Art and Nature for Families

It may be school vacation and therefore quiet in lots of Cape places this week but here at the sanctuary we've been quite busy with programs for families and kids of all ages. There have been programs on owls and tracking and one that was called Art and Nature that these photos are from. Four families joined us with kids ranging in age from 6 to 11.

We did some practice sketches in the classroom using contour drawing before heading out to the bird feeder area to sketch from life.

It didn't take long for several of the young people to figure out that greedy red squirrels will sit longer in one pose than most of the birds that were flying back and forth from bush to feeder.

Most birds repeat motions and behaviors so if you are trying to sketch them from life it is good to be patient and wait for them to naturally repeat themselves. It's also fun to start more than one sketch on a page so you can work from more than one bird at a time.

Once back in the classroom we got out the watercolors and began to paint, using our drawings to prod our memories for details.

The adults sat at their own table and the kids were happy to spread out in their own space. Most of the adults hadn't painted in years but they seemed to have a pretty good time. The kids took their work pretty seriously. You can see the concentration this young man is giving to his outline of a bird.

Even the youngest participants had fun recreating the colorful birds they saw or imagined.

Art and Nature Classes like this one are offered on Saturday mornings through the month of March. Pre-registration is required but no experience or materials are! Please call 508-349-2615 for more information.