Every year around November 1st, hundreds of thousands of Monarch butterflies arrive in Mexico from as far north as Canada. (Monarchs originating west of the Colorado Rockies arrive along the California coast) Because this coincides with the Dia de Los Muertos, many residents believe these are souls of their ancestors returning for their annual visit. What a perfect time for a Monarch art lesson! My 5-11 year olds created symmetrical butterflies by drawing one side with black oil pastel, folding paper in half and then rubbing the backside of the paper. More details and embellishments were made with marker, acrylic and watercolors. Flowers were made with oil pastel and watercolor. The children created their backgrounds by scraping dots of analogous acrylic paint with pieces of cardboard. Butterflies and flowers were then glued to their dry backgrounds.
Beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pieces Mary.. Tina
ReplyDeleteThese monarchs are lovely. The backgrounds allow the image to stand out. I especially like the way you have presented the photos. Large and small around. How have you acheived this?
ReplyDeleteThanks Gretchen! I use the photo editor ipiccy. It's great for creating collage formats or virtual mats and frames on individual works.
DeleteButterflies are so inspiring by their colours and also for some of them the migration! When I travel, I try to see if there is a butterfly conservatory in the neighbourhood! My last two weeks holiday in Europe I managed to go to two :-)
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