Painted faces

Painted funny faces

acrylic on canvas

"..no more teacher's dirty looks."

So, we've pretty much come to the end of our 'school' year. We've all decided enough is enough and it's goodbye workbooks, worksheets, essays, maths, and whatever else is considered too 'work like', and hello to iMovie, Photobooth, Magic Piano and other fun stuff!
The last few days have been quite arty. We've done 3D hands, Mondrian inspired paintings and Selfie Portraits. It's nice to be getting the paints out again after such a long time. I don't know why we haven't done much art. Sadly it's one of those activities that is easy to forget once you let it slip.
Well, we're trying our best to make up for it now.

3D optical illusion hands from this site.

Paintings inspired by Piet Mondrian

Selfie Portraits. They were supposed to be done in lovely smudgy oil pastels but after turning the house and my brain upside down trying to remember where the pastels were, the portraits were done with boring old twister crayons!  Gotta remember to put new pastels on the shopping list...

Oh, and we went on another fun walk and Scavenger Hunt yesterday. The results are on the Ready Rosie and Oobi Doobi blogs. My camera is officially dead, so I didn't join in. Maybe Santa will bring me a new camera this Christmas?

Venturing further afield

Yesterday the Snork Maiden started the first leg of her new journey and attended a pre-orientation day at our local high school. She was so nervous in the days leading up to it but as usual she rose to the challenge, mastered her fears and came out all smiles when Moomintroll and I arrived to pick her up. According to reports, everyone was lovely: the girls, the boys, and the teachers.  The woodwork teacher held them all in thrall as he manfully demonstrated how not to use the wood burning tool.
The science teacher had them experimenting in the lab with such rare and dangerous chemicals as vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. Amazing styrofoam block prints were artfully designed under the guidance of an art teacher and the day ended with a rousing game of general knowledge a la Million Dollar Minute, complete with nifty hand held devices.
The Snork Maiden is chomping at the bit to start school next year; it's really satisfying to see her so eager and keen to spread her wings. She's ready to move on to the next phase of her life and to see her embracing it with so much enthusiasm makes me so proud!

Someone who is not too happy about the thought of losing her favourite playmate, however, is Moomintroll.  She has absolutely zero desire to do anything remotely 'school' related, so yesterday while her sister enjoyed her day, Moomintroll and I went on our own adventure.  I devised a list and by incorporating her desire to 'just jump on a bus and see where it takes us', we embarked on our first photographic scavenger hunt.

Just to set the scene, this picture tells you where and which bus we took:

As I was enjoying the ride Moomintroll suddenly pressed the next stop button and we screeched to a halt. Our scavenger hunt began.

1. Something round

2. a tree from an interesting angle

3. your reflection

4. Eyes

5. a green car

6. wheels

7. an insect

8. a barcode

9. water

10. something peaceful

Then my camera suddenly ran out of battery, so I missed out on clouds, an animal and a 6 sided shape.  Kind Moomintroll took the last picture for me:

11. a 6 sided shape

I am linking up with Ready Rosie for The Scavenger Hunt Linkup.