Final project: Collage...

Often, for our last class of the session, we offer something a little easier to carry home than wet paint: wet glue.

We've found that having a variety of materials and textures on hand captures more interest as artists are asked to dig through their "boxes of treasure" to find the pieces that appeal to them the most. This hodge-podge of paper scraps, recycled art, ribbons, yarn and buttons seem to hold attention much longer than one material alone. Coloring the glue or paste helps artists to see where they've placed it on the mat board. This may lead to simpler glue-paintings, which can be an equally worthwhile exploration!

Is there a place for toys in an open studio?...

  This is a question my supervisor and I have been asking ourselves. Originally, these farm and wild animal sets were brought into the studio to be used as models for drawing and clay work. But, not surprisingly, our students have found other uses. While dumping them out of buckets, and seeing how far you can spread them across the floor and underfoot can become a nuisance, delightful storytelling moments and imaginative play have also occurred.

This artist has brought over several farm animals to incorporate into her clay. Geese stand and watch as a horse feeds from its' trough in this inventive "mixed media" approach.

Clay play...

In our Art Explorers classes, we offer the option of clay everyday, and along with blocks and books, our students find comfort in knowing this is a consistent feature in the studio. The intention is that clay will always be there to explore and create with, and the lovely thing is that at this age, there seems to be no desire to save any clay work - the reward is all in experiencing the material. This love of process is what open studio is all about, and is why we encourage process comments. To shift the goal away from receiving praise for a final product, and towards the joy of creating... and getting to discover just what if feels like to put that clay on top of your head.

Finger points...

Here, our artist has realized she doesn't need her paintbrush to use the watercolors. Giving artists a chance to explore the tactile side of painting is an easy sell - something you will see them gravitate towards naturally, and it's important to let them explore the process (while maintaining some boundaries!)

Fingerpainting and painting our hands is common and very tempting, so be prepared to allow for this and help your child discover what they can do with their hands to now make different marks on the paper. When you start to notice that far-away gaze and paint spreading up the arms (with no notice of the paper any longer), it may be time to wash up and give your artist a chance to experiment with that same sensory experience - this time with some sunscreen or lotion. :)

More on Wax Resist...

A variation on wax resist is to take flat items such as keys, leaves, rubber mats and puzzle pieces, and show your artist how to make a rubbing using the side of a pastel. The softer the pastel, the better; they tend to seal the paper more than hard crayons.                                                                       Watercolor paints can then be added on top and should separate off the wax, to create brilliant lines and shapes that will shine through the paint. Our younger artists really seemed to enjoy this lesson, but I was surprised at the number of parents and caretakers who said this was their favorite project so far! Seeing the grown-ups as engaged as the kids in artmaking seems to benefit all around, and helps role model that focus for our budding artists.

Extending the black & white...

        While working on our contrast/collage-paintings, colored squares of tissue paper were added as a way to extend the project, and attention spans. In creating art where the only color mixing of paint allows for values of light and dark, tissue paper has a unique ability to teach color mixing possibilities as these thin layers of color can be overlapped and/or added to already light and dark tones of paint.

Some things are black & white...

In moving away from our warm and cool colors, we took an opportunity to experiment with constrast: mixing black, white and the endless shades of gray our artists could come up with.

 With our two-toned background, we added in paper strips in black & white and used the paint as glue. This allowed kids and adults more ways to fully explore line and value.