Experiment Paintings

This spring I thought it would be fun to loosen up and do some "experiment paintings" with my 5th and 6th grade students. They're naturally in the stages of artistic development where children become critical of their work and can get very hung up on things looking realistic. We went a totally different direction with some non-objective paintings. Almost every student tried out this style of painting by the end of the school year.

We could've gone old school to learn about non-objective painting with some nonobjective paintings from Art History (de Kooning, Pollock, Kandinsky, Rothko, etc.) but since they were really starting to get squirrely at that point in the school year, I decided to show a video that Alisa Burke put together on some everyday objects she likes to use in her paintings. You can see the video here: http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-favorite-everyday-things-for-painting.html

 At the conclusion of the video, I asked students to name tools they noticed. After the students listed what they had noticed from the video, I showed what unusual tools we had in the art room- bubble wrap, tubes for stamping, tin cans, foam brushes for stamping, brayers, etc. 

 I filled egg cartons with tempera paint but suggested that students not try to use EVERY color. We talked about the color wheel- which colors might blend nicely together and which would likely result in mud. I did a demo and showed how to "dip the tip" of the brush into the paint and how I could switch colors without water by trying to use all the paint on my brush first, and then not stirring the new color. I think if the students had used water, the paintings would not be as vibrant. I set out all of our tools on a table and the students just picked what they wanted to use.

 I told the students these were "experiment paintings" for a reason- I wanted them to explore the qualities of the paint, try out different color combinations, textures, etc. without being afraid of making a mistake. The end result was a lot of awesome paintings. Some looked like finished pieces, while other needed more attention in later classes. 

 One way to use the painted papers is to add solid colored strips for a paper weaving project.

 Other uses for the papers are

• drawing on top of the painted paper
• painting on top of it
• collage- background
• collage- cut it apart and glue onto something else
• journaling on top

Next year I may do this before opening up the collage center. I'm thinking about getting rid of my magazine stash as the students K-6 relied too heavily on magazine images instead of making their own. I think it may be helpful to show the students how to make their own papers first.

CYOA: Embellishing Pottery

Each year the art teachers in my school district choose a different part of the world or culture as a K-12 focus. We try to get other departments involved as well for interdisciplinary connections. The efforts culminate during Cultural Heritage Week- a week of speakers, performances, and a K-12 art exhibit. This year our focus has been Native American cultures. Since I had already decided to experiment with choice based art instruction at my intermediate school, I used the "Choose Your Own Adventure" method that I tried out with 5th grade when studying fibers last spring. I came up with several open-ended ceramics projects and each student choose a direction. 

The first direction I wrote about was Effigy Pots. The next direction, and the most popular, was embellishing pottery. We talked about how Native artists did/do embellish their ceramic artwork. We categorized the different techniques as Painting Designs, Etching Designs, and Adding Texture.

The idea for texture came from a webpage detailing clay tools used by Native Americans of New England. Many of the tools were things found in their part of the country, so I used some of those ideas and found a few things outside that could also be used for texture. Students pressed the tools into the wet clay, some just experimenting, others consciously making designs. It was a big hit!

To etch designs, students put a layer of paint (we used tempera cakes) on their dry clay and used a paper clip to scratch designs. We found that etching while the paint was damp but not too wet made smoother lines than etching into totally dry paint.

Example of etched design: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/42995371413986740/

The last technique was painting designs. We talked about how the idea was more to get inspiration from the Native American artists and art forms than to make something that "looks Indian". That is an important concept that we kept reviewing!

Example of painted design: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/42995371415641666/

I created a Pinterest board to keep track of all my research and images to show students. You can check it out here: http://www.pinterest.com/katiemorris/native-american-art/

2013 Tactile Paintings

This is one of my favorite lessons and one of the few that I repeat with my 2nd graders each year. (See the 2011 post here, 2012 post here.) The students learn about the late Andy Lakey, "Painter for the Blind", and his tactile paintings. The students consider how we use our senses to experience art before using sand to make a touchable painting with lots of texture.

I made an Instructional Resource for one of my graduate classes for this lesson which I used to introduce the artist and concepts to my students and will share below in case you find it helpful in your classroom.

  Instructional Resource: Tactile Paintings by Katie Morris

In past years, I have asked students to make nonobjective designs. This year I gave more choices and some students used the sand to make a hidden message- a design or words that would be hard to see but the viewer could feel. The students used crayon to plan their designs before tracing with bottled glue, covering with a sprinkling of sand, and dumping the excess back into the sand container.

In the second class period, the students paint. The last two years, I have limited the students to either a warm or cool color palette to help them achieve color harmony. This year, I talked to the students about warm and cool colors, but allowed them to choose their own color palette. I just figured there can be beauty in unexpected choices and I didn't need to limit them to my adult aesthetic.

Some students use their sand lines as divisions, changing colors where the shape changes or outlining the sand at the end.

Some students tried using the sand to make a picture or hidden message.

While the paintings may not be as harmonized as in previous years, I think this was more valuable overall. The students got to try different combinations and see what would happen! I think that letting the students make their own discoveries is a more authentic kind of learning than me solving the harmony problem for them.

Dots, Swirls, and Dashes

Now this is a lesson that is more my style! Inspired by van Gogh, my Kindergarten students made a mixed media picture of anything their little hearts desired and learned how to add visual texture.

The idea for this lesson came from "Vincent van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars" from the "Smart About Art" series by Crystal Productions. I'm now the lucky owner of 4 books from the series, purchased with gift certificates I won from contests at The smARTteacher. I found that the books are a little long for Kindergarten, so I used the pictures and paraphrased what was most important. The books would probably be best used for independent reading instead of reading to a group because of the unique style. The Smart About Art books are not your typical story book- each is written as if by a student working on a report about an artist. Very cool books. And now back to the van Gogh book, I really liked how they described his created texture as "dots, swirls, and dashes". The phrase makes it really easy for the students to understand how lines can be used to create texture.

After using the Smart About Art book to teach about van Gogh in the first class period, the students drew a picture of anything they wanted on 9x12 inch paper. I did suggest they choose an object or something made from simple shapes so they would not be frustrated with our time constraints. I checked the drawings as the students finished to make sure they were big enough. If the drawings were a sufficient size, I handed the students a paintbrush so they could begin to add color. 

I tried something a little different with managing supplies for this project. Each table had a tray with several colors of tempera paint in the middle, which is nothing new. The new idea is that I did not put out a tub of water. The biggest issue my students seem to have with tempera is wanting to, or accidentally, watering the paint down. It doesn't matter how many times we talk about "swish, wipe, blot", dirty water still gets dripped into the paint, messing it up for the other students. Instead, I just reminded the students to only get a little at a time, and to wipe their paintbrush on a dry paper towel when the wanted to switch colors. Simple and effective! I was really amazed at how well this worked. The students didn't waste as much paint as usual and the colors on their paintings still look clean. I wouldn't use this all the time since it's important for students to learn to take care of supplies, but it's good when time is in short supply!

In the second class period, we looked at a close up of The Starry Night (you can use Google Art Project or there's a photo on Wikipedia) to see the dots, swirls, and dashes. Then the students used oil pastels to add visual texture. I asked them to start on top of what they painted and then they could fill in the empty spaces.