Under the Influence-Week 4

I was a little nervous that the Jackson Pollock class wouldn't take up the entire hour. I didn't know if the kids would just splatter on some paint and be done. But I had nothing to worry about.

We started out the class talking about Pollock and looking at some of his pieces. We also viewed some images of him at work. The kids saw how he bent over unstretched canvas on the ground, while holding on to a big can of paint. I then did a mini demonstration, using a small art board, a cup of paint and a paintbrush. The kids developed their own style, some standing, some sitting, all finding their perfect splat. And they worked on their pictures for a long time, layering the colors and building texture. 

We put the titles on the back. I love when the kids come up with titles for their work like "Rainbow Spring," "The Colorful Craze" and "Circle of the Splat." Hope you like them!

Under the Influence-Week 2

We had another great week at “Under the Influence...of Art.” This week we learned about Vincent Van Gogh. The kids learned that “Starry Night” was his most famous work. We looked at his brush strokes and saw how effectively his swirls depicted the wind.

The students then created their own Starry Night. We used paints and finished off the pictures with some silver glitter (maybe Van Gogh would have been happier had he used glitter too!).

I’m sure you’ll agree that everyone did a fantastic job. : )

Back-to-School Giveaway

My kids are going back to school next week, so I thought I'd celebrate by having my very first RaspberryKidz Giveaway! Just send me the artwork of a little one you know (friend or relative) in the form of a jpg image to rachel@raspberrykidz.com by midnight Wednesday, Sept. 2. (I'm sure I won't be up that late, but the midnight deadline just sounds cool.) Thursday morning I will randomly select one picture to be turned into either a 5x7 or 8x10 RaspberryKid print (I'll base the size on which one I think will work best with the picture.). Along with getting a free professional, color, matted print (including shipping), I will post the transformation on my blog and web site too. Get those kids drawing, and Good Luck!

Under the Influence

I am so excited to be teaching an after-school art class at my kids' school this coming year. Originally called "Under the Influence," the class will now be called "Copy Cats." Each week we (Preschool through 2nd Grade) will be learning about a different famous artist. The history lesson will be brief, and then we will spend the rest of the class period working on a piece in that artist's style. In other words, learning by imitation. At the same time, I want the children to work on their own unique style, so I hope to hand out some form of sketchbook on the first day in which they can keep all of their own drawings. By the end of the semester, I will then take one of their drawings and use it to inspire a RaspberryKid picture that they can then take home. So, it will all come full circle, and I will eventually be copying them!

Hopefully enough kids will sign up for this class. In the meantime, I have been using my own children as guinea pigs. We have been studying different artists and trying out the lessons I plan to use. (I found some great lessons at www.artsmarts4kids.com). In trying these out on my own kids (one in 2nd grade and one in kindergarten), I'm figuring out how long each lesson will take and how easy or difficult they are for the different ages.

Today we worked on Wassily Kandinsky. I loved looking at the you tube videos of his work.  We started by doing "Color Studies" in oil pastels. I think this is a great project, as it shows them a technique of dividing the paper and then then just following a simple pattern. My daughter was a little frustrated at the beginning, but she soon caught on, and I love the finished product....so do they. 

Next, we might move on to Farbstudie Quadrate, but I think they want to save that for another day.