Mosaic bird workshop. Creativity featuring Sarah's work.

I have been meaning to put Sarah, one of my teenage after school  pupils, on my blog for a while now,  but I  kept losing the photos I had taken of her in my chaotic computer filing system.
At last they are found, so here goes. 
Sarah's  mother drives her all the way in from their farm in the country to attend a classes every week and this shows real commitment and a lovely caring and encouraging attitude.

                  Sarah's mosaic bird. 

Sarah  is  a quiet, focused and very careful worker who definitely has an aptitude and interest in crafty things.
She is a quck learner and has a good eye for detail and  her artistic  confidence is growing every week that she attends.
She has started up her own pinterest site after I showed her mine  which  I think is fantastic.
She also does lovely pages in her visual diary.

We are on the theme of birds at the moment with Sarah.
I will post some more shots of her with her painted birds at a later time.


Creative Quote of the day .
Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
Henry Van Dyke

Rotorua Farmstay, Tumbledown Hill, adventure with Sophia, Buttons and Vilna

Tumbledown Hill Farmstay

A peaceful farm retreat where you can relax and enjoy time with the animals, fresh air and peace. 
Only 12 kms from the centre of Rotorua and just up the road next to Paradise Valley Trout Springs and Lion Park. 

Also not far away from  Janet Keen Mosaics and Painting School, 
(374 Clayton Road, Rotorua, New Zealand).

 

Last Thursday, (my  day off, where I  go on arty adventures all over the place and generally take time out to have fun);  I was invited by  my photography friend, Vilna, for a walk around her gorgeous farm.

        Of course the friendly, adorable pets, Sophia the cat and Buttons the dog were invited to come along as well. 

It throws a whole new light on a walk when a meandering, inquisitive cat comes along.
 It gives you a chance to really appreciate the little things in life like what a pine cone or red and white dotty mushroom  smells like.
I'm a cat devotee so of course I was in heaven.

 

Sophia is so smoochy, she gave me a lot of attention as well.
This beautiful stand of pine trees with a thick carpert of pine needles and fallen pine cones took me back to treasured  memories of collecting with my family.
The aroma of pine and the silence made me feel relaxed.
It was as though I had been there before in a dream, maybe in another lifetime. 
It  felt to me like that place wanted me to be there.

Sophia and Buttons  may have been competing for attention, slightly, but  there was plenty of love and affection to go around. 

I thought that this dog and cat combination was very compatible. 

I want my own dog but my cat Gary, (the love of my life), would be mortified. 

 He does not like sharing me with anyone.  

I really like sharing other people's dogs, (and children),  they certainly make you feel loved and appreciated.

  

 I have purposefully made this a tilt and shift shot, the horizon is supposed to be wonky, so don't panic all you perfectionists out there; it's is not a mistake. 

I was avoiding tree trunks shooting out of Vilna's head.  

 

I am always after the perfect silhouette of "animals on a  hill" shot.

This has huge potential

I'd love  to go back when the light is better;  in early morning or early evening, the golden hours.

 

I love taking shots of trees against the sky. 
The skeletel form of a tree has a lot of power for me. 
Nuts and seeds like this remind me of harvest and abundance.

Fallen leaves on dewy green grass form patterns  that make me want to explore more.

 
I think let's simplify (for a second) and then I  say, blow that; lets be as busy as we want to be because nature is often messy and it's fun and creative. 

That stream would be lovely to float down in on a tire tube in the summer.

It is so clear and bound to be full of rainbow trout. 

Beehives are another obsession with me. 
I love them and I have always wanted to photograph them.
 I have a garden in summer that throbs with thousands of honey bees and I am sure they are coming from these hives. 
I love the buzzing, pollination and the industriousness of it all. 

Rustic textures and colours make me want to make a sculpture with these boards. 

Even the hens here were picturesque and friendly. 
I wanted to pick one up and stroke it.

You will feel at home if you stay there. 
You will probably wish you lived there; I did. 
A magical place with a trout filled stream and beautiful things to photograph and appreciate.  

There was even a morepork hooting and this was auspicious because they are my totems.
 I bought a little Morepork sculpture off  Rotorua sculpture artist, Todd Harris who rents a shed at the farmstay. 

I have it sitting on a table outside the front door to my studio. 
All the pupils love it. 

Vilna has just finished her set of mosaic flowers that she made in a mosaic beginners workshop set of four lessons.
She did a lovely job and is planning to put these on sticks and plant them in her garden.
I am looking forward to photographing them there.

 

You too could come for a mosaic weekend or one day workshop and make some glass flower mosaics for your garden.

Email jkeen@clear.net.nz for a quote for a family or group of friends.

 

See Pierre's and Vilna's website www.tumbledownhill.co.nz and email: enquiries@tumbledownhill.co.nz

Creative quotes of the day about the country
I really feel that my body craves to be in the mountains or by the ocean or in the countryside. Miranda Kerr
 
 I grew up in the New Zealand countryside. We didn't have television until I was 14, so sing-alongs were our only entertainment. Kiri Te Kanawa


 Weekend Art Retreats
I am running art and mosaic retreats for people from out of Rotorua and I recommend Tumbledown Hill as my preferred farmstay style of accommodation. 

It's so arty you will love it. 


Phone Janet Keen 07 3463435 for details of art and mosaic retreats.
email jkeen@clear.net.nz to book yours now.  
www.jkeen.net
See the details of my 2013 art and mosaic classes at the top of the homepage of this blog.

St Mary's Catholic School Haiku Workshop at Janet Keen's Art Studio and Mosaic Garden, Rotorua New Zealand.

Haiku written by pupils of St Mary's Catholic School during their visit to my mosaic garden and art studio.

fantails

fantails

singing in the garden

autumn breeze

Louise

peace

peace is life or death

believe, be alive to laugh and cry

life hurts and can comfort

Harrison

                                                                     the studio
                                           the studio smells great
                                           a room filled with ideas
                                           creativity
                                                                     Hozanna

                                                                          chickens
                                                                        rushing for bread
                                                wintery days
                                                hungry, noisy birds
                                                Oliver

                                                            footprints
                                             giant keas
                                             footprints down the path
                                             bigger than mine
                                             Emma-Sue
                                         

                                                              

                                                               skull head
                                                              lonely and sad
                                                              nobody cares about me
                                                               i just lie around

                                                                Michaela

                                                               studio
                                            shining mosaics
                                            different types of artwork
                                            thoughtful creations
                                            Danicca 

                                                           imagination
                                                           creative things around me
                                                           just like being bathed in it
                                                            i love it all
                                         Kate

     

goldfish

goldfish in a pond

swimming back and forth

dancing under raindrops

Emily

                                                               

colourful mosaics

colourful mosaics

hanging in trees

inspire me

red, orange, yellow, green, blue

big, tall, large or small

any of Janet's mosaics the best you see

roses, owls, seahorses

sharks, wild and styled

all look beautiful to me

Ashleigh

garden

the garden once alive

winter had taken over

some plants had died

Janna 

nature

autumn breeze blows

through bare branches

birds sing over noise of wind

                                                                        Caitlin

nature

birds singing peacefully

breeze brushes through my hair

flowers bloom, expecting the unexpected

Joseph 

mosaics

harmonious colours

covered in a frost blanket

lost with inspiration

Orla

 The Story
On Thursday 7th June at 11am, Assistant Principal of St Mary's Catholic School, Mrs Anne Cato came for a visit with fourteen of her enrichment pupils to explore my garden and to gather information for a series of haiku.

Haiku are simple, three lined poems, originally of Japanese derivation.
They are usually about nature and are meditative moments in time.

We went for a walk down to the sunken garden and fed the fourteen Bantam chickens and their mother who have adopted me, at least when there's food around.

Autumn is flowing into winter in the sunken garden so it was a good time to be writing haiku

The chickens were  down here but you can't see them, they proved to be camera shy.
Some of the children had cameras and i-pads to record moments in the garden.

We went up the steps from the sunken garden to the Japanese Peace garden and had another photo session



We asked the  pupils to take note of their surroundings and to breathe in moments that could contribute towards their haiku.

I took shots of people relaxing in the garden and asked them to think about what they could see, touch, hear, and smell

We next went into the studio and the children were given a brief  lesson about haiku as they ate their lunch.

 I showed them some of my haiku and  photography and read them some haiku by other poets.

Everyone was busy  

 and quiet with concentration and were encouraged to write more than one haiku.

I put some lavender essential oil around the studio and played some classical music to help them feel peaceful.

It is useful to have a calm, open mind when writing haiku.  

Ideas were freely flowing.

 Some people sat together on the couch, writing and in some cases sketching small pictures of  mosaics they liked.

Mrs Cato helped them and took some photos of her own.

I went out with my camera and took shots of each pupil beside a mosaic or item in the garden or studio they liked and which in some cases related to their haiku 

Orla presented to me, on behalf of St Mary's with one of the most beautifully illustrated books I have seen called The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, a card and a gift card to buy some apps for my i-pad.

 I am going to use this with my after school art pupils as inspiration, the blurb at the back says,

"Even the most reluctant imagination, when confronted by these drawings , will not be able to resist solving the mysteries of Harris Burdick"

I gave everyone a magic marble which is designed to be a good luck charm and something for them to remember the creative, precious moments we all had for the couple of hours we spent together.

 

All too soon  

                                      it was time to say goodbye.

Some of the pupils expressed an interest in coming back to make  some art.
This may happen towards the end of the year if there is time.

Thank you to  Mrs Anne Cato for being so well organised and inspirational, she and her pupils  from St Mary's Catholic School were a pleasure to have in my classroom/studio.

                                               The End
Creative Quote of the day
All my pupils are the creme de la creme. Give me  children of an impressionable age, and they are mine for life.
Muriel Spark


After school Art , craft mosaic and creativity classes for gifted pupils.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 3.30pm to 5.00pm
$25.00 per pupil, per hour including, artist grade materials.
All pupils have their individual programmes to suit their tastes and needs.
Pupils asked to complete drawings in a visual diary for home play which go towards a book at the end of the year.
Small classes, well behaved, focused and genuinely interested pupils of all ages are welcome.
Hurry limited places are available.

Phone  Janet 346-3435
txt 0273513887
emailjkeen@clear.net.nz