In The Paint

Here’s another one.

I went out one morning before work this past summer for a quick photo walk. This is painted from one of the photos I took.

So camp is over now but I wanted to share a few of the projects I’ve done with the kids over the last four weeks. During this time I was working 8-10 year olds.
The first pieces are the bird soft sculptures. The kids loved this! They loved sewing and wanted to do more.

This group was excited about everything we did. The next activity was a wire tree sculpture. (Thanks Liz for the idea!)
We used 20 gauge wire to create the trunk, roots, and branches. We then attached it to a piece of foam board with clay. Some of the kids got creative with this and went up the trunk with clay or made little birds or squirrels to put into the branches.
Then we took thinner, coloured wire and curled and wrapped it around the branches to make leaves. Here are the results:

In another class the kids did silkscreen silhouettes. We did a photo shoot for two projects and the kids took turns taking photos of each other. For one project they were making funny faces or hamming it up for the camera while for the silkscreen project they shot each other in profile.
We then printed a rectangle of one colour and then their silhouette in another colour.

We also did one version where we collaged onto the paper before the last step so that image would be about them and their interests. I didn’t like the final look of that.

For these last two projects, I found I had to simplify the steps for this group. They were not as “in to it” as other groups and their attention was difficult to keep. We also did silkscreen, but onto tote bags. And to add sculpture to the mix we learned how to draw dinosaurs and then sculpted one out of plasticene.

Well, those were some of my favourite art projects from the last few weeks (or the ones that I took pictures of.)

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:

This week my students/campers (8-10 yrs old) learned a little about photography. It wasn’t the main focus for the week but part of all the other art that they created. We learned how to use the cameras, about the rule of thirds, and about light. I found that the biggest challenge for them was capturing the focal point in focus. We also manipulated the photos a little bit in iphoto. Here are some results:

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!

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.