of Eric Abel.

Last week’s adult art class escaped Norfolk’s grey skies and imagined beautiful holiday destinations. Blue skies and seas with a cluster of rainbow of buildings. Such a lovely process of painted blocked acrylic backgrounds and then layered with soft pastel details. Surely the cheapest way to travel 🏝️

Adult art club returns tomorrow and we will focus a little on the local flora and fauna, specifically catkins. Spring is showing us it’s nearly here thank goodness.

For more information about any of the messy nest art clubs please get in touch with Jess.

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Yesterday was the Chinese new year, the year of the wood snake. According to Chinese astrology, the Snake symbolizes intelligence, mystery, and renewal. The adult art club created stunning mixed media drawings of wood snakes. We started with an oil pastel outline to mask the edge- then tie dyed the snakes body with tissue paper. Such a brilliantly surprising process!
Once dried we drew flowers and leaf motifs down its spine. Finally shading in the background of the snake to let the tie dye effect pop. Absolutely stunning outcomes.
Can’t wait to try a similar process with the kids on Saturday 🐍

Saturday kids club had a lot of fun scrapping away oil pastels to create glorious sea turtles. We layered up thick rainbow patches of oil pastels and then one dark colour over the top. This then allowed us to scratch away revealing the rainbow colours underneath. It’s such a satisfying process with such beautiful outcomes.

This week the adults also got to have a go electrifying the stars. It was such delightful company and we got through the curious process and lit up the skies. We’re now all looking forward to the planet parade happening this week 🪐✨🌟💫

Art club on Saturday morning was so much fun. We were experimenting with creating a neon glow-effect with colouring pencils. We designed our own north star and then painted a few circles black - in the black areas we drew the lines white and coloured either side of the line to give the illusion of it glowing like a neon sign. It was such a fun effect. I just want to make everything glow now. Well done art club - you worked super hard.

Absolutely wonderful brusho Christmas trees made yesterday at the last children’s art class of the year. It was such a joyful lesson - experimenting with collage painted papers and learning how to paint a 3d pine trees. Absolutely marvellous.
Can’t wait for next year’s creations.

It was such a lovely relaxed final adult art club of the year!! Messing around with our friend Brusho- creating collage paper and then building up layers to create a 3 dimensional pine tree.
Can’t wait for 2025’s creativity
Thanks to all that’s come to all the art clubs. It’s been a magical year and just wouldn’t be possible without all your support.

We had such a wonderful time getting into our acrylics for our last Wednesday afternoon adult art club. Such a joy to paint these handsome little guys, drink mulled wine and eat mince pies.
It’s been such an incredible year of creative marvels at the adult art clubs. Can’t wait to get back to it in the new year.

It was so much fun learning repeat patterns with the adult classes on Wednesday I couldn’t wait to teach the kids at Saturday club. They totally took it in their stride and produced absolutely brilliant repeatable tiles. I can clearly see each one of their designs as brilliant wallpaper.