"Every child is an artist." – Pablo Picasso

Before you trust your child's art education to me, let me introduce myelf. My name is Liz Totton. First and foremost, I am a mother to two unique and creative girls and my most recent practice teaching art has, of course, been to them. Prior to their entrance into this world, I was an on and off working and teaching artist. I received a bachelor's degree in Art History and Religion from Barnard College (Columbia University) in New York City where I achieved some artistic success selling a few pieces of my art to private collectors and displaying my work in a few galleries. I have studied art since I was four years old. My medium of choice has been oil painting since I was around ten years old. I have dabbled in most other media and truly enjoy whatever medium I am lucky enough to have at hand from play dough to spray paint to tissue paper. Creativity should know no boundaries.

In my classes, I hope to encourage children to also know no boudaries and fear no medium. I will expose them to media and techniques they have never tried and some, I imagine, most parents have not heard of including myself. My daughters introduced me to painting with corn starch--it works and is really fun. Prior to this lesson, I had only ever considered it an ingredient.

My goal is to teach your children the skills they need to express their imagination. All children are inherently imaginative--they need no help there as you know. They do, however, need to develop mastery over the media and techniques that will help them to translate their thoughts and dreams to paper. I hope to make this exploration of materials and art both fruitful and fun for them.

As an artist, a teacher and a parent I vow not to correct, perfect or in any way alter your child's work. This practice is becoming all too common in the world of art education and I believe that it teaches our children all the wrong messages. In art, there are no mistakes. I dream that every child's so-called mistakes in art could be so remarkable in life. Every work is an opportunity to learn and increase our skills. I imagine most art educators think that that all parents expect absurdly quick results in their child's art education but, like anything, a child MUST practice to become adept at any skill. This is why I require each child to come to class with the most basic set of materials: a sketchbook and high quality art pencils and a kneaded eraser. With their tools to take ownership of at home, children can apply what they have learned in class whenever and however they choose. Please encourage them to draw at home and provide them with a quiet place to do so. Their hard work will become apparent in their art and in so many other aspects of their lives.

Hi Art! Studio will hopefully become a venue for young artists to learn art production at an early age. The studio is managed by an art practitioner and educator with a vision to develop young artists who will contribute to the art community in the near future. We believe that art is a powerful tool to influence communities, improve lives, and transform society.

Since the early years in art history, the 'studio' has been the primary venue for brewing young artists. In fact, most famous artists have apprenticed in the studios of the prime artists before them. 'Studio work' is one important tradition with which any burgeoning artist should be accustomed.

"I would advise young artists to paint as they can, as long as they can." – Claude Monet