Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 • Come find your artistic side at new studio
Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 edition of the Lassen County Times.
Seeing a need to provide more creative venues in the area, a local resident has opened a new art studio.
Alison Templeton said Crow’s Nest Studio is mostly for children but it follows the motto, “Art for Everyone.”
“It’s a place where they can have an outlet … have some fun,” Templeton said.
Zakary Passwaters, left, and Piper Downing follow Alison Templeton’s lead in creating a zentangle during an art class offered Wednesday, Dec. 14. Templeton started Crow’s Nest Studio to provide a more artistic and creative venue in the area.Templeton said she also started the studio for more personal reasons in that she’s an artist and said there are no creative or artistic outlets for children that she knows of.
The gallery/studio offers art classes and people can also buy art supplies including paint, pencils, brushes and canvases.
In a recent class, Templeton taught her students how to make Zentangles, named for the zen- like quality it is supposed to bring and is created by making small designs, tangles, on small spaces drawn onto a piece of paper.
The students each chose a Christmas-y design, drew a Z on it which created four sections and Templeton directed them in filling in each space with a different design.
Andrew, left, and Sandy Passwaters make zentangles during a class offered by Alison Templeton, of Crow’s Nest Studio, located at 1015 Main St.Upcoming classes are three-dimensional drawing and each child will be given 3-D glasses and a mixed media mitten ornament where Templeton said participants will take ordinary items to make extraordinary gifts.
A Winter Wonderland Art Camp will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28 through Friday, Dec. 30. The event is $75 but will include three to four art projects each day and a snack.
Eventually, Templeton said she would like to incorporate a ceramics class.
Currently, Templeton has hung some of her artwork on her studio wall, but she wants to dedicate a whole wall to students so they can show off their work.
Templeton is a 2003 graduate of Lassen High graduate. She then attended the California State University, Chico where she earned two degrees in art education and art studio with an emphasis in glass and sculpture. She also minored in art history and theater art.
Landon Bennett concentrates as he makes a zentangle during an art class at Crow’s Nest Studio.From the time she was younger, Templeton said she has always done art. But it wasn’t until she got to Chico State where she discovered she liked working with children.
“So art ed seemed like the perfect fit,” she said.
Templeton is also opening her studio to scouts and 4-H groups and will host birthday parties.
She said one group came in for a Spiderman-themed party and the children made spiders, marble paintings that looked like webs and superhero masks.
When people leave her studio, Templeton said she wants them to have confidence in trying something and not being afraid of the unknown.
She said she also wants people to have a willingness to create what they made somewhere else, such as showing their siblings how to do it.
