In The Paint

This year for March Break Camp the theme was Pop Art. We looked at classic Andy Warhol silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe and at some recent works by Douglas Coupland based on the Warhol images and came up with these works of art.

Silk screen tote bag by 9 year old camper

Acrylic silhouette collage by 11 year old camper

Silk screen on acrylic wash by 12 year old camper

Silk screen on acrylic wash by 8 year old camper

Acrylic 3D collage

The final week of summer camp has passed; the clean-up is complete and I’ve had a week to relax before I have to think about my adult classes that begin in the fall.
The last week my 8-10 year olds focussed on landscapes. We did painting, printmaking, and photography, and went outside to do some sketching. The kids really focussed on their first painting which was an acrylic on masonite board after Tom Thomson. After the ground was covered with a burnt orange, the kids were restricted to using only a palette knife.
Here are a couple of results:

The next piece that the group did was an acrylic on canvas after artist Dorothy Knowles. I was attempting to get the kids to understand the different paint applications that artists use. While Tom Thomson applied the paint in thick short brush strokes, Dorothy Knowles layers washes.
Here are two of the final pieces:

We continued the Time Machine course through week 5 of camp. I had a great group of kids these last two weeks and they created some wonderful pieces.

On the Time Machine theme, we visited different time periods through the magic of PowerPoint. To travel through time we would use a different Time Machine each time. I started the PowerPoint with an image and the kids had to guess either the name of the time machine or the book/tv show/movie that it is from. For example, the “time turner” from Harry Potter, or the “Delorian” from Back To The Future. If a camper got it right, they would receive a prize at the end of the week.

We traveled to the Northern Renaissance and visited Albrecht Dürer; to the 19th century and looked at Cezanne’s work; to the Ancient Greece theatre and were inspired by their theatre masks; and to the 20th century to see Modigliani’s portraits.  Here are some of the results:

Softolium Prints inspired by Dürer's woodcuts.

Cezanne Still Life

Cezanne Landscapes

Modigliani Self Portraits

Masks

This past weekend I participated in a local Art In The Park.  It was the first time I have done one of these art shows in a long time and while it was a disappointing weekend (low traffic) I would like to do more in the future. My talented husband built the walls that the paintings are hung on.  They were very sturdy during the windy weekend. Here are some photos of my set-up:

Click on the thumbnails to see the entire photo.

Last week at camp our theme for the 8 to 10 year olds was Urban Art.  The irony of course is that we were in a suburban setting neighboring on conservation land.

For our first project we gave the kids “street names” and they had to create a graffiti tag.  Then they did canvas paintings using these tags.  Here are two examples:

For the next project we created stencils and used fabric spray paint to transfer them onto t-shirts.  Check these out:

And last but not least, we spent a morning doing printmaking.  The first image is my example.  On the right is matte board with foam glued onto it creating the stamp and on the left is the print.  Below are two examples by two different students.  The kids were told to create a robot, monster, or an alien.  At first the girls whined and tried to claim that these were “boy” things, but they got into it pretty quickly.  (The middle one was done by a girl and the bottom one was done by a boy.)

If you have any great ideas on this topic, please share!

I’ve been painting a lot of small canvases lately: as small as 2.5 inches squared. A few days ago I did two quick underpaintings on larger canvases and yesterday I completed one of them. As I was painting yesterday I hit a point where I really felt that I was in a groove or in the zone. It felt great! I haven’t felt that groove in a while.

The canvas size is about 24″x30″.

Hiking in northern Israel

Here are some new paintings, 4″x4″, that I’ve just added to my Etsy shop. The first two were painted from photos I took in Israel and the last one is from a photo I took in Nova Scotia.

Enjoy!

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of teaching, volunteering, and taking courses and haven’t been painting too much.  Here is one piece that I just started last week in acrylic and then moved to oil. I started this one pretty loose and hope to keep it that way by the end. I still needs some adjustments of the hair and clothes and colour in general. I started off dark and will go lighter in the face as I continue. This is a portrait of a friend of mine.  I would like to do a larger painting of her at some point.  I can’t wait to post the final painting.

This is a painting that started as a demo in an adult acrylic painting class that I’m teaching. I was demonstrating how to start a painting by finding the main shapes and tones and building up from there. Afterwards in my studio, I worked the painting to completion in oil. I often like to use acrylic as an underpainting as it is fast drying.

This painting is available for purchase here.

This is my most recent listing in my etsy shop.  I’ve been going through old photos of mine  looking for landscapes to paint.  This one is from northern Israel.

I’m waiting for the weather to turn nicer here so I can do some plein air painting.