Pollock for ever (young)

I keep going on with art classes to kids.. sometimes it's easy, like two weeks ago with Pollock.. they are totally happy to feel free to mix and create colours, but then there are those lessons.. I see my son with his brown and black and blue hands running in the classroom ready to splash himself on his friends' head while other two are squeezing aaaaall my precious white tube becouse they need lots of light (a lot, really, a lot), I hear voices of BLEAH while I show them Rothko and I have to stop myself by screaming YOU CAN'T NOT LOVE HIM!!! I see myself cleaning the art room for one hour and a half after my young wild painters have gone and my daughter whimpers meeee tooooo I want tooo paaaint meee tooo (it's 6 pm dear we are escaping, NOW!)
And as I think of it all, I feel so deeply satisfied, so happy, I want to go on and on with all these
bleah, more, squeeeze, splash, WOW, COOOOOL!!!!!!

Happy me

I am happy. I am working and playing with materials and colours I use for my canvas.. Here some ideas I had walking around with kids and collecting acorns and leaves. I am grateful to nature but also to the new technologies that allow me to produce in an easy way some of the things I immagine.. I love this way to merge and celebrate the old and the new.

I am grateful to Giulia, Francesca and Gioia for trusting and supporting me, thank you to my friends for their support and advices, thank you to kids for their joy and colours

and we started with.. orange!

This is the colour kids decided to catch last friday. 

It was our first lesson of the art course at the European School.

I was excited and a bit nervous. I had my nice programme on my mind and of course they did it their way! 

They were all enchanted by the flower I had brought as it had some extraordinary trasparencies and hues in the light: they simply took it as a leitmotiv of the lesson.

I gave them a bit of primary colours, nice music, and let them search their orange..

Then some blue inspired a Lady 

my son decided it was snack time 

and it was just fun! 

I am so happy

paints/beeds/tissues/words storming: caffe'

 

many caffè these days, many conversations, many waiting-nothing-moments: testa vuota/testa piena.
I'm trying to shake my heads to see if something takes a form.
mhhhh.

 

caterpillar

I'm studying hard. My son's italian teacher  asked me to help her with a caterpillar, and an apple and a pear and all what The Very Hungry Caterpillar ate to become a butterfly.. PANICO! who ever painted a caterpillar?! will my son be terribly disappointed from my caterpillar??! He has this feeling he can ask me to draw everything but after my best efforts I've seen his face so deeply sorry for the horrible results.. I remember my firsts dinosaur and crocodile.. he wanted to cry, me too! So, I have learned: no fantasy Maria, nothing by memory or right part of the brain .. .just study hard your ... caterpillar :)

my art course at the ESB :)

 

Here we are! The Parents' Association of my kids' school asked me to organize a course and I'm giving it a try (children from 4 to 11.. chaos - chaos -chaos!!).
When I was asked I realised how related it is with what I've been doing until now. My experience as a criminal lawyer (I was specialized in juvenile crime), the incredible period I spent in a slum of Nairobi taking care of street children, the lessons I used to give at the university to my young students - AND my will to keep it all aside as my kids arrived. That was the moment in which my passion for art started to become more and more present in my every day life. It's not anymore something just me-related (io, io, io!!), but luckily it is gently invading my boundaries.
SO I decided to give it a  try and  now I can't wait for it!

 yestrday, introduction of my art course at the pic nic organized from the Parents' Association at the European School of Bergen

Crumbs and colours!

a house in front of the beach, a grass, some kids playing together.

neole di Giulianova with Nutella and chicci colorati

table with watercolour, oil pastels, pencils, and stuff from the garden

            

 some of them love mixing (colours water crumbs shells and more)

someone else remains focused trying again and again one line

 Chiara, Dudu, Giacomo, Alessandro, Bibi, Rebecca..

 A bit 'as Van Gogh, Chagall, Kandinsky.. 

they are so proud :)

Ora ti faccio vedere uno SCARABOCCHIO (when my children did it magic)

Agosto, giardino dei nonni, mare, prato, spirito creativo zen unito a entusiasmo mammesco. Avevo comprato dei pastelli ad olio bellissimi coloratissimi nuovi nuovi da far provare con molta precisa parsimonia ai piccoli, dietro mie precisissime indicazioni circa il senso profondo del segno, il perchè della potenza del colore ....
abbiamo litigato poco poco, poi hanno deciso che loro mi avrebbero fatto vedere che ok, si può sprecare un foglio, e certo è un peccato colorare quando non hai voglia, e sicuramente sarebbe opportuno sapere quando fermarsi giusto un passo prima di sciupare tutto
ma se Il Bambino decide di fare un signor scarabocchio, lasciato assolutamente in pace,

vince

obbravi voi!

Una sera di luglio

Con Veronica Cheli, compagna di banco al serale di Lucca, ci siamo ritrovate sull'Arno, qualche anno dopo, ancora piene di colore..

Ilenia Rosati lo ha reso possibile, e ci ha ospitate da Argini e Margini,

proprio all'ora del tramonto

è uno dei miei posti tanto tanto preferiti ... non potevo essere del tutto felice perchè il mio ammore è dovuto restare in Olanda .. e mancava assai.  ma è stata una serata dolce dolce, accoccolata - e nu' poc' alcolizzata,  dentro quella luce, con gli amici cari, con i bimbi belli