Looking Back…

We’ve had the opportunity to meet some great students, and share some especially lovely experiences over the last 8 weeks. Here are a few choice moments that we will remember from this term. We had so much fun!






As always, it’s been a blast! Visit our Flickr site to check out more of the goings on from our classes this Fall. Don’t forget to visit our Flickr after Saturday November 19th to see additional artwork and class candids.

Sneak Peek - Online Exhibition!

Two more days until the conclusion of our Fall term. Wow. I can’t believe classes are over for this year. We’ve had so many great Youth and Pre-College instructors teach with our program during 2011, and we’ve had so many awesome students join us. While there are still a few works to be documented from this round of classes, the majority of images are up on our Flickr Site! Here is a sneak peek of the amazing art from our Art Explorers, Drawing Studio, and Visual Elements students!



If you would like to see more visit our Online Exhibition Collection.

Winter Classes and Scholarships

Our Fall classes will be ending this Saturday. Looks like we’ll have to take a break from “Art Stretches” with Wayne Bund; a ritual that our 4 to 6 year old students practice each week prior to starting the day’s project. But don’t worry, we have a lot of great class options starting over the next few months! Our Winter term starts on January 28th and runs through March 17th, 2012. We will be offering Mini Masters (4-6), Drawing + Painting (7-8), Art + Storytelling (9-11), Hand Printed Fabric Design(12-14), and Beginning Painting Techniques (Pre-College). You can read more about upcoming Youth Program classes by visiting the registration section of our website.

Did you know that we also offer scholarships to attend classes with our Program? Our application deadline for Winter Term is Friday December 9th, 2011. You can learn more about Youth Program scholarships including required materials and information, download a PDF of our application, or apply online on the Youth & Teen section of our website.

Our Portland Project and Exhibit!

Classes are hard at work on their submissions for our Youth Program Exhibition in March. Art Explorers and Visual Elements started the project this last Saturday. Several students from Drawing Studio have completed their submissions for our Portland-centric exhibit. Check out this awesome piece that features our city’s stellar soccer team, the Portland Timbers. Click the jump to see more —> River City Art Exhibit

Clay Creatures

Our Art Explorers clay work has come out of the kiln! It looks awesome! Among other items that were fired: several houses, a bird, a few cats, and some crazy shapes that aren’t quite identifiable.

Landscapes with Amy Steel

Last Saturday, longtime instructor Amy Steel subbed for our Art Explorers class. She is an amazing educator and a good friend to the program. She coordinated with Wayne Bund on the lesson; an exploration of landscape using Ansel Adams as a reference point. Students looked at his photography and read a story that focused on silhouetted figures and shape. Our 4-6 cohort worked with sumi ink on watercolor paper to create really lovely black and white landscapes.

The final results can be seen below.

Self Portraits!

As usual, Saturday classes at PNCA were epic. Several projects are starting to come to a close as the end of the semester draws near. All of the classes are working on, or will start, their submissions to our 2012 exhibit which takes place in March. We will keep you posted on that project as the submissions are completed. In addition, our Drawing Studio class started a self portrait project this last week. We encourage students to draw from life, using mirrors as a reference. It’s always interesting to see how 7 and 8 year olds will depict themselves during an observed portrait assignment.

Online Exhibition - Fall 2011

We’re still a few weeks out from the conclusion of our Fall term, but artwork is already being uploaded and shared on Flickr from our current youth classes. There are some really lovely pieces of work in our exhibition sets. Hey, did you know that we have an exhibition archive that features work from the last 3 years of classes? It’s true. It’s a great way to see what a class with our program is like or explore the awesomeness that is kid-made-art. If you what to check out this term’s sets or sets from past classes just visit our Online Exhibition Archive on Flickr.

More from our Evening Classes

We are about 3-weeks out from the end of our Fall term. It’s hard to believe the time has gone by so quickly. Even so, our Instructors and students are making the most of that time in our classes by producing some great artwork! Artist and photographer Heather Zinger was nice enough visit campus last week, and take some very lovely photos of the goings on in Continuing Education. You can see more images from our classrooms by visiting our flickr site. If you would like to know what we will be doing next term you can visit our Registration site, or contact Continuing Education Staff directly.

On Drawing the Universe

On Saturday, as classes were starting I made my way to the Art Explorers room to check in. This is a sort of ritual for me since documenting classes, student performances, and artwork has become a part of my job in recent years. As usual, I took a seat in room 210, listening quietly as students talked with one another the way young children often do; one little girl commenting on how Wayne is nice, and waits for all the students to arrive before starting a project in his class. Another student mentioned that she was drawing her father. To my left, a student worked furiously in his sketchbook. He was making stars with marks in all directions, flipping pages and drawing circle after circle. Intrigued, I asked him, “What are you drawing?”

His answer, “Everything in the Universe.”

Above are images from his sketchbook that day… so this is what the universe looks like. Cool.