Our walkway aka Art Gallery

Most of the artistic creations of Jr. and the little one from their school work are displayed on the doors of our cabinets in the garage. Granted it is not organized neatly but it is a treat to pull into the garage and stare at some of their early work. Brings back memories and makes you forget long work days at the same time. 

We do update the garage drawings on a rotational basis, once a quarter or when daddy feels like it.

The inside of the house is another matter. The walkway is reserved for work they do in art class and we are adding to the collection every month or so. 

Here is the little one's latest work .. 

and our walkway as of today

The display helps motivate them because everytime someone visits our house, they go to the walkway to see the additions and ask the kids questions and encourage their work. 

In the process, I am also learning how to improve the "display" by spacing things out right on the walls and re-arranging pictures in portrait vs. landscape format etc.

They do have other works on glass and on "rocks". They are both painting rocks now. Those are going to be tricky to display. Planning to buy little ledges that go on the wall and put the rocks on top. 

That will have to wait for a few weeks!

Art makes an entry

Decided to buy the kids some art material (Drawing/Painting paper), paints, color pencils (the whole thing was less than 10 bucks) and let them have some fun this week.

It has been a busy week with me going out of control trying to juggle work, sinus problems and the kids.

The materials were a good idea. As an added bonus we are now decorating the shelves in the garage with the kid's art work. Kind of their own showcase to show their friends and visitors how they are doing.

We never realized how good the little one was with a paint brush. As a rule of thumb two things have been banned inside the house for as long as we can remember

a. water/oil paints
b. china clay (playdough)

for fear of ruining the carpet or floor.

That ban has been lifted now. The kids will be allowed to paint from now on instead of just draw with crayons.

The parenting learning goes on..

.

Mission at Santa Ynez

Continuing on the series of photo blogs on the Solvang trip...

Santa Ynez is right outside Solvang (you exit Solvang, enter Santa Ynez). The highlight of course is a Mission that is 200 years old! (not a big deal by Indian standards where old means 1000+ years!), but definitely historic considering how young the US of A is!

This mission has a museum of sorts which show earliest pictures (from 1800's and early 1900's), the clothes worn by the early clergy and a beautiful garden, not to mention the actual church itself or the 200+ year old paintings..

The corridor reminded me of Rameshwaram (a place I am yet to visit! and have seen only in pictures..) Extremely peaceful place..

There were actually two shrines, the big one where everyone worships and this little one which had only two chairs in front of it (maybe this was the original shrine?). Did not get a chance to ask anyone because they were closing pretty soon (we were there Christmas eve!). I am not a big church goer (maybe this is like having a Moolavar and Utsavar type thing in Indian temples ?)


Here is the main shrine. I actually had plans to sit there for a few minutes on the seats and soak in the atmosphere.. but they were vacuuming the carpet and that plan went nowhere..I could still visualize the place and the awe it would create when it was silent!


Now for the paintings, which are on an average 200 years old.. Flash photography was not allowed inside, so please bear with the quality of the images (this is the best I could get with 15 second exposures with F8.0)


Another large painting


There were lots of smaller paintings which were equally amazing, but you have go see them on the walls for yourself..


Then we visited the garden and courtyard, which apparently was the site of the very first educational instituion in California!!


The garden reminded me of Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicheri.. Very quiet in spite of lots of people milling around. For me, a person who is noisy by nature, More people always means more noise. The only deviations from this linearity are,

1. few people making too much noise (which does not surprise me anymore after seeing my two kids)
2. lots of people making no noise (that always puts me ill at ease at first and then suddenly slows my internal clock down. It is as though I start to move in slow motion). I experienced that in this garden..


On the whole a Christmas eve well spent!

That leaves Morro bay and Limekiln State park.. Considering I am going to be very very busy at work starting tonight, I will at least have those photo blogs ready before tonight and post them over the next week..