Dining Room Arts

As most of you know, Anuvue closed it’s doors last month and will remain so until the economy (or we) recover (which ever comes first). In the meantime, the Young Rembrandt Art Class remains intact, a gathering of all the young artists we can fit in my dining room.The kids are a delight to be around, what with those smiling faces, so very inspiring to both of us. I witnessed Jamie coming in tonight from a tough, frustrating day at work, to a totally revived woman by the end of the night. That’s the kinda stuff that makes me very happy, that and being able to watch, as she mentors these kids. I snuck out for treats…and she told me “nothing messy”. Of course Jamie being the professional Mom (and I the child), I came back with ice cream sandwiches and chocolate chunk, chewy cookies. Truthfully she and I dove in first! YUMMMMMH!

Presenting the Young Rembrandts…

This is all 8 of us. (I’m in the glass)

Young Rembrandts ;)

I came back from vacation to find Jamie all set up to have her class paint Christmas windows downstairs at all the local businesses. Each owner had decided it was a great idea and I thought it was brilliant!!! I only wished I had come dressed to be outside at night (a skirt and sandals)… but the kids were bundled up and they took off with smiles, determined to do well. Now, I’m not sure if you have ever painted windows before but it’s much harder than you think. Paint needs time to dry if you are going to overlap it…and if it’s at night…well…forget it. The kids had to pre-plan, and with Jamie’s guidance, they progressed very well. The last time she and I did Christmas windows we were 17 and we painted for Jack in the Box. It was tough! It’s hard to get tempera paints to look opaque enough to show up and still not crack off! Bradley, Ishika and McKenzie did a mighty fine job working together and it was fun just to watch them having fun. The pizza guys rewarded them with a large cheese pizza and when then owner asked Ishika (our youngest artist) whether she enjoyed the pizza or the painting better…she replied “the painting”…HA! That made my night!

What we learned

There is nothing in this world like watching a childhood friend teach a group of young kids to have confidence in their own abilities. It’s like really cool magic…and I only I got to see up the sleeve.