Goose photography.... Never judge a bird by the colour of its beak

 The Geese family outing.

 I have always been a bit scared of the gaggle of geese who live at the Sulphur Point Reserve in Rotorua. 

 But the day I went down to Sulphur Point with some bread and my camera with a friend; they were transformed into loving, gentle persistently interested in food, angels.


    They weren't aggressive at all

              They just made sure they were close

because they had to compete with the gulls for every crumb

 

 They opened their beeks without honking,  as the gulls 

                     swooped around like fighter pilots



  After eating it was time to have a bath.  
The male goose


  honks at his wife


 and they touch beaks



After a short while they both settled beside me incase I had more bread and preened themselves and each other.
 That orange beak is a great cleaning machine.

It was a peaceful friendly time. 
I felt like I was a part of their family for a while.
 I can't wait until they start to have chicks. 


The ablutions went on for quite a while and you can understand this because there are a lot of white feathers to keep pristine.

 

                        At the end, with a full stomach of bread and grass to digest, it was time for them to sleep and me to go. 
 I'd run out of bread you see, next time I will take two loaves.

                                  The human family outing

                             This young family, who I met down at Sulphur Point
               told me that they 

               come down three times a week to feed the birds                              with a loaf of cut white sandwich bread.

It is a ritual that started with him and his Dad and he always valued it so that when he had a child, it was one of the first outings he and his partner took her on

The geese are so polite they just wait and are so child friendly the baby is not scared. 

She loves the birds he said. 

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

The flight of the seagulls

These are my best shots.

 of that day at Sulphur Point. 

 People often overlook gulls and pass them off as common. 
Why is it that just because something is plentiful that it is not valued?

  Their wings and flying abilities are something to be celebrated as loudly as their cries for bread. 

The Black swan stayed close for bread as well. 

Creative Quotes

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.
Emily Dickinson

Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.
Doug Coupland

Bird Mosaic Paving Classes

Monday Tuesday Wednesday mornings. 

$250.00 per person including materials. 

Book your space. Do a bird  of your choise. 

Variety of projects to choose from but its in a bird theme. 

Birds on a stick for the garden classes  

4 sessions $250.00 per person . Pay each time you come $62.50

School mosaic  bird mural projects. 

Phone 073463435 Janet Keen for a quote.

Or email jkeen@clear.net.nz  

 

ESOL Students, Art in an hour in Rotorua by Janet Keen

I taught an  art lesson with a Japanese ESOL student, Hinako, who was at John Paul College for a short while.
She is a friend of my regular after school art pupil Momoko. 
She came to the studio for an hour last Tuesday and needed to make something  in one lesson, because she was returning home to Japan at the end of the week. 

So I let her decorate a flower I already had cut out of MDF.
She painted it first with two coats of Resene Metallics in a pink which is called Enchanted.
She then put a variety of beads and buttons and old New Zealand coins I  had with a  plastic Tiki in the middle with glue. 
I got her to copy out a label which said Flower of Fortune from New Zealand, which I wrote in English for her.
She will be able to go back home and show them what she made. 
This idea could spread to the whole of Japan and I would have a studio over flowing with Japanese art students which would suit me well because they are very artistic and a pleasure to teach.
Momoko is working on a mosaic cat, which takes a lot longer to do.

 Reporoa College student Sarah is in the same after school art class as Momoko and she had made a heart  the week  before using this colour scheme with  pink metallic paint.
So it was nice that Sarah's idea was honoured. 

If you would like to enrol your child in my after school painting and mosaic classes please ring 346-3435
The cost is $25.00 per hour, per student including most materials, if they are coming weekly. 
If it's a one off the cost is $30.00 per hour per person.

Email jkeen@clear.net.nz.  Classes run every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday after school and every morning for ESOL adult  students. 

I am also running art and creativity classes for special needs students during the day. 
Group and individual enquiries welcome. 

Creative Quote of the week. 
 Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist.”
― Eileen Miller

After School Art Students with Children's Book Illlustrations and homework

 Hanwei and Hanxi are two focused, hardworking and enthusiastic pupils who always do homework for me in their visual diaries. 
 
 They are also great little mosaic makers.

They have a large collection of images that will eventually fill an entire dairy.

It will be their first book and something they can treasure when they are adults.
It could be something they show their own children one day.

Each week I set them a topic and they fill in a page with their interpretation.
It is healthy to give pupils parameters so that they have an anchor, but to not be so rigid that you stifle them. 


If I set a topic that they don't want to do, I don't make them stick to it religiously, as I'm also wanting to empower them by letting them have some control.

I like to see how they interpret my ideas.
This is quite a delightful feeling; it is an honouring and it shows respect and regard for me as a teacher and a person.


It also gives them practise in fulfilling a brief for a client.
Being an artist often requires you to undertake commissions so I like to give my pupils an insight into this.

Of course I'm not expecting that they will become full time artists when they grow up.
 If they do then it's fine, but ultimately they need to be encouraged to do what they are passionate about.
It's not about me, it's about them.
 

The learning they experience from me with the techniques and ideas I expose them to is a lot more important and far reaching  than a case of them just drawing pretty pictures.
It's teaching them how to think from the right hand side of the brain and to enhance their creative capacity, which they will need for any career they have in the future. 

Apart from that there is the spiritual component that occurs when people are involved with art.
This is immeasurable and intangible. 



You just know by being near some people that their songs are  pumping out there like blackbirds on the top of a cedar tree. 
They are not leading quiet lives of desperation and going to their graves with their songs still in them as Henry Thoreau opined.

The joy and pleasure that comes from having fun and being praised and rewarded with colourful stickers for having a go will form a groove in their brain that hopefully they can keep with them into adulthood and old age.

I love kids  drawings because they are fresh, lively and free. 
 Hanwei and Hanxi sit down with their mother at home and they all do arty homework in their visual diary together.
Their mother's  work is beautiful and delicate.
The girls are always happy and are a pleasure to have in the class.
They are a delightful family and I am all the better for knowing them.

This goes for all of my pupils and their families.
The act of them coming to my studio for lessons makes us like a little creative family.

Their mother is going to let them blow up one of their illustrations and she is going to have them printed on teeshirts. 
They have set up a mini art gallery in their garage where everyone who comes into their home can view their work. 
This is such a good idea. 
It is very affirming for young artists. 


I will be adding to this post with other pupils and their homework. Practise and perseverence along with creativity are great attributes to encourage in your kids.
 It helps with their feelings of  success and confidence. 

Each person is catered to individually in my class, they are not carbon copies of each other or me. 

Pupils don't have to be academic or fast learners, they just have to have the desire to come along and apply themselves and have some fun while focusing on inventing something. 

Homework
 I never studied art, but taught myself to draw by imitating the New Yorker cartoonists of that day, instead of doing my homework.
Bill Keane

 Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.
Lawrence Kasdan

 I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. Lily Tomlin
 
 If you would like your creative  children to receive homework choices that they will love, enrol them in my after school mosaic and painting classes Mondays, Tuesdays Wednesdays and Fridays.
Phone Janet Keen 3463435 or email jkeen@clear.net.nz

Free 21 DAY Meditation with Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey

Miraculous Relationships

I am doing the 21 day meditation series with Deepak and Oprah because meditating helps with creativity. 

I am wanting to attract more good quality, happy, inspiring spiritual, intelligent, interesting and creative people into my life. 
You will find your journey more enjoyable and easier if you surround yourself with people whose values you respect and admire.  

 My goals for August were to 

1.Walk every day,
2. Meditate every day
3. Write three pages of stream of consciousness every morning
4. Do an upside down drawing every day of women's faces to improve my observation skills. 
5.To tidy something every day 
6. To blog every day. 

So far I have had mixed success but  I just see this as short term resistance. 

 Instead of giving up I am going to persevere. 

Perseverence in one of the most important attributes to have as a creative artist and indeed for anyone.
You just keep on trying and aiming for your goal and eventually you will get it if it's meant to be.

Aim for the moon and if you fall, you'll land amongst stars. 

 My current goal is to travel to Italy to see the mosaics.
 In order to do this I must have more paid work. 

I am running classes every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings on creativity, mosaics, painting and visual diary making for adults and groups. 
I'm even prepared to open up my studio in the evenings or on weekends  if groups of six people or more want to come along. 
I am grateful for the clients I  have and I  am open to attracting more. 

I  am also running after school art classes for kids on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays from 3.15 pm to 5.00 pm
They run for an hour
Topics covered: watercolour, oil, acrylic, watercolour pencil, air dried clay, mosaic and sculpture. Children's book illustration is a specialty
Each person does their own project.

                                      Hanwei and Hanxi

                                                         Kyle acrylic painting

                                                            Kyra water colour pencil painting

                                             Ryan and Cicely

                                                   Momoko watercolour painting

                                                             Sarah mosaics

                                              Yuhko oil painting
We have a lot of fun and we put out work that can be exhibited or hung up in the home. 
Artist grade materials are used and classes are small. 
I want more students so I am open to the abundance of this. 
 Mondays especially are available.

In the next school holidays I want to run mosaic school holiday sessions.
Pupils  will be able to make some wildlife in mosaic of their choice.

All the money I earn will go towards my trip to Italy next year.
 This is a spiritual and cultural pilgrimage.

 Obviously I need to draw in the right people to help. 

Deepak Chopras meditation series is all about attracting the right people into your life. 
I'm giving it a go for 21 days. 
Why not? 
 I am open to all the miracles that will occur during this time. 

I will gain a deeper knowledge of myself and others.
 I will tune more into my intuition an I will find some more inner peace. 

I did the last one with him and it was great. 
I encourage all people to sign up. 
It's only 21 days out of your life. 
Just google it and and sign yourself up. 
There's still time we are only onto Day 2. 

I will be reporting on this blog all the miracles that happen to me during the month of August, so watch this space. 
Please send me a comment otherwise I don't know who is reading this.
 

Miracle quotes of the day
There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein

 Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you'll see them all around you. Jon Bon Jovi


When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. Helen Keller

 Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? Henry David Thoreau

My miracle for today was that I saw four blackbirds all at once in my garden. 
I usually only see one so perhaps it's a family .

Email jkeen@clear.net.nz or phone 073463435 to reserve a place in my painting or mosaic classes.