Celebrating Casa and Su Casa Programs 2023

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Su Casa Art Project at the Queens Community House Center for Gay Seniors
By Clare Stokolosa

This workshop series will introduce watercolor painting tools and how to use them, properties of
watercolor and art elements and principles of design for painting. It welcome participants of all
levels, from novice to intermediate to advanced. The goal is to have participants begin to or
continue a painting practice and experiment with and have an appreciation of watercolor.
Participants will learn the techniques and process of creating their own paintings and share
them in a culminating event with other participants, and guests along with Senior Center and
Queens Historical Society staff.

1. Introduce Tools
The introduction of tools and best practices used for painting in watercolor will include setting up
a palette with tubes of paint, organizing specific paint brushes and how to use them to achieve
different lines and affects.. Creating a palette, using basic colors and the color wheel will be
demonstrated to introduce color theory and to help with mixing and using colorer.
Watercolor has its own properties, for example you use watercolor when dry which is different
from other paints which must be kept from drying. It is also a translucent paint and you use the
white of the paper and water to lighten colors rather than white paint. Most of the materials are
consumable, however the palettes, extra paint and brushes will be available to continue a
painting practice. The goal is to introduce tools and techniques so that participants have a more
independent understanding of watercolor and can either begin or continue their painting
practice. Some participants are novices and others are practicing artists. This is meant for all
levels.

In the workshops we will review how to use the tools of watercolor tubes of selected primary
colors, mixing secondary color,orange, purple and green and tertiary colors such as browns,
grays and blacks. We will experiment with round watercolor brushes of a variety of sizes to
create different lines and textures, learn that the solvent is water, how to set up a pallet with
tubes of paint, and work with watercolor paper. We will discuss the quality of materials and the purpose of each along with how to care for them.

2. Properties of Watercolor Paint
Participants will learn about the properties of watercolor paint and how to use water, paint and
the paper surface to create values and tones. Participants will practice mixing primary,
secondary and tertiary colors. They will create a color chart using the same type of watercolor

paper that they will use to create their paintings because using different papers creates different
effects and color variations.

3. Variety of Techniques
The workshops will introduce a variety of techniques that can be used to create different effects
when mixing colors such as wet paint on wet, and glazing using coats of dry paint layers.

4. Elements of Art
Participants will learn about the different elements of art: line, shapes, color, value, tone, texture,depth (space) and how we use these elements in their
paintings to create interesting artwork.

5. Principles of Design
The principles of design will be introduced such as proportion and scale and different
compositions. The focus will be on how to use the page to create depth and proportion and the
relationship of objects on the page. We will use overlapping shapes and placement of objects on the page and orientation of the page, for example as vertical or horizontal.

6. Observation Using a Viewfinder
We will work on observational drawing and painting to create still-lifes. We will use a viewfinder,
a small adjustable window cut out of cardboard, to create a frame for selecting the composition.
This idea duplicates the viewfinder in a traditional camera lens. The viewfinder also helps to
make a decision about the composition of the painting, whether it will be a close-up with detail of the subject matter or a full-view of the subject matter. The main focus will be painting directly on the page with little to no preliminary drawing.

7. Landscapes, Depth of Field, and Space
We will also create landscapes with the use of photos of different scenes. Participants will learn
how to work with scale of objects, overlapping and placement of objects to create depth of the
image they paint. For example, they will create space such as the narrowing of a road as it goes
further up the page, a large detail of a bush or flowers in the foreground, a lamppost that
expands to the sky at the top of the page. Participants will learn the importance of the
placement and scale of objects to create an illusion of depth in their artwork.

8. Culminating activity
In a presentation and display of the paintings created in these sessions the artists will be
recognized for their achievements. The work will be matted and displayed for participants and
guests to see. Queens Historical Society and senior center staff and members, as well as
community officials will be invited to attend.

Su Casa Art Project at the Peter Cardella Senior Citizen Center

by Gregory Renaud

The SU-CASA program held at the Peter Cardella Senior Citizen Center was a 10-week course in acrylic painting focusing on the basic techniques of paint application, mixing paints, and brush strokes. Revisiting the Peter Cardella Center I was quite familiar with the older adults that has previously taken my painting course and was more comfortable engaging and breaking down lessons. The classes were attended by several seniors each week. The painting course varied from understanding color theory to creating value charts. The seniors all drew historical images of Queens farms houses and museums, and landscapes. Images were depicted from magazines and newspapers and perspective and scale were taught to accurately illustrate these landmarks.

My first approach was to allow the seniors to create paintings of their choice. Experience at the Peter Cardella center had me know that the older adults have a story to tell and wanted to use the painting class to tell it. As we painted landscapes and flowers I was asked to break down the structure of painting. Learning about color appeared to be a fun and creative task. The seniors managed to understand the Primary Colors (Red, Blue, Yellow) and learn that these specific colors create all other colors building out the color wheel. Teaching the Secondary Colors (Orange, Green, Purple) and Tertiary Colors (Red-Purple, Red-Orange, Blue-Purple, Blue-Green, Yellow-Orange, Yellow-Green). After the color wheel, the seniors used the knowledge of colors to build a value chart. The importance of the Value chart allows a person to understand the range of Shades and Tints a color can reach by adding either Black or White to it.

Lastly, together, the seniors learned different brush stroke techniques. Techniques included Wet-on-Wet, Stumbling, Overlay, Under painting, Dry Brush, and more. These brush stroke techniques improved the painting ability of the seniors as they were able to create their own colors and not only rely on the colors provided. I appreciated the structured learning as confidence in myself and in the seniors’ painting were shown in the projects they all have created.

Florence E. Smith Senior Center

by Kim Darbey

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As a retired art teacher of twenty years, it was a wonderful, yet completely different
experience for me to teach at the Florence E. Smith Senior Community Center. My
teaching background started as a volunteer at an organization called Twin Oaks in
Louisa County, Virginia, teaching everything from, drawing and painting, to tie dye and
marionette puppets. This continued with homeschooling (art and music too) with my
son after his birth in 1988. A few years later I worked at the Children’s Aid-Dunlevy
Milbank Center in Harlem, NY with a complete art program. After several year at the
Dunlevy center, I moved on to a place called “The Fun Factory,” a facility once housed
in the Passerelle Building located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. There, I taught
arts & crafts to children from various public and private schools. The Fun Factory was a
city funded facility that booked schools and camp trips for educational art classes and
physical fitness activities. Several years later I moved on to teaching at a private school
in Forest Hills, NY; retiring in 2015. I am now the resident artist at the Moore-Jackson

Cemetery and Community Garden, located in Woodside, NY. This is where I was intro-
duced to the FESS Center.

As a semi-senior person myself, teaching senior-citizens was very new to me. Unlike
teaching young folks the craft of painting (in this case watercolor) there was a
certain camaraderie of understanding. This made the teaching and learning practice
quite unique and somewhat easier for me. There was a discipline already in place. A
wealth of knowledge and involvement that was lacking in the minds of the youthful ones
I had the privilege to help mold an artistic background with.

Before the classes began, I decided to take a slightly different approach and prepared
handouts for the class. Since the first class was designed as an introduction to the
craft of watercolor, the first handout was a study in mixing colors. Thus, the handout
was called the “Watercolor Mixing Chart.” I had the class create their own chart and we
discussed how to mix various colors to produce an array of different hues of the same
color. We also learned how to mix shaded colors without the use of black or brown. This
also involved the procedure in painting with various hues to produce shades
that were enveloped in light without the use of using white paint. These basic color
underlying principles were necessary as a constituent to understanding the color
process and how they associate to each other in order to make a painting.

The second hand out, ”Five Watercolor Techniques” was a debut to the ‘hows’ of
different watercolor painting applications. These included the “wet-on-wet method”
which is typically used for painting landscapes, simple skies, or soft watercolor washes.
The “dry-on-wet method” which is used to achieve more precise and defined shapes in
your work. This technique is also used for most illustration-style watercolor painting and
is preferred by most experienced artists. The “building up color method” prepared the
class for an activity that helped to practice building up color from plain water to a
more saturated paint mix. Using just one color, we used layers to achieve different
values, looking to create a seamless blend effect. These techniques were used
throughout the length of the class for each session. With each class (and assigned
homework projects) the group was able to grasp the importance of learning these
different styles of painting.

The next two hand-outs brought us into the realm of gradients and precision painting.
The “creating gradients method” was an activity that is similar to building up color, but
instead of working with plain water and different values of one color, we worked with
two colors, and slowly transitioned from one color to the other. It’s a great technique
for painting skies and sunsets. This class involved the students to pick a particular
photo to draw lightly and use the gradient method of painting to complete the project.
Last, but certainly not least of the “methods” is the “getting precise method.” This
lesson prepared the class to practice painting around edges of shapes in a controlled
way, attaining an exact. This required a precise, or exact approach to the picture. As
a general rule of thumb, there are no real rules to precise painting. I have always felt
that it is always up to the artist to decide. However, basic learning principles should
always be considered. For this project it was achieved by having the class draw from a
3D object placed before them and having them attempt to paint the object as they see
it. They were also given the opportunity to use their own color scheme as opposed to
using the exact colors that they saw. The results were quite surprising.

The next hand-out was called “How to Create Watercolor Gradients.” This was a
stylistic way to produce flowing colors, or a directional change in the intensity or
color in an image. The class focused on the gradient as one of the fundamental
building blocks in image processing. This class targeted on four different ways of
painting gradients. First, with single-color gradients, we learned how to use just one
color, and play with how light or dark it is. Starting from very light, and ending with
very dark. Second, with two-color gradients. Teaching, how to use two original colors
to create a mixed gradient. Like using yellow and blue to gradient into green. The third
method used three (or more) color gradients to process a similar conclusion as the
previous procedures, only using more that two colors. We learned that you can use as
many colors as you like in a gradient, but the most important thing is to make sure to
blend the progression with pure color to pure color to avoid a muddy mixture.
What was interesting was that the class had students with little to no experience, a
few that dabbled in drawing and painting in the past, and some that had a lot more
experience in the arts but not with watercolor. With a serious desire to learn, I found
these seniors to be very focused and enthusiastic, listening with a fine ear, and also
applying the principles as they were taught. What was a very welcome, was the
curious questions posed to me when any particular lesson was not clear. Regardless
of age, I have always encouraged anyone to ask a question whenever there was any
doubt or confusion regarding a lesson.

That brings us to the next handout titled “Doing a Watercolor Portrait.” With this
particular artistic endeavor, the class was a bit at odds as no one had ever done a
portrait before. For this class I had the students do a quick pencil sketch of the
subjects face (as precisely and lightly as possible). Then apply a wash as learned in
the “wet on wet method” to give the face tone and volume. Next, using the “building
up color method” to add the facial shadows, like the shadow cast by the nose and
other facial features. We then used what we learned doing the “color chart” project to
work on the hair and eyes, leaving some white spaces for areas where light reflects
and highlights are present. Lastly the”dry on wet method” was applied to refine the
facial details like the mouth, eyes, and hair.

Originally, this class was to teach watercolor and acrylic painting. I decided to limit it
to watercolor as both mediums are water base and have a lot of the same beginning
applications and techniques. Also, learning watercolor would be a great introduction to
training in acrylic painting. Limiting the learning curve would also give the class more
time to acquire a better understanding of this particular medium. This is exactly how
the last class ended.

I can say with full confidence that the young seniors of this class left with a new found
knowledge of the basic principals of watercolors. The work they produced was by far,
profound and beautifully executed in the short amount of time given to teach this
painting process also known as gouache. A medium that has been considered to be
one of the most difficult to master and actually the least popular. To me it is widely
misunderstood.

Teaching Art Classes at PS 209 in Clearview Gardens for CASA 2023

By Beata Szpura

Starting with first class I had Ms. Bridget Kennedy, the PS 209 English Lit. teacher, assisting me
in the classroom. The class was easier to conduct with her help, oversight and support.
The students were in grades 2-6. They were seated at 6 tables. There were 25 students
registered for this class.
They all were very enthusiastic about making art, painting, drawing, and collaging. I was trying to teach them some new art concepts, show some painting techniques they were not familiar with (using palette knife), explained how to make collage using specialty papers and found textures, painting with bright colors on black background.

My goal was to vary the techniques, media and subject matters and -most of all- for the class to
be fun and at the same time a memorable learning opportunity for the students.
Towards the end, the students became very comfortable and quite bold when working on their
pieces.

I have often brought an example of a given subject matter -the artwork I made at home either
before the class or one of the pieces I have already painted- just to show how the assignment
could be interpreted. I stressed that it is just one of a thousand possible interpretations and
encouraged the students to explore possibilities on their own, so that each artwork is unique
and different from other pieces. I encouraged the students to paint abstract images, not only
representational ones.
In the beginning of each session we looked at the art done by the students during the previous
class. The review was always generating a lot of enthusiasm.
Ms. Kennedy took a survey among the students and the Dance piece turned out to be their
favorite.

QHS thanks the office of Councilmembers Vickie Paladino, Robert Holden, Francisco Moya, and Shekar Krishnan for this year’s program