Welcome!
Thoughts from Miss Lani
Each quarter I have penned thoughts to the parents and caregivers of our Children’s Studio art-making enrollees. This winter-spring term, I am sharing my thoughts about the Power of the Arts.
Art is a vehicle that allows children the expression of a depth and complexity of emotion beyond what their words can convey.
Art is like a portal to emotional literacy, a skill we all need, in my opinion, to form strong relationships through our lives. Working with parents – some who have struggled, some who have incredible balance, interpersonally, and some who seek to recalibrate… I have found always that paint, permission to ease up a little, and friendship can connect and heal.
Children’s insight cited in their art making is a reflection of how they speak to themselves as they paint what they feel, not always what they see… rather what they feel!
I watch very carefully – as do you – and we learn from the children, do we not?
As a teacher – and as I like to say, a trained learner – my teachers have been often the most unlikely people. I believe children have taught me and have a great deal to continue to teach us. They often lead the way and I invite you to “walk with them” and with their self-expressions in their art work these next weeks. They will offer us so much.
Best, Miss Lani
Art After School
2024
Now Accepting Enrollment ~ Registration for FALL 2024 Classes
To register or for questions, text (preferred) or call Miss Lani’s cell: 774-563-3069 or email the Children's Art Studio shastinaart@gmail.com
Click here to download a PDF of the Fall 2024 Art After School courses.
Art After School with Miss Lani
Tuesdays; 3:00–5:15pm
Wednesdays: 2:00–5:00pm
Thursdays: 3:15–5:30pm
Friday: 3:15–5:30pm
Preschool Age Morning Art with Miss Lani
Fridays: 9:30-11:30am
$590.00 for the 11 week series
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Tuesdays: Ages 5, 6, 7 year olds • 3:00-5:15pm
Open to Discovery – Look, Draw and Make it POP!
Aaron Curry, David Hockney and Keith Haring lead and inspire us as we view artists whose zest for art makes it fun and active. How do these artists create boldness? Let’s find out! Possibilities of work for the future … seeing anew, not what has been done in the past!
September 10, 17, 24
October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
November 5, 12, 19
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Wednesdays: Ages 6, 7, 8, 9 • 2:00-5:00pm
Animal Portraits – Animals and our Wilderness Replenished
Children – the good news is after six years of focusing on “S’more love for animals,” we observe determined efforts are bringing seals, fish penguins back to despoiled places… (our wishes answered). Spectacular ecological and humanistic restorations have occurred, wildernesses replenished and wondrous scenes of stormy petrels, fur seals, king penguins, elephant seal pups are being sighted – returning to their sense of places of their birth “homes.” Our work continues, however, as we explore the animals’ lives. We shall draw and paint portraits of animals prone to reflections – and their characteristics. We shall continue to promote hope for the abundance of species – not their extinction. We honor our natural world in painterly ways. We value animals as animal persons!
September 11, 18, 25
October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
November 6, 13, 20
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Thursdays: Ages 8, 9, 10,11 • 3:15-5:30 pm
At the Dawn of a New Age – A Taste of Modernism III – Advanced Class
Branching out – we shall focus on selections of paintings currently held at the Whitney and Museum of Modern Art, New York City. We will emphasize the extraordinary French School and School of Paris late 19th and early 20th century artists who helped redefine Modernism and a new culture of art. Furthermore, the show at the Whitney, now assembles 60 works by forward-looking American painters, sculptors, photographers and print makers from 1900–1930. Transformative works – a time of optimism.
September 12, 19, 26
October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
November 7, 14, 21
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Friday Mornings: Ages 3, 4, 5 • 9:30-11:30 am
Exploring Watercolor Painting
Watercolor painting is fun and gentle, offering saturated colors and a variety of expressive gestures to young painters. We will learn a variety of “next octave” techniques as returning young artists make their own, original paintings, using this exciting medium. We say – “All aboard!”
September 13, 20, 27
October 4, 11, 18, 25
November 1, 8, 15, 22
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Friday Afternoons: Ages 9, 10, 11, 12 year olds • 3:00-5:15 pm
Graphic Passion – Advanced Class
We shall explore a kaleidoscope lens of artists whose works “jump off the page.” New upcoming multimedia artists who have showcased at the Denver Museum, Museum at Santa Barbara, and the Museum of Art in Chicago. We are eager to explore… and paint… with pens and ink calligraphy. We shall enjoy a creativity that comes from the heart and lives in the memory. We say “Let’s Rock!”
September 13, 20, 27
October 4, 11, 18, 25
November 1, 8, 15, 22
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Walk with Miss Lani
Miss Lani is happy to meet your child after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Marion Cross School post 104 and walk joyfully back to the studio. Please text Miss Lani with your request with advance notice. The advanced classes walk on the path on their own.
Text or call Miss Lani: 774-563-3069 or email the Children’s Art Studio shastinaart@gmail.com
Art After School
2025
~ Now Accepting Enrollment ~
Registration for SPRING 2025 Classes
To register or for questions, text (preferred) or call Miss Lani’s cell: 774-563-3069 or email the Children's Art Studio shastinaart@gmail.com
Click here to download a PDF of the Fall 2024 Art After School courses.
Art After School with Miss Lani
Tuesdays; 3:00–5:15pm
Wednesdays: 2:00–5:00pm
Thursdays: 3:15–5:30pm
Friday: 3:15–5:30pm
Preschool Age Morning Art with Miss Lani
Fridays: 9:30-11:30am
$50/class • $400.00 for the 8 week series
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Tuesdays: Ages 5, 6, 7 year olds • 3:00-5:15pm
Open to Discovery – Look, Draw and Make it POP!
Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet, and Pierre Augustus Renoir lead and inspire us as we view artists whose zest for art makes it fun and active. How do these artists create boldness? Let’s find out! Possibilities of work for the future … seeing anew, what has been done in the past for 150 years!
April 29
May 6, 13, 20, 27
June 3, 10, 17
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Wednesdays: Ages 6, 7, 8, 9 • 2:00-5:00pm
Our Eighth Vibrant Series ~ Wonder of Animals
The youth artists chant “S’more love for animals.” From Mount Denali in Alaska to the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, we shall continue to paint the resilient animals, their habitats and capture “their roars” for our help to protect the abundance of all animal species, all over the world! Jane Goodall’s advocacy guides us. Her life’s work with animals continues to inspire us to protect our natural world! We must!
Miss Lani believes in our youth artist’s “artistic communion” concerning animals. This ongoing connection in this our “Wonder of Animals” course is a coming together and the art work concerning animals helps to create something of an extraordinary awareness!
April 30
May 7, 14, 21, 28
June 4, 11, 18
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Thursdays: Ages 9, 10, 11, 12 • 3:00 – 5:20
“Art Aliveness” – a contemporary mix – Ed Ruscha, Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly. Here’s to Modernism.
The advanced art students have a taste for modernism – it seems natural to them, for they like what is new and innovative that sits well with their zest for life! While moved by themes of Impressionism last fall, we tend now to focus on contemporary artists in this course. In some cases, the young artists have been painting with me in our studio for eight years. We are growing! We will study painting, print making, and photography as we look, with zestful insight, into American contemporary artists and their colleagues from international countries!
Ed Rascha is deeply influenced by literature, photography, and film. He loves books… studies languages! He uses unusual word parings and rhymes. Time magazine has honored him as one of 100 most influential people in our decade. He is married, father of two sons and makes his home in Los Angeles. His “pop art” is exciting. Unconventional curious thinking – he intrigues youth!
Frank Stella guides our love for advanced art making. Additionally, Jack Bush, the Canadian color field painter will be viewed and studied for his works, are on the rise after his retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, several years ago. His work Red Side Right is one of Miss Lani’s favorite “sash” canvases as it is referred to. Bold color – personal with heart.
Ellsworth Kelly whose work includes our Dartmouth Panels, painted aluminum, “at the Hop” will be visited and studied, as well. Miss Lani met with him on the day the installation was achieved for us – our community.
May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
June 5, 12, 19
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Fridays: Ages 8, 9, 10, 11 years • 3:00 – 5:20 pm
Advanced Class
You and Your World
Who are you in the world at large? Let us affirm the positive: “I make room / in life / for joy!” We will explore “us” and sketch persons – size, scale, and proportions, as we create portraits and self-portraits, as well.
Globes, puppets, paper objects, poetry, wire, copper, wood, shells, mosaics, will be experimented with as mediums as we look and see how we “match” with the things of our world. We shall boost energies!
It is fun to spend class time – drawing from one another, modeling. We’ll pose – wearing clothing with interesting decals, patterns – and youth will take turns being “in the spot light.” Musical instruments, sports gear, books, skate boards, bamboo objects, flowers, plates, spoons, umbrellas, robots – all will generate ideas for poses.
In some cases, we will curl up on our oak floor. We shall set self-consciousness aside – giggles and embarrassed moments will quickly fade away. We are beautiful and fit – young artists.
Picasso, Matisse, and other artists where their art figures were interestingly designed will be compared and discussed.
We shall learn about the “art of looking” as a process… life-long intentions… and value our time together!
May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
June 6, 13, 20
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Walk with Miss Lani
Miss Lani is happy to meet your child after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Marion Cross School post 104 and walk joyfully back to the studio. Please text Miss Lani with your request with advance notice. The advanced classes walk on the path on their own.
Text or call Miss Lani: 774-563-3069 or email the Children’s Art Studio shastinaart@gmail.com
Chappy is always in our hearts!
It is My Hope
From commitment to a our Children's Art Studio and vibrant classes in 2024.
Our untiring emphasis on art education and our collaborative sensitivity to our artistic families...
That the Children's Art programming extends energies, resources and talents in ways that enliven our town of Norwich.
Thank you for including opportunities in the arts in your lives.
— Miss Lani
Saturday Art Adventures 2024
Now Accepting Enrollment ~ Registration for FALL 2024 Classes
To register or for questions, text (preferred) or call Miss Lani’s cell: 774-563-3069 or email the Children's Art Studio shastinaart@gmail.com
Click here to download a PDF of the Fall 2024 Saturday Art Adventures courses.
All Saturday Art Workshops are for children ages 4-11 (multi-age class) from 1:30-3:30. The cost is $50.00 per child for each workshop.
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September 7: HUGE – VIBRANT – We love David Hockney’s canvases, art-making and color chords!
We will paint large-scale abstract art today. Hockney’s inventive paintings teach us to delve into our art making with deep brilliance of color chords! His line and texture dynamics are so rich that we shall want to continue the entire day and into the evening. Children love this artist like no other.
September 21: Pissarro’s Love for Harvest Time
Miss Lani will explore with children ages 4-11 the life of Camille Pissarro, the French landscape artist who was particularly fascinated with pastoral orchards and farmlands. He loved to showcase the people who tilled the soil and worked the fields at harvest times. His positive altruism to paint the beauty of the hearts of people, at work, motivated him! He strongly held “that no one was greater or lesser than anyone else…” Pissarro’s pro-active behavior was influential and gained new attention for justice and equality for the working class in France. Impressionism evolved with young artists, including Degas. Pissarro painted until his passing in 1902.
October 5: Colorful Clever Creepy Critters
Did you know that beetles are much like artists? They spy in their world, love to change colors and surprise and delight in size and patina. Our students painted “MEET THE BEETLES” in a Saturday Art Adventure last spring. The result: brilliant specimens and environs. Let us capture creepy critters once more. We shall add to our showcase… cannot wait!
October 19: Chocolate and Art — It is an art party like none other!
“The reason I love chocolate: it makes me happy! The reason I love art: it makes me smart!”
Words spoken by one young artist… Yes!
Young artists will enjoy painting with chocolate syrup and making homemade ice cream and chocolate candy bark of course! Fun. Hilarious. Edible Art, you might say. It is a tradition… and a sweet creative endeavor. We have repeated this adventure for five years – yum, yum!
November 2: French Doll Making
Doll Making in the French way… delicate and sweet style at play. Learn how to make a playful doll from scratch, using soft fabrics to create the shape, forming the doll’s head, body, and clothing. Hand painted faces will be the creative work of thin brush strokes. It is really a keepsake. This offering incorporates the beauty of stitching and creating dolls. The color chords are youthful, playful and beautiful for certain! Several seamstress artists will join us to ease our work with sewing needles and threads.
November 9: Van Gogh’s Sense of Nature
Santa Barbara Museum of Art wants you to view their exhibit of this lone genius. We agree. Plus, one cannot enjoy the autumn or time of harvest without celebrating our views of Van Gogh’s “Haystacks” when we drive by our rural farms here that personify a dignity that is lovely and heartfelt. With that in mind — the children and I will paint our own Crossroads Farm Farm and Cedar Circle Farm at harvest. Each young artist will decide what is fresh and inspirational for them. I can imagine some pumpkins and spiders will be involved in some choices!
November 16: Celebration of National Cookie Month
The aroma of home baked cookies… and a tradition for art families and Miss Lani. The delicious scent — ah-h! Today we are going to celebrate America’s favorite treat with a “bake-off” contest: Hanover Inn, Umpleby’s, Norwich Inn, and Lou’s. After lots of tasting — we will select the young artists’ favorite confection: the chocolate chip cookie. We shall paint it on canvases, name it, and taste and eat some more! A fun day, for certain.
Children's Art Studio
“Art is the highest form of HOPE. If it has any strength, at all, it will outlive the vagaries of history!”
– Richard Serra, Artist
Saturday Art Adventures 2025
~ Now Accepting Enrollment ~
Registration for SPRING 2025 Classes
To register or for questions, text (preferred) or call Miss Lani’s cell: 774-563-3069 or email the Children's Art Studio shastinaart@gmail.com
Click here to download a PDF of the Fall 2024 Saturday Art Adventures courses.
All Saturday Art Workshops are for children ages 4-11 (multi-age class) from 1:30-3:45.
$55.00 per child for each workshop
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April 26: Everything Is Interesting
How do we become an explorer of the world?
Children who engage in art making know 1) always be looking, 2) consider everything alive and animate, 3) everything is interesting – look closer, 4) alter your course, 5) observe. Today let us put our knowledge to work!
We shall study patterns and make connections today. It occurs to us that artists and scientists analyze the world around them in surprisingly similar ways! They also have one thing in common – they are collectors! We will learn about ethnographers – people who collect and document. Everything is interesting. We are going to learn about and focus on what we are drawn to… what works for us. Individual bamboo boxes will be painted and mosaics will be embellished by you to treasure and hold all the notes, collections and things we document that are important to you! You are an explorer and this is a BIG DAY for explorers – a new artful mission begins, TOP Secret!!!
May 3: Drawn to Horses
From the caves of Lascaux to the deserts of Arabia, from Mount Olympus to the hills of our farms and pastures, horses have captured the imaginations of children and families throughout the world! Inspired by mythology, poetry, musicians and movement, we will paint and sculpt from a variety of materials. We
shall consider the anatomy of the horse and like French artist Franz Marc, we will appreciate the spirit and energy of all horses. We cherish his work. “The Blue Horse” is Miss Lani’s favorite painting of these majestic animals!
May 17: Learning from Gandhi
A true peace advocate. A man of non-violence, manners and collaborative spirit… this leader from India has had a spiritual and artful life history to share. He achieved world honor… And today we will read stories, learn from his ideals, practice his teaching and paint his portrait. It will be nourishing for us in our art making to remember him… and goodness, peace, kindness lead our path.
May 24: The Creature Connection
Animals and people. We have always been bound together. Humans are animals, after all. In art, we shall look at the many bonds with animals and also to the distance between us and them. No other animal makes operas or nuclear weapons. How did we become so different and what made us human?
Animals abound in our earliest art, suggesting that a basic fascination with the bestial community may well have been innate. The cave paintings as Lascaux are an ochred zooanalia of horses, stags, felines, a wooly rhinoceros, a bird, and a leaping cow – and only one very frail man!
We shall enjoy looking at researchers’ traces to our roots of animal love. It is our human capacity to infer the mental states of others, a talent that emerged 50,000 to 100,000 years ago
May 31: Charles Darwin, A Child’s World Hero
An international celebration of science and humanity combines today to honor Darwin’s birthday in late spring. Science literacy… humanization of search and adventurous spirit will be the broad scale discussed with the children today!
Galapagos Islands – the wildlife refuge pictures taken by Miss Lani and her grandson while visiting there for one week, some years ago, will be shared in class today – FASCINATING!
We, our family, spent time with the Darwin Research faculty and scientists during that week. The connection and understanding of that coming together remains forever in our hearts!
June 7: The Wonder of Elephants
Majestic, extraordinary creatures teach us this Saturday about the differences of the two species – “forest” and “savanna.” We will identify the reasons that the populations of both species are in a “free fall” and shy. As young Americans, we can join and support in solid ways the Treaty sponsored by IUCN and CITES that regulate global trade in endangered wildlife. We hope to study, Paint and HELP the highest risk elephant populations. Studies have found that forest elephants declined 65% over the past 15 years. Less than one-tenth of them remain, gone from 75% of their original habitat. We want to act now…
Beautiful inspiration comes from the late Jean Campbell’s superb photographs of elephants taken personally on her global travels. She joins us in our proactive interests to preserve all animal life! Her photographs are showcased on our wall, adjacent to our HAPPY TENT.
June 14: HUGE! VIBRANT! We love David Hockney’s canvases, art-making and color chords!
We will paint large-scale abstract art today. Hockney’s inventive paintings teach us to delve into our art making with deep brilliance of color chords! His line and texture dynamics are so rich that we shall want to continue to paint into the evening. We love this artist, like no other. Our advanced students are thrilled to realize that we shall, today, highlight his work and plan to enjoy the artist and our class.
June 21: Here’s To Incredible Kids
Let’s celebrate the Young Child! In order to promote awareness of the importance of children and their needs, we shall look at the International Year of the Child, Bill of Rights, composed in 1979. In Salzburg, Austria, the World Health Organization hosted the conference known for drafting this document. Miss Lani was a conference delegate, as was her daughter, who sat on a youth panel with 10 children from all over the world!! Yes to action! Yes to support! Yes to children!
Advocacy for children is in our hearts and spirits here in the Children’s Art Studio! We plan to complement all families and children who make up our “art family” with nurturement and positiveness. “Atta boys!” “Atta girls!” – our kindness and manners transcend all relationships in emotionally literate ways. Yes to children and their authenticity and genuineness.
Lani Carney earned a B.A. in Sociology and a M.S. in Education from the University of Oregon, and a HERS Certificate from Wellesley College. She has taught many courses including Psychology of Adolescence, Child Development, and Psychology of Adjustment. Lani served as Consultant to Dartmouth Medical School and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center on minority student recruitment and diversity issues.
Lani's program focuses on the principles of The Jane Goodall Institute: Roots and Shoots Program which professes that young people, when informed and empowered, realize that their actions do make a difference and can indeed change the world.