What it's All About

There are days when I'm tired, have a thousand things on my mind, have way too many items on my to-do list and am completely out of energy- but the minute the first student in one of my art classes walks through the door with an excited look of their face and asks "what are we doing today"?,  I get a boost.  A boost of energy, a boost of inspiration and a boost of joy.  My elementary classes have been creating some jaw-dropping art lately.  Hopefully they are as proud of their accomplishments as I am...

COLLAGE WITH WATER COLOR/ ACRYLIC: 

Process- paint designs with paint, cut into strips and then collage onto canvas boards. 

ICE DYING
Use ice and powered dye until the ice melts. Such a cool finished product!

                    

 
ACRYLIC PAINT WITH POURING MEDIUM:
Mix acrylic paint with pouring medium and move the paint on the canvas before it sets.

                                         

3-D CANVASES

Process: Cover a balloon with wet plaster strips, wait to dry- pop balloon and glue onto canvas.  Use bring colors and imagination to create fun flowers

WARM/ COOL COLOR DESIGN COLLAGE:
Process: on one sheet of paper, draw line patterns with black sharpie, fill in designs with warm colors (red, orange, yellow, pink).  Repeat on a second piece of paper with cool colors (blue, green, purple). Cut each piece of paper in squares and arrange on a black background to make colors pop on this interesting work of art!

"FINGER PAINTING" ANIMALS:
Process: we used our fingers and dipped them into paint and covered an entire canvas in color.  Once the paint dried, place a cut-out of an animal on top and spray with gold spray paint.  Turned out so cool! 

POTTERY FUN!!!

Usually when I begin a class session, I like to ask the kids what they'd like to make or try during our session.  Almost everyone says "make something with clay".  I have since done camps and classes where we do just that.  

AIR DRY CLAY COIL POTS:

These all turned out so great.  Some kids added acrylic paint and a clear gloss- 

My example:

       

                      

    

KILN FIRE CLAY BOWLS:

The color glazes the students chose and designs turned out amazing!

3-D STEELERS HELMET FOR DAD:
One of my sweet  2nd grade students made this for his Dad.  
We started with a paper plate and added old newspaper and tape to make the shape of the helmet.  He covered it with wet plaster strips and then added paint and other details once it dried.  He painted the football field on a canvas and then I hot glued it together.  It was a hit!

MARC CHAGALL INSPIRED DREAMSCAPE:
The students used cut out shapes to make a dream-like landscape with painted details.

GUSTAV KLIMT INSPIRED CANVASES:
The students were each given a ruler and a blank canvas.  Each drew even lines across the canvas and drew a pattern on each line.  Then, they chose a color of paint and filled in a certain amount of shapes on the canvas.  White was added to the color and more shapes were painted- then more white- we repeated this step five times and then changed colors until all the shapes were filled it.  Some chose to use gold to trace the details for a nice, finished effect.  LOVE THESE!!!

                

   

 

              

               

STILL LIFE PAINTINGS: FRUIT

It is so hard to get kids to draw anything they see really big, so I emphasized that idea for this lesson. I put a piece of fruit in front of each student and asked them to draw the piece of fruit as big as they could and then paint.  HOW AMAZING ARE THESE?!?!?! 

Clementines, Apples and Strawberries:

Close up details: