Llamas with Peruvian Textiles

This project was inspired by a friend's recent amazing trip to Macchu Picchu.

 Truly a bucket list moment!

Since the chances of me making the trek there anytime soon are nonexistent, the consolation prize was to do an art lesson based on the Peruvian llamas. There are over 7 million llamas in South America. They are highly intelligent animals that are easily trained. They are raised for their wool, to carry loads and pull carts. And since they are in the camel family, they can survive weeks without water.

Jackie said this photo-bombing llama's name was Lucy 

and a group of 30 of them live there year round to keep the grass down.

Just -WOW!

Beautiful Peruvian textiles

 sketching it out

basic step by step drawing

 Sharpie and chalk pastel

 Simple line work for our Peruvian textile backgrounds -

easy and approachable for my young groups

 Watercolor and oil pastel resist

Spring Bird Collages

 age 5

 age 7

 age 5

 age 5

 Sometimes the evolution of an art lesson is a bit like the game of telephone. It starts out as one thing, and ends up something completely different. These sweet Chickadee illustrations from artist, Carolyn Gavin caught my eye.  I decided to create a lesson loosely based around them for my Draw, Paint, Collage group. I ordered some color diffusing paper and have been itching to put it to use. I wanted my young students (ages 5-7) to have a lot of elements to play with: pattern drawn birds with marker, cut and painted branches and leaves and pencil eraser prints for berries. It had a little bit of everything and they all seemed to enjoy creating their spring bird pieces (even though they bare no resemblance to their original source of inspiration).

sketching ideas

playing with media

my experiment

Mixed Media Cityscape Collages

 Reese, 1st grade

 Mia, 1st grade

 Ella, 1st grade

Presley, 1st grade

Lauren, 1st grade

Rylee, 5 

Parker, 5

 My new Draw, Paint, Collage classes are working on some very large mixed media cityscape pieces inspired by the art of Ezra Jack Keats (a real favorite of mine), Romare Bearden and even a little Basquiat. You'd never know it by the amount of animal based projects I do, but I Love cityscape art. The more expressive, the better. So I experimented with a variety of media and techniques and came up with this project. The kids started out choosing a well worn placemat full of paint and even doodles.

They choose a few analogous colors and white to sponge paint lightly over their poster board, leaving paint and doodles showing through. The next layer was a black city silhouette started with Sharpie and then painted in with acrylic. Once dry, ends of pencil erasers were used to make colorful prints for city lights. Next, I had the children use sponge brushes to paint over a sheet of newspaper, encouraging them to leave some words and pictures showing through. Pieces of cardboard were then used to print out building shapes and sponges were used to print colorful lit or dark windows. Once dry, they glued down some logos cut from magazines. And as if this wasn't enough (a less is more art lesson, this is not), I had them create reflected city lights using oil pastels, which they painted over with blue watercolor to create a waterfront city. Collage pieces were cut out and glued in layers with some help from Miss Mary. They are wild and expressive - just my thing!

My experiment for the lesson

Spring Break

No trips or big events this break.
My daughter and I have been going on long walks/bike rides and just enjoying our "neck of the woods." There is clearly a lot to enjoy.

 Both my rescue mutts are 11 years old. But Ally has all the energy of a puppy. 

So these long walks make for one Happy pooch!

Kobe on the other hand, moves like a tree sloth. I have to be a motivational speaker just to get him to walk to the corner. (what a sight to behold) So he has epic naps while we go on our long treks.

Looking forward to starting up classes next week and sharing more art!

Happy Spring!

Wishing a Happy Spring Break to all my "MaryMakers" and their families!

Best wishes to All my blog followers for a warm and beautiful spring!

Cubist Portraits with Bleeding Tissue

 I love it when a student can really go for it!

So very Thalia. (2nd grade)

Hazel, Kindergarten

Charlotte, 2nd grade
"Miss Mary, do I have to draw the other eye?"
Of course not....

Aven, Kindergarten

Ava, 2nd grade

My Mini Masters group looked at some of the cubist portrait work of Picasso before diving into creating their own. After combining a portrait and a profile into one piece with permanent marker, the children used ripped "bleeding" tissue painted down with water to add color. Since this was our last class and artwork needed to be taken home, tissue was peeled off while still wet. I gave them the option of filling in empty areas with watercolor, but encouraged them to leave bits of white showing. I think the wild and unpredictable quality of bleeding tissue lends itself well to such a unique subject matter.

Georgia O'keeffe Flowers with Roofing Felt

 This beauty was done by a kindergarten student. Lovely Aven!

(Works are 14" X 24")

Every spring I'm usually inspired to do an O'keeffe flower lesson and I enjoy switching things up and trying different media and techniques. These great posts using roofing felt definitely inspired me to give it a whirl.The blogs Artful Artsy Amy, It is Art Day  and There's a Dragon in My Art Room each have great info on using roofing felt along with examples. Lucky for me my Mom has worked for years at her local hardware and gift store (yes, it's a Mayberry kind of town) and scored me a Big roll of the stuff. *Update: Be Sure to use natural roofing felt Not synthetic, which can contain fiber glass. 

I took a page from Phyl's book and used simple white chalk instead of soap. I might try sidewalk chalk next time with my younger students to make it easier to paint in between the lines. I had some close, cropped photos of flowers to look at, along with a book of O'keeffe's art. I showed my kinder through 2nd grade group basic ways to make a "monster sized" flower, having the petals go off the page. Below is the line drawing that Aven did of the flower at the top of my blog. Gorgeous lines and composition right?

The children had lots of acrylic colors to play with and I gave them free reign with their selections. I encouraged them to mix colors and we talked about how to create tints and shades. The main direction I gave them was to try their best to paint in between the lines rather than on them. Every line that was white now would be black in the end after a quick rinse in the sink. This media is great fun to work with and I'm looking forward to experimenting with it again.

 1st grade - Ella

 4th grade - Scott

Love your organic shapes and colors Scott!

 1st grade - Jenna

 1st grade - Reese

 1st grade - Lauren

4th grade - Delaney

1st grade - Derek