My life as an art teacher

*Published originally on my 'Being Here' blog

My NEW life, that is, because certainly I could never have called myself this in the past. But to all intents and purposes, that is what I spend a large part of my working life as these days. An art teacher. Wonders never cease.

And I am enjoying it thoroughly! And my goodness me, what talent there is to be tapped into and set free. I have a few adult classes, including my lovely group of Friday evening ladies, who are as hooked on tangling as I am and in some cases, I would say even more so! And I have a great class of people who come on Thursday evening and never fail to be amazed at what they can do in an hour and half - indeed, many can't believe that they have made such a beautiful little work of art and at the same time been very relaxed and focused whilst doing it. I also have a fantastic class one morning a week with English people - nay, a family of English people. I've really missed them these last couple of weeks as they're in the UK at the moment but I do believe they'll be back at the earliest possibility.

And I have two classes of ZENKids a week, with growing numbers at each. And they are truly incredible. We've had a range of different themes for the classes, including making blowpen pictures, drawing cartoons, practising tangles and making some Japanese Notan images. All are tackled with enthusiasm and excellent results. Which I will share with you here. I have also been doing a far bit of drawing myself and enjoying that too! If you haven't yet seen the images I've shared on Facebook, Instagram and the Meraki Studio website (where have you been?) then please have a little look at the offerings here. The first few are mine - including my daughter's bedroom, which I also painted - and then the rest are from my classes.

Thanks for looking.
Axxx

Latest tangling craze - thanks to Eni Oken and her amazing tutorials - this month: Dragons.

A fractal tangle based on Fricle on a large Renaissance tile.

Narwal on a large Renaissance tile

Another of Eni's tutorial - tiny details. I loved doing this one!

Just a fun tile to do.

And newly repainted bedroom....

 And now a gallery of pictures from my adult classes.

A guided class, using a limited set of Zentangle patterns to practice shading and composition.

Using a little colour for the first time.

Great shading

Great detail

Excellent work, Clifford family!

An advanced class, practising a range of techniques

And, a small selection of the work from my ZENKids classes: There are more photos on the Facebook page for Meraki Studio Alcala or on our Meraki Studio Alcala blog.

Thank you for looking. Hope you like what you've seen. Today, we're doing home made stamps....there will be photos before long.

One more thing. I suspect I needed my studio as an excuse to do the official Zentangle course, which is only offered in the States. I've booked my place for the next one, which is in June 2018. I am unbelievably excited. It's my commitment to Zentangle and my intention to make it a part of my life and a part of the lives of as many other people as I get chance to share it with.

Zentangle Poems

Inspired by Maria Tovar-Perez, a CZT teacher here in Spain, our Friday tangling group have decided to use poetry as a base to create some art this week. You can see her work and that of her students on her Facebook page. I had given this technique a try a while back but wasn't happy with the results. I know now that I didn't go 'far enough' and was trying to avoid obscuring the words. The key is to select just a few words that you like or that make a different type of poem. The other words are lost to the tangles.

I had a go at a couple of poems before I took the class so that people could see some of the options to include on their own poems and in the class we practised on some of my old English class notes!


We don't like waste. I love what Belen did with hers...definitely an improvement on the untangled version but apologies that it's a bit out of focus.

I will post the final versions after out next class. There was a lot of enthusiasm for this and I am sure there will be some extremely interesting zenpoems produced.

These are some of mine. The first one is on a poem by Pablo Neruda called 'Un Amor' - A Love. I cannot explain the lemon slices....

Next is over a poem by Lorca, called 'Arbole, arbole' - Tree, tree,

And a poem by one of my favourite poets, W B Yeats, called 'The Song of Wandering Aengus.'

And this is not me touting for business, honest, BUT, if you have a poem that you would like me to turn into a Zentangle poem, please let me know. You could choose the particular words that you wanted highlighting and select a colour scheme for any gemstones, etc. or leave it to me.

Mainly it's just an excuse for me to keep doing them! Send me a message if you're interested.

Axxx