Monday, October 26, 2009

Starting our first painting together

It would have been October 15th that we last met. Last week we didn't have class. I missed my girls and my teaching time with them!

For this project we are working with acrillic paint on stretched canvas. (How can you not feel like an artist when you paint on canvas?!) We talked about the theory of gestalt as it applies to artwork. It is the idea that the sum is greater than the parts, or that when a shape or form is repeated into a pattern or group, the piece as a whole is what makes the statement. A big concept to grasp, but these girls impress me with their understanding and willingness to dig right in and experiment artistically.

This painting will take several classes I am guessing, but here are some photos of the girls at work. (Alyssa we missed you ... hope your wrist is feeling better! You'll catch up though, no worries.)

Here is Kylie. She has primed her canvas and is tracing the stencil she created to design the pattern she will paint.
Here is our little set up in my craft room. It's cozy and the girls always have good stories to tell as they work ...
Here is a (very poor quality) photograph of a section of a painting I did in college. It was a study in gestalt and color. Like the painting I have assigned for the girls, I used a template in creating the design. Thought I would share it as it was partly inspiration for the paintings we are doing in class. (Wish I had a better image though - the colors in the original are much more vibrant.)
Stay tuned for more work-in-progress updates on this one!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Spooky Scratch Art!

For our first week together in October, I had a special challenge for the girls! We worked on scratchboard, which is a strong paper coated in ink. The idea is to scratch away the ink to reveal the bright white underneath to create the artwork. I thought it would be a great medium for a spooky, scratchy Halloween picture!

The first major challenge of scratchboard is, first, "scratching" is not easy. It requires patience yand a steady hand and a sharp tool. (And I would not let the girls use exacto knives, which I feel is one of the best tools for working in this media ... sorry girls!) The second challenge is that rather than applying color and creating a positive shape, with scratchboard you are subtracting the ink pigment to create your picture. So a challenge, but a fun one that most people never get to experiment with ... and the girls didn't seem to be intimidated!

Here are some of the girls' Halloween pictures. I may post a couple more later on as a couple of the girls didn't have their finished art ready for me scan for them.


Three sitting pumpkins. Delaney



A Halloween bat. Kylee


A bubbling cauldren over a fire! Arika