 ABOUT EGYPTIAN HIPPO SCULPTURES With the Nile River running through their land, ancient Egyptians were familiar with hippopotami. Their art included small sculptures of hippopotami. The most famous is this statuette of a hippopotamus (popularly called "William") was found in a tomb and is now housed at the MET Museum. It was molded in faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz. Beneath the blue glaze, the body was painted with lotuses. These river plants depict the marshes in which the animal lived, but at the same time their flowers also symbolize regeneration and rebirth as they close every night and open again in the morning. The seemingly benign appearance that this figurine presents is deceptive. To the ancient Egyptians, the hippopotamus was one of the most dangerous animals in their world. The huge creatures were a hazard for small fishing boats and other rivercraft. The beast might also be encountered on the waterways in the journey to the afterlife. As such, the hippopotamus was a force of nature that needed to be propitiated and controlled, both in this life and the next. Only one of the legs in the statue is original, the other three are modern day restorations and it is believed that they were broken on purpose to protect the tomb’s owner in the afterlife. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of our clay molding but I’ll definitely get them painting and decorating them in our next session.
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In recent years, food trucks have grown in popularity. Food trucks used to only serve the working class outside of construction sites and big businesses. In Trinidad of course our staple food truck sells Doubles but you can find food trucks selling a variety of tasty food options from empanadas and tacos to rice and beans with Jamaican Jerk meats! Today, food trucks can be found in most cities, serving a wide variety of food. People of all ages can enjoy stopping for a unique meal at a food truck. Food trucks are even being hired to serve food at weddings! Have you ever eaten at a food truck? After doing a directed line drawing of the truck, they started planning out what they were going to sell and his they wound design their display! They had to make the most of their limited advertising space to attract customers and of course be sure they got the information they needed. For Father’s Day this year the Picassos were challenged to create portrait of dad but using only coloured paper, scissors and glue! No pencils, no paint! 😳 This was soooo much fun! They went to town cutting shapes and I have to say I just love the results! Happy Father’s Day! In our last class we talked about whales! The intention of this project was to engage the imagination. What floats on the surface of the ocean? How big is the whale compared to the vessel? Of course they also got some hard facts to work with so we took on a short documentary on different types of whales... they learned some pretty cool facts and of course of things we were familiar with from before. This piece also gave them the opportunity to play with creating tints and shades as the water appears to get lighter as it gets closer to the surface. For Indian Arrival Day this year the Picassos and I talked about why the Indians came to Trinidad and what that entailed. Oue art piece focuses on an Indian woman working in the cane fields. They had to focus on texture here and of course the challenge was to draw and paint the human form. I think they did a terrific job!  This lesson calls on us to look at the shapes and lines in the old truck but I was especially drawn to a landscape piece here and asked them to imagine the truck driving through an old bumpy road with lots of fields and greenery all around. This gives us the opportunity to add so much movement, color and texture. They loved drawing the truck and I took the opportunity to stress that they’re not just ‘learning to draw a truck’ they’re learning how to break a complex thing down into smaller shapes so they can draw ANYTHING. This is will be completed in another class but take a look at what they’ve done so far. Update: They added details using oil pastels on both their trucks and landscapes. They learnt how to distress the truck so it looks old and used the oil pastels to create texture and depth to their landscapes as well! A job well done!  Amelia Earhart was a pioneer pilot in the world of aviation because she was an excellent female pilot in a field that was dominated by men. Amelia decided to take flying lessons when she was twenty years old. Six months into her lessons, she bought her own plane! Amelia set many records, including being the first woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean and as the first person to fly solo over the Pacific Ocean. In 1937, she attempted to fly around the world! Unfortunately, part way around the world, Amelia and her plane disappeared, never to be found. Amelia is remembered for her bravery and as an inspiration for women. This piece is inspired by a picture in the book and the chikdren drew and painted a happy Amelia up high in her plane and they used chalk pastels to make the hat and the wings on the plane look 3D by adding darker and lighter areas to create depth. The English fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk” first appeared in print in 1734. Some literature researchers think the oral version of the story has been around for over 5,000 years! It is an endearing story of a poor boy who buys magic beans that grow a beanstalk of gargantuan size. Jack climbs the beanstalk high into the sky and discovers that it leads to the home of a mean giant. Jack manages to steal some valuable treasures from the giant which causes the giant to become very angry. Before the giant shimmies down the beanstalk to get Jack, Jack cuts down the beanstalk. Now we discussed this little tale at great length and it turns out that your children have a very firm moral compass! Congrats! They were all able to discern some important lessons...
This is all of course while they were working on drawing and painting their bird's eye view of Jack climbing back down the bean stalk! This piece drew their attention to different aspect of perspective in art. So far we have done 1-point perspective (poui trees), atmospheric perspective (winter landscape) and now bird's eye.  If you find yourself at Lopinot on a rainy night, you might be face to face with the ghost of Charles Joseph de Loppinot de la Fresilliere – a French Count who came to Trinidad in 1800 – as he roams about his estate house located in the northern village named after him. They had to find out a bit about the history of this gorgeous little house but of course I added my two cents. This week we are going to try our hands at drawing this grand old house and next week we’ll paint. This one is a slow process... lots of details and as you can imagine quite a challenge for my artists, many of whom are trying a piece with this level of detail for the first time. But if it’s one thing I’ve learned in my time teaching art to kids is that they will go as far as you lead them. So I continue to push ever so slightly, but push we must! Plus... lessons of perseverance and hard work aren’t confined to the art room! 😉 Haring (1958 - 1990) attracted public attention with his bold graffiti-inspired street style art. Drawing inspiration from the break-dancing culture of the times, Haring's action figures were characterized by bright colours and bold black lines. He often used his work to make a statement about different issues and he was well-known for his social activism. Today we are using Keith Haring as our master artist to create another piece on Carnival. We are imagining our Haring action figures are at a Carnival event jumping and dancing to the beats! Check out my Picassos as they use what they have learned about this artist to create their own artwork! |
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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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