When we got back from Hervey Bay on the 1st July the kids were straight into the art lessons. We started with learning about Piet Mondrian and his unique art design. The kids watched a video introducing him and also his simplistic but eye catching art designs based around the primary colours. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k_t8eAca9CU
The kids then watched an art lesson to start their own creating process. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zIMzAIKIKDc
They each used sharpies to draw the lines making rectangles and then used oil pastels of the primary colours plus black to complete the artwork. I kept reminding them that his concept was 'less is more' so kept encouraging them to colour just a few boxes but still enough to be eye catching.
The kids then played postman on their bikes and rode around the street dropping letters off to our neighbours asking them and encouraging them to contribute to the art gallery. I really had no expectations of others contributing. I did think that some of the kids might do it again like last year but wasn't sure about anyone else. The kids loved playing postie. It was really cool because some of our neighbours did contribute and they had some amazing artworks. It wasn't just done by kids.
The next art lesson would have to be one of my favourite, both in the process and the finished product! The kids learnt about Eric Carle and his artworks. We read some of his books - The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Quiet Cricket and the Very Busy Spider. We spoke about the different textures in the collage pieces and then watched an art lesson based upon Eric Carle's artworks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=fLrsbfO1YEQ
The kids were so into it! We did it step by step in watching the lesson and then heading to the back room to do the task. They started with putting blobs of paint on the paper, again using primary colours, and then they mixed the colours together to cover the page. To add more texture they used a fork to scratch out different lines. We then let it dry. They loved making the textures in the paint!
Once the paint had dried the kids then started making their collage insect. They drew the shapes on the back of the paper and then cut them out and then glued them down on the paper. It was fascinating to watch Daniel and the way that he kept referring to the picture of the rhinoceros beetle in the book. He also started with a bright sun because that's what Eric Carle often included in his pictures.
Daniel then asked if he could paint the background. Sure, why not? The other 2 wanted to follow suit. So they used water colours to add a background to their pictures. The finished products were so eye catching! As I already mentioned, I think these were my favourite artworks.
We discussed how the base picture needs to be simple - less is more concept - and that the colours used would be what helps make the picture pop. The kids then came up with their own design. They drew a picture on 1 quarter of a piece of paper using a sharpie. Daniel made a burrito, Eliza drew an ice cream and Alexander made a donut. I then scanned their picture into the computer, and copied it 4 times on the A4 paper. Alexander wasn't too keen to do a huge artwork so he just had 1 page and Daniel and Eliza used 2 pages.
The kids then cut out the quarters and used bright coloured oil pastels to colour in the pictures. Their hands got pretty tired towards the end. You can tell which pictures they started on because they are coloured in neater and have less white spaces around them. Alexander also lost motivation after colouring 2 of the donuts so Daniel kindly coloured in a couple too.
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| Daniel helping out Alexander |
Next up the kids arranged their artworks to fit an A3 page (or A4 for Alexander). Once happy, they glued down the pictures to have their own Andy Warhol inspired artworks.
I also decided to do self-portraits. Always a fun art work for the kids to do and I love seeing their understanding of how they look. We watched a video to learn about Rembrant and his Self Portraits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2VTu9aiPFO8
Eliza focused on the freckles that she had on her nose. Daniel had apparently done on at the start of the year in class so he remembered what Mrs Fearnside asked him to do particularly in painting the background as well. Alexander actually surprised me with how well he drew himself. He got the positions pretty well.
I set up a mirror for the kids to use so they could see themselves and add in details that they might not think of. They enjoyed putting their finished painting in front of themselves so it looked like they were there the whole time.
Eliza added the trampoline in the background. She also wanted pigtails so didn't do her self-portrait as she was looking today.
The last artwork that the kids did was John Olsen. Nana J has a beautiful artwork by John Olsen up on her wall and we love looking at it and seeing what hidden pictures we can spot. Each time we look, the ideas are different. So I decided that the kids could learn a bit about him and how he does his artworks and then the kids had a go. The information about him was really interesting because, if I'm honest, I didn't really know much about him before seeing the artwork on Nana J's walls. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LedODbdC-SU
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| A post that Aunty Jen made on her Facebook page |
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| The kids decided that landscape they wanted to paint to set the scene. They used water colour paints to do the background. They then used oil pastels and Texta to add details over the top to add detail and meaning to their landscape and to try and tell a story. |
The finished products were quite abstract but it was really cool that one neighbour commented how good the John Olsen artworks were and that they loved the interpretation that the kids made. I guess that is the beauty of art, and where allowing kids to have freedom in their design and process actually brings about a beautiful outcome, even if it isn't the intended finished product at the start.
Our July Art Gallery was ready to go. I also had a couple of neighbours add some artworks too which was lovely. Kathy brought her daughters artworks from when she was younger. One was an amazing charcoal drawing of ballerinas. Ava from up the street brought a painting of Jack and the Beanstalk and then Judy brought down her granddaughter's painting of a kookaburra. Another amazing artwork! I was very excited that some of the neighbours got involved this time, and that it wasn't just kids doing it!
Another morning I opened the front door to find this package on the front doorstep. Jane, a teacher from preschool, dropped around a beautiful and encouraging letter to us and also lent us a book about Paul Klee that she got when she was little. It was beautiful to sit and read it with the kids. And I loved reading how much joy the art gallery brought her too.
It was also lovely to see family and friends when they came to look at the Art Gallery. The kids even learnt to climb the pole with Nana and Poppy here.
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| Auntie Sue came around to visit |
With lockdown being extended I decided that we would update the Art Gallery so that people had a reason to head out, go for a walk and to try and brighten people's days. We did another letterbox drop to see if any other neighbours wanted to contribute to it and we had a great amount of artworks handed in! Some from kids this time (Sophie and Eve and also Harry, Matilda and Jack) but we also had some artworks from Mary across the street. It was so beautiful reading her little note on the back that said that even if the artworks weren't on display, it brought her such joy sitting and doing them. I love that it provided her with joy during this tricky period.
The kids did a few new artworks to contribute to this Art Gallery but to be honest, with doing home learning too we didn't have a huge amount of extra time to learn about and create other artworks. One lesson that I did do with the kids was learning about Ken Done. We watched a video to learn about him and his artworks and inspiration behind it. It was cool to also see him start his sketching and start planning an artwork too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=oqGHcdZOZ78
The kids and I then set to work on our own Ken Done inspired artworks. Daniel and I decided to do a landscape picture - I did the beach and Daniel did the Harbour Bridge. Eliza and Alexander chose to do more still life and did a flower vase. Both looked great! Daniel and I also used some pieces of fabric to add to the design. I do love how Ken Done uses such bright colours to catch your eye.
We then watched a video to see Matisse and learn about how he would make his art. It was cool seeing some of his artworks. They were so big! The video then had a section that had the kids do their own creation. It was cool to see how unique their pictures were. Daniel's was quite abstract, as was Alexander's but Eliza's had a lot of detail in her bedroom picture. I loved watching how she thought it all out.
In this art gallery I also included the NAIDOC week artwork to help create conversations about Indigenous Australia and reconciliation. It was such a beautiful picture.
This Art Gallery I also asked if Ems, Flynnie or Lachie wanted to contribute to the art gallery and they chose to as well. This was becoming more of a wider community project.
After receiving some mail, Daniel decided to make a letter box for the Art Gallery. He made it so that there was a space for the mail to be put in and then he was able to open the lid to collect the mail. A very fun idea although I did let him know that people might not put any mail in it. He also wanted to have a pile of paper so that people could write letters then and there but I told him that there wouldn't be any pens and people wouldn't have them while out walking so we just left it with the letter box. He was very excited because some people did use it and he liked checking it each day (although it was tricky to keep safe when the wind picked up!)
Another crazy idea that I had was to make an exercise loop for the street. People could come and look at the art gallery on their way past. It was a great way for us to meet more people from in the community, to encourage people to exercise and have fun. I loved the chats with people as they did it. One day we were out on the front lawn doing hair cuts, having ice cream and a couple came down doing the exercise loop. The paused to look at the art gallery, asked if we put it together and commented that it was a great idea. Their house mate came and did the exercise loop the day before and told them that they should go and see it. He then asked if I was a primary teacher. Ha. Well worked out. It was also fun watching adults enjoying a game of hopscotch at the gallery.
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| A couple who came to visit the Art Gallery and Exercise loop |
Mum sent me a message with a screen shot of the community page where someone had written a very kind message about the exercise loop. Lots of people had liked it too!
Art for kids has been a wonderful resource during home learning for the kids to learn to draw different things. Alexander in particular used it each week to draw the topic he was learning about. I found that they also did a painting lesson looking at cherry blossom trees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=cIjUwedQAZo
It looked pretty cool so I decided that we'd try it. The kids used a straw to blow runny black paint on their paper making the branches of the tree. Once dry, they used a paint brush to dab pink blossoms onto the tree. The blowing took a bit of practice but they got there and the trees looked so cool!
While the black paint dried I set up some still life drawing. Amelia had gifted me a beautiful bunch of sunflowers earlier in the week so the kids had a go at drawing and then painting the sunflowers. We listened to the story 'Camille and the Sunflowers' to learn a bit more about Van Gogh. Then we watched this lesson on how to draw the Sunflowers artwork to get an idea of how to get the flowers in front of us onto the paper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwbIBBearnI We went step by step, watching the video, then going to the back room and looking at the vase or flowers to draw the picture.
The kids then finished off their Cherry Blossom trees by added the blossoms.
The next artist that we learnt about was James Riso, bird pop art. I can't remember how I came across him but he is a very cool artist and his artworks look very eye catching. We watched a couple of videos to learn about him and also his style of art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ret1i05M8Jc
The kids loved looking for the sun and moon in his artworks as well as spotting hearts and different birds. They also loved how different objects had faces like buildings. We looked at this clip to see some of his different artworks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGyuISZ0nP0
The kids then did their own artwork inspired by James Riso. Daniel and Alexander focussed on the buildings in the artwork while Eliza focused on the birds and telling a story. Their hands got timed as they coloured in their artworks with oil pastel but their finished products looked awesome!
I updated the art gallery for September, included some of our fruit and vegetable paintings, some marble art and also Eliza's emu family drawing and we put it out.
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| A glimpse of our upstairs area while I was updating the art gallery each month |
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| Reading the letter about the crazy buildings artworks |
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| The kids with the colouring in sheets and encouraging letter |
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| Colouring in their sheets |
The government decided that home learning would continue until just before November so I decided that we could do 1 more art gallery. Fortunately the kids had signed up for some online art lessons run by Jane from Funky Zebra Art Studio so I didn't need to come up with the artists and artworks this time around.
They started with the artwork 'Hogwarts at Midnight'. This sparked a lot of Harry Potter questions which I do hope they get into as they get older.
The next art lesson was Pete Cromer. I hadn't heard of this artist before but I loved his artworks! I even bought the kids one of his books because his artworks were just so beautiful. The kids learnt to make a budgie using paint and collage as well. They were really eye catching.
The next lesson was mini beasts where they explored garden bugs and drew their own picture of the garden. They added their own animals to create their own design. The kids decided how they would design their own pictures - with water colour paints or with crayons/pencils/textas.
The last lesson was sushi art. They used Jane's sushi drawings to make their own designs. Daniel enjoyed making a sushi train as well.
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| Jane's sushi picture |
I put together the last art gallery and put it out the front. By now I was quite tired of putting it out each day. The weather was also making it really tricky. On sunny days the wind would be strong so we'd have to pull it all back inside. A lot of days were overcast so we had to work out if it would rain or be fine weather to put it out. So it did start to become stressful having the art gallery, but it also continued to bless those in our community. Each day I was hesitant about putting it out but then still did, someone would walk down and look at it and comment how wonderful it was to see. God works in cool ways to encourage your.
Nana and Poppy were frequent visitors to the art gallery and left a lovely note of thanks to the kids.
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