Artwork Inspired by Robert Delauny

I teach occasionally in various schools in London, Ontario. One day, I was at Wilton Grove and I replaced Deb Bennett. Her students had done an amazing job on their artwork inspired by Robert Dulauny's Rhythm, Joie de Vivre. Here is a video on their work.

I told her that I could use their designs and create keepsake candles- a perfect gift for Mother's Day. The artwork was originally done on 11x17 paper. I asked her to fold the paper into an 8.5 x11 size in order to scan. After I scanned it, You should print as mirror image.  I printed it on laser waterslide paper.

I gave each printed image to each student and they had to trim it to the edge. I showed them how to do put the image on the candle but I did each one. Its a little tricky and I didn't want disappointed students.

I placed the image in lukewarm water for 30 seconds. I added glue using a glue stick on the candle and then slipped off the water slide image onto the candle. I didn't have my camera at the time so I am hoping Deb was able to take pictures of the finished product. Kids loved it and couldn't wait to give it to their mothers.

Artwork inspired by George Seurat using texture rubbings

A few weeks I attended an art workshop for occasional teachers. It was put on by the Thames Valley District School Board and held at Althouse at UWO in London, Ontario. It was fantastic for many reasons...The main reason was that I was paid to attend the workshop as part of my professional development as an occasional teacher. I got some great ideas and for the first time played around with wax to create encaustic paintings.

While there, I had an "aha" moment. Whenever I facilitate an art  workshop on artwork by  George Seurat, we make a dot art painting using cotton swabs. Kids usually love this activity. I have learned over the years that the size of the paper will depends on the age of the child. So as a rule, the older the child is, the larger the canvas or else use bingo dabbers for the younger children.  Kids lose interest easily.

Back to my "aha"moment. We were creating textured artwork when I realized that kids could use school walls ( as long as they are made of concrete cylinder blocks like some of the schools, I visit) to create dotted art. By rubbing the walls, you get a "dotted" look. If you combine it with different colours, it gives the picture more depth.

Today, I had the students create their pictures directly on the wall. Here are some samples:

My other "aha" moment was today when I was taking the paper off the crayons. It was time consuming and boring. I wished I had rock crayons from Clementine Art. (We sell these at the Western fair market and our website.) They come in a set of 12 and are easy to hold for making rubbings.  . They are perfect for small hands and the pigments are rich. From now on I am putting a set of  these crayons in my occasional teaching art survival kit!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

It's almost May and all this rain has got to stop so those flowers can spring to life. To celebrate Spring, I have pulled out some of my daughter's flower artwork and put them together in a collection. Rather than having a box of artwork, I have decided to have a poster created which I will have framed and placed prominently in our home.
We'll be offering this poster service through Budding Artists. Check back in a few weeks for pricing and more details.

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day...A day to reflect on our natural landscapes and the environment we live in. Our featured artist today is Andy Goldsworthy, a British sculptor who creates outdoor art installations using materials found in the natural environment.  Here is a video of a grade 6 class inspired by Goldsworthy and some of their art installations created by natural materials in their schoolyard.

Kathy Barbro from Art Project for Kids took old flowers ( donated from a florist) and had her students create petal arrangements. They were left there for others to enjoy.  Patti, Deep Sapce Sparkle, blogs about a parent who created a book with artwork inspired by Goldsworthy. It was part of a Grade 3 unit called Neighborhood Nature. With today's technology, one can easily document artwork created in nature. What a wonderful idea! I may just do this for my children's annual school, Gathering In the Garden workshop. I have been inspired. Now...to take action.

Handprint Art

Here at Budding Artists, we see a lot of fantastic artwork. For the younger children, a favourite type of artwork is using handprints to make  simple pictures.  Here are some samples:

I came across a very cute blog called Keepsake Handprint Calendar that will give you some great handprint art ideas for all year round. Check it out here

Kirigami

Kirigami is the art of paper cutting. I was inspired by Omiyage's blog post and decided to make some coloured "snowflakes". Yes, I know Spring is here but these don't look like that dreaded white stuff. My daughterand I worked together to create our own kirigami. You will need square paper or origami paper,  a sharp pair of scissors, cardstock and spray glue. You may want to iron your "snowflake" to flatten it.














The trick is in the paper folding. It doesn't take long to master but be patient. Here are the instructions. They were written by Jessica from How about Orange. I had to do the folding for my daughter and she made the cuttings. Here are some of our creations. I, then spray glued it and pasted it on card stock. I used cheap "origami" paper from the dollar store. Next time, I am going to use origami paper. You can purchase some really beautiful ones from  Omiyage. Try it and have fun

Monday at the Art Institute of Chicago

Yesterday, my family and I went to the Art Institute of Chicago. We spent four hours there with our teenage son and 8 year old daughter.  I was happily surprised that they were engaged for that long.

Tip #1: Get the audio guide.

Tip #2: Get a list of "must see". Their favourites were Seurat's Sunday at La Grande Jatte  and Grant Wood's iconic American Gothic


Tip#3 Visit the gift shop at the beginning and take a look at the art postcards. Also visit at the end to pick u a souvenir. There is always something funky and fun. We picked up some neat art and craft kits. I can't wait to use my artist finger puppets. I have Van Gogh, Dali, Kahlo and Monet all from a company called The Unemployed Philosopher's Guide.

Tip#4: Begin at kid friendly exhibits. In our case, we started at the Touch Gallery and the Miniature Gallery.
Tip#5 End at a high note. In our case, the kids were hungry. They got to choose where to eat. We didn't get to see everything. We missed the Modern Wing. Upon leaving, my daughter was visibly torn between leaving and finding the Golden Bird by Constantin Brancusi. Her interest was tweaked by a story she heard in the Kids section. She made us promise her that the next time we come we would see it.

I could have spent the entire day there. It was just the right amount of time.  Chicago is a manageable drive and even better on the train.  We'll be back.
drive...even better by train. We'll be back soon.