TraillWorks Student Saturday

Graphite drawing by June Nezamis

It's time for another Student Saturday post! A lot of artwork is getting completed and framed at TraillWorks in preparation for the annual student show, opening on March 12th. From 4 - 7pm the gallery will be bustling with students, parents, grandparents, and friends to take a peak at the works of these growing artists in a very professional gallery setting. Quite an honor for these students - children, teens and adults. Here's a link to an album of pictures from the 1st Annual Student Show held in June of 2009 at my former location on Spring Street.

There will be about fifteen students exhibiting, with each student including at the least one work, with many contributing two or more, depending on what they've finished and how long they've been taking lessons. Each student has been asked to write a reflective statement for each piece they are showing which will be on display explaining each work.

All of the exhibiting artists are asked to bring an edible sweet or savory that they've made for the reception. As part of the event, students and guests will have an opportunity to vote for what they think is the most artistically presented sweet or savory. All of the exhibiting artists are asked to bring an edible appetizer or dessert that they've made for the reception. Four prizes will be given to the winners: first, second, third, and an honorable mention. The winners of the contest will receive a gift certificate with the option of choosing either a lesson credit equivalent to a group lesson for one person, a gift certificate to Dick Blick Art Store, a gift certificate to a Spring Street business of your choice, or a custom cookie package from A Cake Dream in Randolph that features your artwork.

Please join us for an artistic evening to celebrate the accomplishments of these talented students. A recognition ceremony will be held at 6pm that evening.

In the meantime, here are some pics of recent student work, some of which will be on display for the exhibit.

Recycled Collage by Maddie Chymiy

Self-Portrait, Graphite by Will Somma

Sea Turtle, Ceramic by Will Somma

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TraillWorks Student Saturday

Harry the duck interpreted by four new students, a money tree leaf studied, a sea turtle rendered in color, and abstract tile designs are some of the many works created by just a few of TraillWorks' students in the fall of 2010. Read on to learn about the works, their intent and process.

Harry in the Attic, Marker and Pastel, ©2010 Katelyn, Age 10

Harry Inside / Outside, Marker and Pastel, ©2010 Cailey, Age 10

In Katelyn's Harry, check out all of the textures, the depth of the rooms, and the sense of foreground emphasized by the roof of the dollhouse. Way to go Katelyn on an inventive composition, theme, and creative use of texture and color.
Cailey's Harry also explores interiors and exteriors, a little more abstractly. In her piece Harry is looking beyond a window from the inside out, looking into an artist's studio. Check out her incredible use of markered contour lines, unity of colors and very interesting structure to her artwork.

Farmland, Marker and Pastel, ©2010 Maddie, Age 6

McDonald's Harry, Marker and Pastel, ©2010 Ava, Age 6

Can you find the ducks in Maddie's and Ava's works above? They're in there. But what emerged in both are two very different visions. Maddie turned her work into a rolling farm filled with vivid blues, purples, and pinks, while Ava was influenced by McDonald's, repeating large m's and other architectural forms, using an earthier palette of pinks, browns, and blacks, with a hint of pink.

Leaf Series, 8" x 24", Mixed Media, ©2010 Rachel, Age 7

Leaf Series, 24" x 8", Colored and Pastel Pencils, ©2010 Noa, Age 9

The next two pieces are two examples of serial leaf drawings many of my students did in the fall. All used leaves from the studio's money tree for reference, leaving my tree quite plucked and pruned in an odd shape! But, all for a good purpose. Students had the option of using a variety of colored surfaces, colored pencils, pastels, and other drawing materials. The emphasis of the piece was on drawing the leaf from observation and developing a transition of some sort. The finished works were all mounted on foam core and then either left white, as in Noa's case, or collaged, painted, or drew into the background to unify the three pieces and bind them together with sewn elements, simple bookmaking techniques, as in Rachel's.

Sea Turtles, 16" x 12", Colored Pencil on Watercolor, ©2010 Will, Age 10

Will's artwork was influenced by a book he brought into class on sea turtles. He's a very creative kid who now has an ongoing sketchbook of drawings and ideas, so often his projects are developed by his interests. This piece is composed of actually several parts, one not seen. I introduced Will to the art of salt and watercolor to create a background tone which would mimic the sea. He then composed the picture, drawing the main sea turtle from reference photo, and then inventing the other fish! This was completed with colored pencils. The partner piece not shown is a clay sculpture of a sea turtle. 

Crayon Reflection, 20" x 16", Acrylic on Canvas, ©2010 Phoebe Nezamis, Age 15

Finally, the painting above was recently finished by Phoebe, a freshman in high school. Phoebe's been taking lessons with her mom and brother since last summer and is also a very creative thinker. The project intent was to develop a still life painting in acrylic, after learning to mix colors in gouache and draw an object from observation in charcoal. After several, maybe ten or more, thumbnail sketches Phoebe came up with this clever composition which utilized a mirror! Super challenging! She did an excellent job at replicating the colors of the crayons and then coming up with an engaging compositional structure. Her idea was somewhat influenced by Wayne Thiebaud, and probably a little of Richard Diebenkorn. The yellow background was my suggestion, as one of several options. What a stunning piece! 

My students currently are working on some exciting pieces and getting ready for our TraillWorks Student Show set for March, coinciding with Youth Art Month. So look for my Student Saturday post next month with info about the exhibit and more new student work. 

Student Saturday - TraillWorks Holiday Windows and Logo Designs

Detail of my windows (TraillWorks and the Springboard Shoppes)

My students never fail to impress me! When given a challenge, they generally rise to the occasion and create more than I imagine possible. For the past couple of months, my younger students and teen students have been working on two community-based projects: designing Candy Land-inspired store logos for Spring Street merchants participating in a post-holiday parade scavenger hunt, and designing my holiday windows which the entire community will see.


This is the first official unveiling of my holiday windows! It's tough to see all of the detail because of window glare. Forgive my photography; I'm a painter. Thank you Alyse Delaney, Emily Haag, Helen Walter-Cardinal, and Jake Scordato for your initiative, creativity, and enthusiasm. Alyse, Emily and Jake did all of the brainstorming, designing, and construction; Helen joined the three in the midst of production and helped out tremendously. 

After learning about the basic tenets of window dressing and touring Spring Street looking at the good and the bad, I gave my students the theme of "Newton Renaissance" and they took off. What transpired was a collaborative design, based around David Ohlerking's work, since that will be featured in my windows. They chose to select a variety of Newton buildings on and near Spring Street to line the bottom of the windows. These were all sketched out, then drawn to scale, and cut out with X-Acto knives. We discussed back lighting the buildings with spots so they would show up at night. 

To draw our eye down, we used a lavender tulle donated by Alyse's mom, used icicle lights to mimic the stars and hung silver ornaments. I came up with the canvas panels to display the jewelry in the center window, but Alyse and Helen helped select the jewelry to be showcased. 


What is so impressive, is not only the quality of the work these kids did, but the extra hours after school and on weekends that they elected to put in to meet our installation deadline on Wednesday. Many, many thanks to them and their parents for their cooperation and support. You will have to come and see them in person, particularly at night for their full effect.

Center Window with Jewelry Display (Maxwell & Molly's Closet, Charm, Mother Moon, Courthouse)

Right window (Cheddar Alley, Springboard Shoppes, TraillWorks)

Left window (Pennies Building, English Building, Statue on the Green, Fire Museum)

Alyse Delaney, Me, Jake Scordato working on the windows in the studio

The other project my students completed this month were logo designs for sixteen merchants who participated in a Candy Land themed scavenger hunt after today's holiday parade. I taught my students (age 6 - 14) some of the basics of logo and brand design, they researched the shop they selected and then designed a logo that would be suitable with the theme. 

Here's the map that was passed out to around 300 people in Newton today. They are all terrific! I'm so excited that their work has been shared with so many.

Logos designed by (from top left) Julia Young, Jessie Sparling, Niki Manning, Cailey Pokrzywa, Miles Shaw, Hannah Manning, Maddie Chymiy, Katelyn O'Connor, Will Somma, Noa Shaw, Natalya de Waal, Rachel Young, Ava Levin, Samantha Givone, Phoebe Nezamis, and Larson de Waal