Olivia with a Jackson Pollock

I had to join in on the fun as well.

Sometimes I don't have to look any farther for inspiration for an art lesson than my daughter's bookshelf. So my Thursday afternoon group of Kindergarten thru 3rd graders took a look at the adorable (and familiar to all of them) Olivia by Ian Falconer. In the story Olivia's mother takes her to an art museum on rainy days. She always heads straight for her favorite Degas ballet piece. From there she stands in front of Jackson Pollock's Autumn Rhythm #30. Her reaction, "I could do that in about five minutes."

So I thought it would be fun do a line drawing of Olivia the pig with smudged charcoal shadows and her trademark red outfit and combine it with a splattered piece. The boys swapped the sailor dress for a red turtleneck, turning their pig into more of an Oliver. (my apologies to Mr. Falconer :) The children took turns with some Abstract Expressionism using watered down black and white tempera on a sheet of construction paper. The pigs (all so wonderfully different and full of humor and character) were cut out and placed in front of their splattered art piece and mounted on black posterboard. Nice job kids!

Sunset Cityscapes

There are certain art projects I am drawn to - Cubism, Impressionism, birds and cityscapes come to mind. Everytime I spot a cityscape project on another blog, I ooh and aah. My "favorites" list are filled with cityscape art project ideas. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for my days living in the fabulous Midtown Atlanta or in the bustling Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles.(I lived literally a stone's throw from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and would take my then 3 year old) son to the children's space there on a weekly basis. People laugh when I tell them that the transition from L.A. to a quiet beach town was a difficult one. It was hard going to sleep at night without the hum of traffic and helicopters. :)



Back to art projects! I found the idea for this one on Artsonia. Credit goes to Muraski Elementary School in Stronsville, Ohio. There are some gorgeous pieces posted there. My example pales by comparison. And I have to really give credit to the teacher for the variety of unique sunset cityscapes. This is not a cookie cutter collection. So being that the sunsets in L.A. are particularly beautiful this time of year, I am going to do this project with my 3rd-5th graders to satisfy my selfish craving to enjoy them.



After drawing a faint horizon line, the children will use watercolor to create their sunsets. I plan to offer a few examples to show the magnificent colors and variety of sunsets, stressing to blend the colors with a brushstroke of water when needed. The water beneath the city can be painted in the same way. Yellows or pinks (or other colors for that matter) can be added in narrow verticle lines to echo the sky scraper lights they will add later. After the watercolor has dried, the children will paint a variety of black buildings using acrylic, varying their heights and style to add interest. Using the back of a small paintbrush dipped in a variety of colors, they can create the lighted windows. They can keep their palette limited with this part or use the rainbow. The last touch is to add some horizontal lines to create water reflections.

Cardboard Masks Inspired by Kimmy Cantrell and Eric Straw

The above masks were created by 3rd-5th graders.

My 3rd-5th graders looked at the masks of artists Kimmy Cantrell and Eric "Straw" (Strawczynski). They come from completely different walks of life, yet have distinct parallels. Cantrell is an African American artist from Atlanta Georgia. Once a purchasing manager for Target, he decided on the heels of job change and divorce to reconnect with his love of clay. Vases evolved into bowls and bowls into his current niche, faces. Now as a full time artist, Cantrell creates clay masks with both tribal and Cubist influences. They have wonderful bold graphic shapes, interesting textures and eye popping candied glazes. I knew instantly my students would enjoy his primitive and edgy take on the human face. Minus a kiln, I decided to do a recycled cardboard approach to these masks. Literally a day before my class, I came across the fabulous work of Eric Straw from St. Martha Catholic School Artists (this is why I so love the give and take of art teacher blogging). What amazing luck to find an artist whose masks have both tribal and sometimes Cubist roots, bold features.....and that uses cardboard and only cardboard! Straw, (as his friends call him) who worked as a professor and researcher in social sciences, turned to antique toys to escape this left brained world. He not only became an expert in that genre but began creating his own marionettes, busts and masks. His work contains bold imagery as Cantrell's, combined with a lot of humor. This humor would go far with my spirited and lively group of 8 to 10 year olds.

Today my students mapped out their face shape on cardboard and got to work on creating their unique facial features. Some did this directly on their cardboard. Others used remnants of cereal and cracker boxes and cut out their facial features. Paint and oil pastels were offered to add color to their masks. I took Kimmel's use of large nails on some of his masks a bit further. I offered keys, nuts, bolts, pennies, soda can tops, hooks and even fettucini noodles (the hair on the 2nd mask) and quite a few more items to echo the humor of Straw's pieces. Many of these items slip easily between the corrugated cardboard. My kids are off to a great start. I will have some wonderful unique masks to post next week.

Multi-Media Cubist Roosters

Inspiration - Picasso's Le Coq

Phase 1 - decoupage

Painting over direct line draw of rooster

Paint piece using a limited palette

My students this session will be creating art pieces with some added twists. One of my first projects is a multi-media piece based on Picasso's, "Le Coq." To add some extra visual interest the children will decoupage some ripped material with watered down glue. I'm offering phone book pages, newspaper, scrapbook paper, recycled textured paper, tissue paper, and magazines. I will encourage the children to repeat their choices to give their artwork some visual movement. The following week they will go over their textured board with a direct line drawing lesson of Picasso's abstracted rooster. I think the bold geometric shapes will work very well for the children. They will paint over their pencil lines with black acrylic and a stiff thin brush. They can choose to paint over some of the lines of their ripped paper or keep their composition more simple. My background is a bit involved. They can opt to paint over their materials to create a more solid background (like Picasso). By offering a limited palette, I explain that their eyes will dance around their repeated colors and patterns. I will also point out how Picasso's repetition of lines, shapes and colors cause the viewers eye to move around his painting. (example: Look how many times Picasso repeated the triangle kids?)

Last Gasps of Summer

Quick sketch of our "neck of the woods"(on the back of my son's crumpled algebra paper from last school year) with colored pencil added.

Some of you closer to my age might remember this house from the L.A. Arboretum (top left) from the TV series, "Fantasy Island." Tattoo shouting, "The plane the plane!" Anyone? :)

We stayed close to home all summer until this last week - even then we only ventured no father than 60 miles away. These photos were all taken at the L.A. Arboretum and Long Beach, CA. Hoping you all enjoyed your summers and wishing you wonderful new school years!

Versatile Blogger Award

I was thrilled to receive The Versatile Blogger Award from There's a Dragon in My Art Room and Mini Matisse - both fabulous blogs, which made it all the more an honor! As the rules state, you must:


Rule # 1.) Thank the person who gave the award.

Thanks very much again Phyl of There's a Dragon in My Art Room and and Mrs. Hahn of Mini Matisse! It is greatly appreciated. You are both clearly amazing art teachers! (I did not include you in my blog list below, only to spread the wealth to 2 extra bloggers.)


Rule # 2.) Share 7 things about yourself:

1.) With a background in fine art and graphic design and quite a few courses in art history, I reinvented myself at 40, and absolutely love my "new" career as a children's art teacher!


2.) I have been with my husband literally half my life. (Met at age 21 and will be married 18 years as of next month). He is an amazingly creative Director of Banquets and Caterer. He loves to cook for me, even after his crazy banquet hours.

3.) I have 2 children, 8 and 15. My daughter loves HGTV and is already planning her future dream home (hardwood floors, marble countertops ect.). My son is 15 and that means I am barred from discussing him in any way. :) Too bad because he is quite funny.

4.)We have 2 rescue Terrier-mix mutts, who bring us a lot of laughs! This is despite their obvious quirks. Kobe has a definite case of Napolean Complex and loves to trash talk only the largest dogs: Pit Bulls, Mastiffs, ect.. Ally, who looks likes a leggy Benji, hates all loud things with wheels: skateboards, UPS trucks, motorcycles ect..

5.) I try to live by my mom's mantra, "be here now" and my Dad's practice of "plan your work, work your plan." I reiterate: try.

6.) We live in a wonderful SoCal beach town, just a couple blocks from the ocean. This means there is no reason for the kids to say, "I'm bored." But of course some things are inevitable :)

7.) I hope to one day have the opportunity to travel abroad. Italy would probably be my first choice. For now I am content to watch Anthony Bourdaine's, "No Reservations" and Samantha Brown on The Travel Channel.

Rule #3) Pass the award onto 15 other bloggers you have recently discovered and enjoy.

1.) Lines, Dots and Doodles

2.) Mrs. Picasso's Art Room

3.) MN Art Gal

4.) Artolazzi

5.) Vivid Layers

6.) Meri Cherry

7.) Art with Mrs. Smith

8.) Fem Manuals

9.) For the Love of Art

10.) Kids Artists

11.) Learning Parade

12.) Quest Artists

13.) Art Project Girl

14.) Apples Love Oranges

15.) Laugh Paint Create

I could mention many more! Recipients, feel free to pass the award along if and when you have the time. I know everyone is in back to school mode.

Fantastic Creative Opportunity

Just recently I found artist Carla Sonheim through the wonderful blog, Vivid Layers. Based on the rave reviews of Marcia and many others from Amazon, I purchased Sonheim's "Drawing Lab, 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun." It was money well spent. There are some wonderful and fun exercises to help me remember the joy of creating art. I can still fall victim in focusing on product instead of process with my own work. I think young elementary school children are such fun to teach because they love the process.



This brings me to the point of this post. On Carla Sonheim's blog
she is offering a fabulous online course: The Art Of Silliness 2, 30 worksheets, 30 days, for $25. The exercises are "non-threatening and easy" and just plain fun. Her book reflects this wonderful looseness and whimsy. She mentions that teachers are welcome to photocopy the worksheets and use them in classrooms. I have signed up and just wanted to pass the word along to my fellow blog friends. These aren't long, time consuming exercises and can always be set aside for a day with more free time. Check out her blog for more info. I'm really looking forward to it!