Favorite Maine Cat & Dog characters, Lupine scenes, 4th of July scenes, red white n blues student art displays - early summer 2017

Kids' class today did 'favorite Maine cats & dogs'  working from some Maine children's books - such as Nellie the lighthouse dog, (in this case it was Nellie the flight instructor) and Togus the Cat. The illustrator of Togus the Cat was a well loved local art teacher, Thomas Block, who just passed away. His teaching had a strong influence on the lives of quite a few people around here over the years.

Nellie the dog was artist Bob Ensor's - she was known around the Marshall Pt. Lighthouse because they lived around there and went on many walks there. A friend wrote a story about her. Bob made the drawings. Then came the story of Nellie as a flight instructor, (actually flying instructor). Togus the cat is another well loved and real animal character of Maine.

Adult art class did lupine practices and drawings yesterday. Next time we will have to get some extra inspiration from the story of Mrs. Rumphias and the lupine. Students had to invent 10 samples of possible markings/scribbles/strokes for conveying lupine stalks. One of these was to include their name as the flower stalk.

Adult class had done Red White and Blues for the 4th of July - drawings of bluebirds and strawberries, even though bluebirds would rather eat mealworms and insects than berries.

In kids' class for the 4th of July we did parade and fireworks scenes.