Wellspring of Hope & Joy at Wellspring Living

This past Saturday, through Paint Love,  I had the joy of teaching art to several incredible women from Wellspring Living's Empowered Living Program.  I have had the pleasure of painting with the teen girls at Wellspring Living a couple of times now (you can learn more about Wellspring Living and read about my experiences here and here), but this was my first time with the women from this specific program. No one experience at Wellspring has been the same, but they all have something in common:  Hope, Joy, and most of all LOVE!!  The volunteers and staff members I have been able to work beside are some of the most loving women I have met and the young women themselves were exuberant, loving, and genuine.  There were two other artists there completing projects with the women as well.  The first, Jo Dette di Domizio, is an incredible artist and co-owner of Di Domizio's Art Center. She was working with the girls to complete a collaboration piece to be auctioned off at a Wellspring Fundraiser in June.  The second artist, Ann Jackson, had a beautiful and modern watercolor piece for the girls to create. In my time between students, I loved watching each of the women's artwork!

From my past experience teaching at Wellspring, I decided to have less structure in the art project I prepared.  I brought several art examples, lots of paint, brushes, cups, pallets, a big drop cloth, and large canvases (which were donated to Paint Love by an amazing supporter!).  There were far less girls on Saturday than I have had in the past, so I had the privilege of working with each individually on a painting.  It was so much fun to carefully watch their process and help them figure out how to develop their paintings.  I noticed the first student creating paint dabs on the canvas.  I asked her if she wanted to learn how to splatter paint and what happened next was…AWESOME!  From that point forward my art room turned into a room full of laughter, flying paint, and some serious "letting go."  It is a good thing they gave me a room with tile…haha!  The young women had a blast, and I LOVED watching them create and find satisfaction in both their piece and the process.  I seriously giggled each time paint was thrown across a canvas.  It was delightful!  Here are some pictures from the day:

by Paint Love, Inc. Artist & Founder, Julie Ann McKevitt