Still Life

On Wednesday I asked the art teacher if I could use my still-life materials (from the old YMCA class) for the kids to draw. She was OK with it, and so I set up my purple towel in the center of the table and positioned my wooden parrot, and the small, square, clear glass mason jar full of thirteen-year-old candy corn, and the blue glass jar with sugar cubes in it, and the skinny glass flask with one vanilla bean in it, and the bright orange teacup and saucer. After stealing a few sugar cubes to pop in their mouths, the kids started to draw. I was thrilled to see my objects come to life on their pages. I love everything they do. Sadly they are overly harsh critics of themselves. I try to explain why I think they have done well, and encourage them to keep going. One girl at a different table was drawing a wine glass, and she complained that it had no definite shadow. I said I know how to fix that! I got a floor lamp, plugged it in, aimed it at her glass, and turned it on. Shadow! She was happy, and got right down to work.