Daphne Goes to Venice (Part 3)

Saturday I really put Daphne to the test.  If we're going to sketch Venice in real life, we'd better practice sketching canals right now.  I was a bit scared for her (and for me...I figured she'd balk, or worse).

I showed her the following photo, pointed out a few things like "See how the reflections fall right below the buildings themselves?" and "See how the building on the left disappears off the page at the top?"  I saw her looking at the photo and I thought maybe her eyes were glazing over when I heard her say "I totally understand what you're saying."  I leaned in and said "You don't understand what I'm saying?" "No.  I TOTALLY understand."  (She's 6.5!) That was my cue to say "I'm leaving you now to draw.  See you in a few."  

Those of you that took my "Venice Vicariously" workshop might
remember this photo was the one I painted from.

...and here's Daphne's sketch.
She drew the main shapes first and then, as she said, 
she "drew the details last".  That's my girl!

What do you think!?  Other than some angle issues (perspective issues...which even my adult students encounter!), she completed it beautifully in about 20 minutes.

We leave for Venice in 2.5 weeks.  My itinerary will be slightly different this trip because I don't want to take her where it's crowded (I'll share our itinerary at some point...I'm hoping to see things I don't usually get to see).  I typically stay away from crowds anyway, but at some point you do have to go through them or around them (although April is a splendid time when tourists have not quite arrived en masse).

P.S. in the reference photo she worked from, she saw the flag in the top right and asked me about it.  These are hung throughout Venice and the lion represents St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice.  I myself own 2 Venice flags so I gave her the smaller of the 2 for her room.  Happy camper = Happy grandma!

So...please tell me if you've ever taken your grandchild on a trip with YOU!  Where did you go?  What did you do? HOW did it go??

You might also enjoy:

Daphne Goes to Venice (Part 1)

Daphne Goes to Venice (Part 2)

And remember, in September, I'm teaching 
at a castle in France (where we'll LIVE!)

You can find all that info right HERE.

Come, and bring your non-painting spouse too! 

READ MY LATEST POST HERE

www.HelenKBeacham.com

Daphne Goes to Venice (Part 2)

In just 5 weeks, I head to Venice with Daphne (my 6 yr old artist/granddaughter) and her Daddy (our son, Antoine....he kept his French name when we moved from Montreal to the U.S. when he was only 3.5 yrs old.)

When Antoine decided to join us on this Venice trip, I wanted to be sure he wouldn't be bored, because Daphne and I will sketch or paint every day (probably all day long, since it's her favorite thing to do).  Antoine reassured me and said he might actually paint with us!  As a child, he was good at sketching, but real life got in the way of things creative although I'm sure he'd say golf is his creative outlet!

As part of my effort to get him up to speed quickly, I've created a tiny TRAVEL PALETTE for him (it's actually a pill container!).  I've included 3 cool colors, 4 warm colors and I've added Shadow Violet by Daniel Smith which is a color I can't live without lately. It plays so nicely either by itself or mixed with other colors.

Pill Container turned into mini travel palette.  Buy it HERE
(If you buy a different brand, make sure it's still white.)

Pigments from left:  Daniel Smith (DS) Thalo Blue (green shade), Winsor & Newton (WN) Permanent Rose, DS Nickel Titanate Yellow, DS Quinophthalone Yellow, DS Aussie Red Gold, WN Cadmium Red, DS Ultramarine Blue, DS Shadow Violet (in the center).

The first 3 are cool colors.  The other 5 are warm.

You really could use whatever cool and warm colors you already have, but try to stick with blue/red/yellow since there are not many wells.

You may buy the water brush HERE.

Then I created a chart in the back of his SKETCH BOOK that shows him what every color looks like, painted over every other color.  Look at all the colors you can create with just 7 colors! Check out the variety of greens w/o one single tube of green being included!

I used a PINK PIG 270g A5 Posh Banana Watercolor Book, but when I went to find it online for you, it's only showing up on Amazon UK.  I do believe I actually bought it through them and it shipped to me in about 2 weeks' time.  The price is right and the paper holds up very well to lots of water.  Check it out HERE.
The colors bled only because I didn't wait long enough to cover the initial color with more color.  I knew better.

For Venice or France, I particularly like the combo of Shadow Violet with all of the other colors (as shown in the top row of the chart)! Except when you're on the Venetian island of BURANO, when all of the other brighter colors will come into play!

Even though I use all kinds of travel palettes, I'm planning on all 3 of us using this new mini version in April. I'll let you know what Daphne thinks about that in a future post! We're really starting to get excited now!

You may also enjoy "Daphne Goes to Venice (Part 1)" HERE.

In September, I'm teaching at a castle in France (where we'll LIVE!)

You can find all that info right HERE.

Non-painting spouses are also invited! 

READ MY LATEST POST HERE

www.HelenKBeacham.com

Daphne goes to Venice (Part 1)

This coming April, I'm taking Daphne (my youngest granddaughter) to Venice with me.  With us will be her Daddy (our son), one of her favorite people on Earth!  I'm excited he's coming too because we never get to spend much time together and he's heard me talking about Venice for years. He might as well see what all the fuss is about!

About 1.5 years ago, after one of my Venice trips, Daphne (then age 5?), listened very attentively to my travel stories.  She took me to one of my watercolors hanging on their wall, and said, "tell me again about the bird in the cage?".  

"Italian Colors" by Helen K Beacham Fine Art
In a Private Collection.

She listened again, as I told her the story of sitting across the canal from these colorful buildings on Burano (an island in the Venetian lagoon, just north of Venice).  I told her that an older lady was playing piano from the top window in the orange house.  I told her that there was a birdcage in the window below that, where a canary sang for us while we painted!

Daphne, with truly innocent eyes, looked at me and said "I'm going with you one day, Oma".  Oh, boy.  I was smitten and then I spent a year working on her parents to get the okay to take her.  And now we're actually going!  Planning is half the fun, BTW.  She's our little artist, so I've already got her drawing from some of my Venice photos so that she gets used to the different architecture and colors.

She spent the night this week, and together we read the story "Mimi and Piggy's Adventure in Venice".

Book by Chisato Tashiro.  Find it HERE.

Many questions ensued after that, including "Can I go swimming in the Grand Canal?".  I replied "No, Daphne. There are lots of boats on the Grand Canal."  After a second to think, she said "after the boats go home for the night, can I go swimming??".  And so OUR adventure continues....

I think I'd like to record our story as time goes by.  If they bore you, just delete-delete!

I wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm grateful for each of you that have touched my life.  I wish I could repay the bounties!!

______________

In 2019, I'm teaching at a castle in France (where we'll LIVE!)

And YOU can come with me!

You can find all that info right HERE.

Early Bird fees (thru this Dec 15) apply!

Non-painting spouses are also invited! 

And following the Castle workshop, I'm thinking of adding a

Sightseeing trip to Cinque Terre, Italy (or elsewhere TBD).

Let me know if you'd like info as it develops.

READ MY LATEST POST HERE

www.helenkbeacham.com

BeachamFineArt@gmail.com

843-408-5240

Daphne Goes to Venice (Part 4)

We're back from our terrific trip to Venice!  Daphne grinned from ear to ear every day (other than for one hour on Day 7 when she had a meltdown in a restaurant...not a tantrum, just big fat tears.  She was worn out and we still had a 1 hour concert ahead of us.  She got over it and we ended up with a memorable evening!)

Things I learned:

1.  Don't expect your child to sleep soundly the whole way over the ocean just because they're good sleepers normally.  Have plenty of entertainment available.  Necessities:  Good headphones, various flavors of gum, and a kid sized fluffy blankie and pillow.

2.  Don't expect your picky eater to suddenly want to eat everything put in front of her, just because you're in Venice!  Luckily, she truly enjoyed the bread, potatoes (not so much those other veggies) and she loves prosciutto and salami. And gelato!!! And brie or gnocchi!

3.  Anticipate fatigue in your wee ones.  On the front end, I shared my intentions of buying a scooter for her so she was "high" with anticipation and she never once complained of being tired once she got it.  We also gave her the option of walking/scooting to our destinations or riding a boat.  The scooter was foldable so you could easily carry it on board, and, when we left Venice, we abandoned it in the apartment for the next family to enjoy.

4.  Much of the culture will be over their heads. I gave Daphne a writing journal.  On the first few pages, I wrote a small paragraph about things she'd see:  cisterns, knockers, lions, fountains and so on.  I also wrote a bit about how Venice is made up of  118 small islands with bridges connecting them.  She read it on the plane and was ready to watch for these things when we got there.  She then wrote daily in her journal.  Some evenings it was hard for her to remember everything that happened, but with the aid of her camera and pictures, she managed pretty well on her own!

5.  Give them a little grownup freedom.  I gave her my old camera to use.  I attached it to a kid-sized lanyard and she had that camera with her the whole time.  First she was taking panoramic shots.  Soon, as she observed me, she started honing in on closeup shots, even just reflections in the water. (I don't think there's a dog or pigeon in Venice that DIDN'T get photographed!!!  Lots of paintings to come from those, I imagine!)

6.  Don't assume kids wouldn't like exhibitions (or concerts).  One day, I recommended to Antoine (her Daddy, our son) that he could go inside the DaVinci exhibit (where they've created working models of DaVinci's inventions) while she and I sketched outside.  He suggested she might like the show too, so we all went in.  She seemed fascinated by it all!

7.  This one's addressed to me:  Don't assume your little artist won't want to sketch EVERY day.  She very well might!

The day (night??) we landed back in JFK, Daphne looked at me.  She said "I'm going back to Venice one day."  I said "Yes, I'm sure you will."  She said "But...probably not before I'm 12."  😍😍💙💜💚💗

The End (for now)