Kassiani's Art Studio

06/25/2026

One of my other hats! I teach online for St. Raphael School and this is some elementary student work!
The kids are wonderful. We talk about saints, places saints lived, famous historic artists and we practice skills to improve their art and let them make beautiful things💗

Here are a few photos of Upper Elementary student artwork from my online class with St. Raphael School every year we end with the icon workshop. This year we learned about St Agatha (and next year will be a man). We started with Lent and finished them up a couple of weeks after Pascha break. They worked diligently, carefully, and made beautiful choices. You can see we looked at a variety of icons, and discussed appropriate colors and what they tell us about the saint.
We walk through the whole process, from looking at icons, drawing, and painting. I want them to gain a deeper appreciation for the amount of time and love that goes into each handmade icon around them.
To build the skills needed for this project, you can see a few things they made-
St Nicholas with pastel - practice drawing a face, something we repeat
Still life fruit in the style of Paul Cezanne- painted linework
Still life basket from our lesson on St Theophil- more paint practice

If this looks like something your child would enjoy, check out the course description at https://scholeacademy.com/st-raphael-school/

06/23/2026

Here's a sneak peak at my prep for our parish kids enrichment program! I made a bee stamp, we have water color paints and color pencil/crayons to make beautiful bees.
We're also making honeycomb candy instead of baking!

If you're local to check it out at Nicholas D Newman

06/22/2026

Newest commission heading off. Many years to the newly illumined!
I pray the life of these holy martyrs strengthens her.
10inch acrylic commission with imitation gold halos.

05/26/2026

Wrapping up the school year! My family studied human anatomy. The kids did a fantastic job with their heart project so I wanted to share!
Is anyone doing a fun project?

They started with a disposable cup, a little paper mache, cardboard for the chambers, rolled paper tubes (they made) and lots of hot glue!

05/16/2026

The first commission finished after the move. It's been a crazy year with lots of interruptions in attempted routines. It always takes us a year or so to feel settled.
We'll be mailing these back to WV!
These are acrylic paint on wood panels.

05/13/2026

Are you looking for an art class that teaches your child how beautiful art is composed? A course that will help them build their skills so that one day they will be ready to take an iconography course? My art class, through St. Raphael School will give your student practice in seeing the shapes that make up the image they want to draw- we draw all sorts of things from animals, saints and still lifes. We practice mixing colors, controlling our paint, blending and by the end we create volume with color in our icon workshop! All of the lessons weave together the beautiful stories of the faith with our art. My goal is that all my students learn to make beautiful things!
Seats fill up fast, but more sections open over the summer.
The course description has more details and you can see student work here on my page. Please message me with any questions!
You can find out more on the school page-
https://scholeacademy.com/st-raphael-school/
Scroll halfway down to art!

05/12/2026

I had so much fun making these post-Pascha food collages with my art classes!
The kids brain stormed their favorite feast -foods, we painted textures in colors we all needed and then cut out and assembled the following week.
The kids were really creative, incorporating some traditional pascha foods, lots of meat and cheeses and ice cream!
If you know an elementary school child who would enjoy an art class in an Orthodox community please look for St Raphael school under Schole Academy!
More sections open over the summer if the current times don't work for your family. I keep my classes to Mon-Tues afternoons.
Scholeacademy.com click on houses, and St Raphael is right there.

05/02/2026

We started a new family read aloud! Can you guess from our little sketches?
We started reading novels to our kids as toddlers to develop their ability to visualize and build their vocabulary. It took a few weeks to build the habit but father and I recognized that our lives are so visual that we wanted to do something to balance it out!
Now the boys read in bed way past bedtime- oh no🤣🤣🤣 They argue over who's books have better characters and more challenging vocab...
What are some of your best long term habits?

04/23/2026

Blessed feast to all celebrating with St George! Many years!

I made this icon as a gift a few years ago. Acrylic paint on a round wooden panel.

04/21/2026

The school year is wrapping up! My art classes have been working on their icon workshop for the past month! The littles finished up first. They have worked hard. We practiced a few faces (including self portraits) before drawing St Agatha. The students learned about her life; and where and when she was from. We talked about appropriate colors and how to read the icon. These are things we have been practicing all year, so its really wonderful when it all comes together.
We keep it very simple because they are still developing their fine motor skills at this age! We have been building skills needed for the project all year. We play with paint inspired by various famous artists and historic styles of art. We practice mixing secondary colors and controlling the brush. God bless them all!

If you are interested in an art class in an Orthodox Christian community check out for more information!