Art Education

Abrakadoodle Honored with “Go Green” Award

Art for kids is a wonderful way to introduce recycling activities! Abrakadoodle remarkable art education was recognized for its innovative “Green” company philosophy and art programs with a 2009 award presented by S&S® Worldwide. Abrakadoodle has developed recycling alliances with fellow franchise suppliers Fast Frames, Signs by Tomorrow. More recently Sign-A-Rama joined the Abrakadoodle’s Green Franchise Initiative by recycling unused or discarded sign materials that are used in Abrakadoodle programs to build sculptures, create fine art or provide unique painting canvases! Abrakadoodle has also introduced Eco-Papers (100-percent recycled paper frames with eco friendly dyes) in its art programs for children. Abrakadoodle is proud to paint a green path to a brighter future.

Green Kids in a Colorful World™ was designed by Abrakadoodle in 2007 to teach children about how they can help make the planet healthier while creating 2-D and 3-D masterpieces using recycled materials including plastic bottles, tubes, packaging materials and more. Students create whimsical Santon statues inspired by peasants from the Provence region of France. They sculpt masterpieces in the style of Tiffany, paint CD’s with colorful geometric designs like Piet Mondrian.

Inspired by the Cool Globes project, http://www.coolglobes.com/, Abrakadoodle program designers in 2008 created a workshop to help raise awareness about global warming while fostering art skills and creativity. The in-school field trip and workshop includes an interactive presentation that helps children learn how they can help live and create more eco-friendly. Children then make their own cool globes, applying what they have learned. Students increase their knowledge about best practices for helping the environment, and they develop a “green” vocabulary, as well as express their individual creativity about being green.

In continuing Abrakadoodle’s commitment to being green, Abrakadoodle creates and introduces new and innovative programs for children including a variety of art classes, camps and special events that emphasize creativity using recycled materials and teaches students about big and small ways in which they can care for our planet. With music, movement, phenomenal themes and cool art activities, kids will be inspired to save the planet while building visual arts skills, creativity and confidence. Abrakadoodle’s remarkable education programs help kids learn to create a more colorful, sustainable world.

Art for Kids

New thinking about doodling

Research has long shown that art benefits children in many ways. Art education opens children’s minds and helps them become more tolerant. It also improves student’s academic performance and helps them develop the skills needed for the 21st century workplace – critical thinking, creative problem solving, effective communication, teamwork and more. New research published February 27, 2009 in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology shows that the act of “doodling” may help improve memory recall. Study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, Ph.D., of the School of Psychology, University of Plymouth said, "This study suggests that in everyday life doodling may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing."

Promote creative doodling at home. Encourage your children not only to draw but to be inspired to stretch their imaginations and take their minds on a mini vacation. Take a moment from the busy day to be playful with art activities. Instead of a coloring book, give your child a blank sketch pad. Suggest that your child doodle a special creature, a new spaceship, a fanciful friend, or playful word art. Have some fun by offering themes or ideas that will spark your child’s creativity. Abrakadoodle remarkable art offers some online creativity games for kids – see http://www.abrakadoodle.com/kidsgamelist.html.

Art for Kids

Art and History Prove to be a Powerful Combination

Art education has a special place at the Barrier Islands Center, an historic site on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Abrakadoodle offers special workshops, after school classes, art enrichment programs and summer camps for children. In some cases, Abrakadoodle customizes its visual arts lessons that teach children to use their imaginations as they render creative works that depict the islands’ early inhabitants, seascapes, as well as its unique vegetation, coastal birds and fish.

Abrakadoodle art students at the Barrier Islands Center participate in an Art Rocks workshop. Their art works are based upon the style of Shepard Fairey, the contemporary artist whose portrait of Barack Obama will soon grace the National Gallery Art. These creations were sent to the White House to welcome President Obama.

“Because the Barrier Islands Center is located in one of Virginia’s most impoverished communities, we are particularly grateful for the community participation of programs like Abrakadoodle,” stated Laura Vaughan, Executive Director of Barrier Islands Center. “Monika and Abrakadoodle not only provide valuable educational programming, but they also help bring dollars and boost interest and participation that are so important right now as we face tough economic times.”

For nearly four years, Abrakadoodle has been partnering with the Barrier Islands Center (http://www.barrierislandcenter.com/events.html) to creatively engage children, as well as to help raise funds to help further the center’s mission.

Artists For Kids

Contemporary artists should be a part of any art education program. Melanie Smythe is an artist from Texas. She is a botanical illustrator who loves to draw flowers. She uses many techniques including pencil, pen, ink, graphite crumbs on mylar, watercolor, colored pencil, computer drawings, etc. Her work is called scientific illustration, which accurately depicts plant life found in nature. Scientific illustrators are always telling a story using drawing and composition to visually explain the structure, organization and relationship of an object. Smythe works together with scientists to be able to interpret and reconstruct her images with accuracy. Her art work is a great addition to art education since she applies creativity to science. Smythe brings art to kids by participating in Abrakadoodle’s Artist of Distinction program.

What Kids Can Learn From Smythe
(Art for Kids)

Melanie Smythe studies each flower before drawing it. Children can learn so much about nature while observing a flower. They can learn about the flower’s structure while using different techniques to represent it. Children can learn to use watercolor by blending colors, creating value with thin overlapping strokes, drawing lines, texture and more while painting a flower. Melanie’s art helps children appreciate nature by representing it through her unique style – a blend of creativity and science.

Smythe inspires creativity in children with her style which uses dots instead of lines. She teaches children to use this technique of applying hundreds of dots in a pattern to produce a flower. The dots are put closer together to make the image darker, and farther apart to make it lighter. This technique is called stippling, and children learn how to represent light and shadows. Her style lends itself to art education at its best!

Learn more about her work at:

http://www.naturalselections.us/

Artists For Kids

Natasha Wescoat is an artist from Michigan. She is a painter, illustrator, photographer and a videographer. Her works range from contemporary abstracts to pop art cartoons and her favorite medium is acrylic paint. She is an Abrakadoodle Artist of Distinction and she has works in private and corporate collections worldwide. Wescoat creates vibrant, whimsical paintings that are inspired by landscapes in which she expresses emotion, energy and movement.

What Kids Can Learn From Wescoat
(Art for Kids)





Natasha creates beautiful pictures using vibrant colors and swirling shapes. She likes to feel the movement, energy and life coming from her artwork. Children can learn about soft edge shapes using wavy lines, swirls and dots.


Wescoat is inspired by the lighter side of life and she wants the viewer to smile. Her artwork inspires children to express their feelings through colors and shapes while developing their creativity.

Learn more about her work at:


http://www.natashawescoat.com/

Artists For Kids

Mort Solberg is an award winning American artist who paints in oils, acrylics and watercolors. Solberg is an Abrakadoodle Artist of Distinction. He attended The Cleveland Institute Of Art studying painting and design. He established himself in the art world in California but, in 2006 he moved to Florida where he now paints full time. Solberg finds in nature his source of inspiration. Also his Native American ancestry is reflected on his creations. His techniques range from photo realism to total abstraction. He often paints an abstract background then adds realistic wild life to his paintings. Popular subjects are animals, birds, Native Americans and fishing scenes. Mort wanted to be an artist since he was a child. Today he is an advocate for art for kids.

What Kids Can Learn From Solberg
(Art for Kids)

Solberg's style of combining realistic and abstract images is a wonderful art education challenge for children. Children learn that art can combine both realism and abstractism effectively. Solberg creates parts of his paintings using a very large brush. This teaches children to freely create and paint without too much concern for small details. This type of painting encourages creativity and imagination in children.

Children identify with Solberg's love of the outdoors. Exploration of his art, encourages imagination and creativity. Learn more about Solberg on the web:

http://www.mortenesolberg.com/

Artists For Kids

Leonor Brazão comes from a family of artists and since early age was involved in music, dance and visual arts. She was born in Portugal, lived in Brazil and later moved to the United States where today she is a practicing artist and “Artist in Residence” for Abrakadoodle, a national art education program. Brazão’s creates abstract paintings and collages using vivid colors and organic body forms. She often includes subjects from her life such as music, her native country or people.

What Kids Can Learn From Brazão
(Art for Kids)

Brazão uses line and color to create images that inspire thought, creativity and imagination in children. Her tile paintings depict organic images that form letters showing children that fonts can take many forms and are fun to create!

Her colorful abstracts show children that they can take simple images from their lives and create colorful paintings or collages that can inspire kids art. Learn more about Brazão on the web at

http://www.brazao.com/