~ Now Accepting Enrollment ~
Registration for SUMMER 2025 Classes

Summer Art Camp 2025

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 Summer Art Camp 2025 courses.

A series of week-long mornings from 9:30 AM to 12:30PM.
Each week highlights a vibrant theme.
You may enroll for one week, two, more, your choice!
$450 per week per child.

June 23 – 27: The Wonder of Elephants

Majestic, extraordinary creatures teach us this week about the differences between 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 the 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 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!

June 30 – July 4: Soulcraft

Woodworking… art… design utilizing gathered found wood. Ollie and Maddy’s dad, Andrew Pearce, has shaped wood blocks and wood curls (shavings) for the children and me. Now we will set out to create things and add joy in the making. Every child is sure to walk away today with a sense of pride in what they have made from piles of wood using tools and our art materials, from lathes to planes, and auger to chisels. A safe environ… having fun along the way! The work reminds us learning can be fun. Miss Lani’s class is hands-on and engaging. Let’s try woodworking out… perhaps we shall pursue it further.

July 7- 11: 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!

July 14 - 18: Glass Works – MOMA’s (NYcity) Example of a Paradise

Last year, in its American wing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art installed one of the grandest of Tiffany glass windows: Garden Landscape. Twenty feet wide, ten feet tall, designed by Agnus Northrop in an original watercolor, it is spectacular. Delicate flowers, sun-dappled pine trees, a three-tiered fountain – her perspective is “spot on”. Colored mosaics, glass, marble – we shall attempt to work with acrylic and glass as we did in our advanced class on Fridays and in our young class on Tuesdays this past Fall term. We will attempt to use confetti glass flakes and our special glass objects, specially ordered for us. Yes, we will be painterly – but copper foil will help us join our pieces of glass together. This is a great way to honor Louis Comfert Tiffany, an art designer and producer of glass art. Many of our houses of worship, nearby, and the stained-glass art window, in the chapel nearby at DHMC are familiar to us (a family friend, Mrs. Louise Johnson, of Lyme, NH, commissioned Sabré Fields to create the chapel window in honor of her late husband). Tiffany said in 1910 “The great thing in art that has helped me more than anything is the practice of looking at the beautiful and shutting out the ugly.” His stained-glass windows’ are inspirations. Do they do this for you? Interesting thinking – I am thinking, are you?

July 21 – 25: The Falcon – “In the fast lane”

Falcons are the fastest birds in the world. A favorite of many of my art students, Seb and Gabe, for certain lead us in our fascination for the falcon. Did you know falcons, particularly Peregrines, are able to dive 200 miles per hour, to hunt smaller birds in midair. Almost extinct in the mid-1960s – where people had destroyed habitats, had taken aim at them, collected their eggs sprayed with DDT which caused many eggs not to hatch!!! Phew. After that, they were protected by the Endangered Species Act and DDT ban – scientists lured them for release back to the wild. By 1999, we saw a resurgence – and falcons no longer needed protection from the Act. We are grateful now to learn that they live all around us in our United States. Be a watcher -- they build their nests high on ridges, cliffs, and even city peoples say on top of their buildings! A true story I am told. We shall paint their feathery beauty and construct some designs with poultry wire, newspaper strips, and wheat paste – art sculpting at its best. Excited for our efforts to take! Come fly – wing it with us!

July 28 – August 1: The HeART Beat of the Wild – Don’t Fence Me In!

• Animal persons are individual beings.
• Animals have their own personalities and dignity.
• We have a respected approach to these creatures, with whom we share the earth.
• A look at their gaze – do we see a part of ourselves?
• We cannot ascend at the expense of wildlife around us

For our art camp this week, we will continue our examination of animals, we shall study: do animals make friends? Are their reproductive levels boosted by their behaviors keeping “tight” company? How do they ward off predators? Are they “groupies” or solitary? Examples: how do baboons create friendships? Do horses act sociably? Is it true they use their teeth to groom one another? 

Onto elephants in our study of diverse animal persons cultures, what does neuro imagery reveal? Their brains, their cerebral cortex is much like ours. There are interesting facts available, and we will seek them out. Sooo – we shall explore, as we compose our paintings and drawings! We are great thinkers and artists, both! We wish that our paintings are not all that is left, of these vulnerable and endangered animal persons. An important question to ask as well, is: at what point does our wonder no longer warrant another beings wounding? Psyched – our eighth year – honoring animals in art. We’ve stepped it up several octaves for our summer art camp weeklong experiences!! We shall choose together at least five endangered species that have been brought back, nearly lost to extinction. Each day – will focus and honor them. I bet you can guess the five…..???

August 4 – 8: Miss Lani’s Summer Break

Grab your fishing pole! No classes this week. We have a summer break. Miss Lani always practices catch and release, how about you?

August 11 – 15: Caroline Kennedy and You

Caroline Kennedy’s book Family of Poems and Jon J. Muth’s watercolors therein highlight the week with word pictures and inspiration. Poetry is the key that is the foundation in language and values that enables us to distinguish what is important when we are bombarded with information. American families, I believe have turned to poetry as a way of understanding and transforming their earthly experiences. Our youth tell us that their generation has been energized by Rap, Hip-Hop, and the Blues that use spoken words – poetry to chronical their lives and struggles. “Power” is power -- power to live our lives fully and to realize dreams as well… It is possibly thought by us, as educators, that we sense the younger children are, when they start articulating their experiences – the more they can find their path! Moreover, when we support children, as they find their own voices, the farther, perhaps, they can go. Poetry connects us to each other in powerful ways. Children love Caroline Kennedy’s childhood selection of poems that were read to her by her family. Our artwork will encircle poems, with themes: About Me; That’s so Silly; Animals; The Seasons; The Seashore Adventure; and Bedtime to name a few. Yes, we shall read, together.

Two separate morning workshops:

August 25: Big Wins for Wildlife #1

August 26: Big Wins for Wildlife #2

Precious and few – may we not forget: STAND UP! For fifty years, the Endangered Species Act has been helping to save plant and animal species in danger of disappearing -- 2024 marked the big birthday of this Act. Some of the biggest success stories will highlight the last two days of our summer camp. Two morning only workshops. Yes, the gray wolf, yes, the bald eagle, yes, the American bison, yes, stellar sea lions, yes, channel fox. The American alligator, Grizzly bears, Lake Erie water snakes, wood storks, humpback whales, all these animals have made it back from the brink of extinction. Stories will be told from Miss Lani’s experiences, encompassing travel to the Galapagos islands, Denali, the Pacific – environs of animal persons she treasures.

PLEASE NOTE: Children who are enrolled with us who have allergies to peanuts and tree nuts (cashews, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, etc.) must be kept safe! Please do not send food containing the above ingredients. An organic, generally home-baked snack is prepared by Miss Lani for the “fuel” the young artist need. A water bottle with water or preferred drink is fine and a good choice to bring along.

Any exceptionality and/or needs that you wish to discuss about your child’s development is welcomed and is considered confidential. Thank you.