 I decided to do a lesson that puts a fun little spin on all the rain we've been experiencing in the beginning of this lovely rainy season! Of course, the day I decided to do this collage of a cute child decked off in raincoat and boots under an umbrella there was not a cloud in sight! In fact it might have been one of the hottest days ever! LOL We had fun never the less and the kids got to practice cutting... an activity I have to say the absolutely NEVER get tired of doing! They are always soooo excited to get their hands on a pair of scissors and truth be told, if I think really hard, I remember the feeling! The inspiration for the actual composition came from a book of the same name and the cover is pictured above.
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 The Sugar Skull is a symbol of El Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, a holiday celebrated by Mexicans in November that honors the life of a loved one who has died. It's not at all spooky or scary. As a matter of fact the day is a festive one where family members make special foods, collect flowers and make yummy treats all in preparation of this day of remembrance. I paralleled it to All Souls Day which is a similar Christian tradition in Trinidad. I think it's important to expose my artists to interesting festivals and cultural elements from around the world, so they get a glimpse of life outside of Trinidad and Tobago. So they listened to the story Day of the Dead and then we got down to creating our sugar skulls which are really one of the sweet treats made for that day, but for our project we drew, painted and then collaged some flowers! Today we changed the pace a bit and the Doodlebugs learned all about volcanoes! We are going to spend the next 2 classes creating a beautiful collage set against a volcanic landscape... sooooo of course we have to learn what makes a volcano appear, we should know that there are different types and well... hopefully you'll hear all about it! They were intrigued to learn that the islands of Hawaii were formed by volcanoes erupting in the ocean and that the eruptions cooled and formed the land. We talked about how most Hawaiian volcanoes are now inactive, though there are still three active volcanoes on the islands which are constantly being watched to make sure the people of Hawaii stay safe. "Would you live on an island with an active volcano? " Resounding response... NOOOOOO MISS!! LOL This piece has several layers so it will take more than one class to complete but take a look at our progress!Last week the Picassos followed in the footsteps of Post-Impressionist artist Henri Rousseau and created some beautiful jungle scenes. This week watch as they bring these jungle scenes to completion using a variety of different techniques and take in their animals! Point of Note: Rousseau painted a variety of 'zoo animals' in his jungle scenes because he never actually left Paris and created his paintings from his research at the zoo and the botanical gardens... so the children are aware for instance that a giraffe's habitat is actually the savanna! LOL  Artist Henri Rousseau painted lively jungle scenes, but he actually never traveled outside his home city of Paris, France and friends there are no tropical jungles there! So how did Rousseau come up with the scenes for his paintings? Well, he visited the Paris Botanical Gardens and embellished what he saw using his very wild imagination! Today the Doodlebugs started creating our version of what Rousseau might have seen on one of his visits. They sponge painted some flowers and leaves today and we talked about what a greenhouse is and what it is used for as well as how it is different from the jungle! Next week we will add the greenhouse gates and some more plants to make our Rousseau piece complete!  From contemporary artist Sandra Silberzweig we're moving to 19th Century Post Impressionist artist Henri Rosseau! Rosseau was a self-taught artist who became famous for his jungle scenes. All his artwork was created from his imagination because he never actually left his home of Paris France. The children started creating their leafy backgrounds today using a combination of techniques. They learnt all about positive and negative space and created their own stencils, they sponge painted for texture and also drew and collaged some leafy foliage to give their jungle scenes some depth. Next week they will finish off their backgrounds and our jungle inhabitants will move in, so stay tuned you don't want to miss that!   I thought I would usher in Christmas at the studio by reading this great little book "A Bucket of Blessings". While it is not a Christmas story it certainly has some beautiful lessons that tie in well with the season of giving. In the story they see that one person ( or monkey ha ha) can make a big difference just by doing something relatively small and it also underscores that you can find great joy in helping others. Of course, the colours are vibrant and the pictures appear textured so it is very visually appealing. They created the peacock from the story using a collage technique which they approached in the manner of a puzzle! Lots of fun and lots of learning and the art isn't too shabby either!  So today we finished off our collages and wrote a greeting inside our cards and we also worked on a little surprise that I had up my sleeve! The Doodlebugs painted some little clay pots to add to their Mother's Day gift! All I did was put the pots in front of them with the paints and told them to make them pretty for mummy so you each have a unique pot complete with seeds made by the hands of your little darlings. Happy Mother's Day! For the first part of this lesson see here. For Mother's Day this year the Doodlebugs are working hard on making a gorgeous little flower pot collage. We're making all the elements from scratch so this one will take more than one session but I know that you know it will be worth the wait! Today they are mottling the background for our art piece and prepping the parts of the flower... so of course we're also learning as we go. So they're naming the parts, petals, stem, leaf, seeds! We're not showing roots in this art piece but they know they're there :) Take a look at our progress... but Mummies please you're only getting a sneak peek because I don't want to spoil the 'surprise' ;) Follow me on Instagram #artypantsstudiott if you enjoy the overload of cuteness or if you want to keep up to date on what's happening at the studio!
The illustrations in this book are absolutely gorgeous so I knew my Doodlebugs would enjoy recreating these little birds using our painted paper from last week! The story tells of a little girl and her father waiting for cherries to grow on their tree so they could make a delicious pie. It describes the stages the tree goes through and it is told in a wonderful rhythmic voice :) After listening and looking at the pictures they were given bird templates and told to make a picture of a bird on a cherry tree branch. Collage art is always a hit with my Doodlebugs because they get to do two of the things they love most in the world... cut and stick! Cutting is especially important for some key reasons:
Aren't these Doodlebugs precious? Take a look and see what I mean. |
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Be a fly on the wall in our art room! Take a look at what we do, how we do it and the smiles that I get to see week after week :) Archives
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