I’m Okay, Crayon Prints on Fabric and Sure Signs of Spring

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….maybe I should have broken these topics into separate posts

After yesterdays post I’ve had people ask me all day if I was okay. I’m fine. I was literally, just tired. I need to get more sleep and it was after all an exceptionally busy day yesterday. The headache I complained about hasn’t returned and I feel much less stressed today. Now, the kids, on the other hand were more exhausting than usual and I wasn’t the only one complaining. Is there a full moon looming? I think it’s partially due to spring fever. We’ve had a couple of warm days and it is Friday as well.

I hope everyone enjoyed the those warm moments because the temperature is about to go down again. When I got home tonight my daffodils were in full bloom so I took a few pictures before the winds started. When I went out later I noticed that some of the flowers have already been knocked off the plant.

Yesterday I told you about a new project that I started with my grade 2 students. I had these fabric crayons given to me many years ago and I wasn’t quite sure how I would use them. I knew that there were quite a few students in my grade 2/3 class that had finished the last project and the rest weren’t far behind. I packed up all the fabric I had along with the iron and ironing board and hoped for the best. I hadn’t even made a sample or tried out the crayons to see if they worked…..not always a wise move.

We took the rough copy paper we had used on the last project and on the unused side I instructed the students to make a drawing using the fabric crayons. I gave the dimensions they were to work in but I gave them free reign as far as the subject for their design went. I demonstrated how much crayon they needed to use in order to get a nice print and I suggested that if they didn’t want to draw something realistic they could draw a doodle design and fill in the spaces with lots of different colours. Away they went. Creativity at it’s best.

When people looked at what the grade 2s had done, many thought that I had drawn the design and they coloured it in. Not so. From start to finish the entire piece was their own creation. Through trial and error we discovered that we had to use quite a bit of pressure with the iron and if we went over the piece several times the print would become more intense. The other thing that we learned was that synthetic fabrics produce a more vibrant print compared to the cotton fabrics. I liked both. Each had it’s own special quality. When you see the examples, I included the original crayon drawing and then displayed the one or two prints next to it. Enjoy!

Day 11

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..here are 3 pieces of art that I finished today

Doing art puts in me in a zen state of mind. I’m totally into what I’m doing and I lose all sense of time. I like to create examples of art that I can share with my students or leave for supply teachers to use when they have to cover one of my art classes. There have been times when I’ve gone to school despite being sick because the art project we were working on was too complicated or too messy for an occasional teacher to have to deal with.

Lately I’ve across some interesting, fun and very doable projects that I can leave for a supply teacher. Here are the samples I’ve been working on. The first one I’m actually doing with some of my classes right now. It’s a still life that the students outline in crayon and then fill in with watercolour. The wax crayon creates a resist which prevents the paints from running into one another. The idea came from Be Creative Mary.

The next two projects are perfectly suited for a supply teacher. Both ideas came from Artisan des Arts

If you need instructions for any of these projects check out the blogs where I got therm from. Cheers to creating art!

A Sneak Preview

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. our pioneer quilt blocks are coming along

I look forward to the art classes where we are working on sewing our quilt blocks. The boys and girls in grade 3 are enjoying the project but everyone is at a different stage. A few students only have one square sewn in place and a few more are almost finished sewing all their fabric pieces together and are almost ready to start their fancy stitching and adding embellishments.

I decided to take a few pictures of the partially finished blocks so that you could see how well eight year olds can sew.

Letting Their Creative Juices Flow

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….or how grade 2s paint when left alone

Yesterday in my art class I worked closely with my grade 3s while I asked the grade 2s to work more independently. In the last class the grade 2s started a monochromatic multimedia painting. They were instructed to find black and white pictures, puzzles, headings and text from the newspaper that represented a theme (e.g., numbers, words, sports, puzzles, love, money) and glue them onto a piece of paper in an interesting pattern. Then they had to choose one colour and using water colour paint they created a wash over their pictures and words.

In yesterday’s class they continued adding more paint and detail to their art work. I allowed them to use acrylic paints, stamps and sharpies. The only instruction I gave them was to bring the paints to me so that I could squeeze a small amount onto their plates. They were very excited about using acrylics for the first time.

As I was helping the grade 3s with their quilting project the occasional grade 2 came to me to ask for advice. No one brought the paint to me. I should have been suspicious about their use of the acrylics but I was so caught up in the sewing project that I didn’t check how the acrylics were being used. I was totally oblivious until one of my students came to me to tell me that the brand new tube of white acrylic was empty. What????????? I couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t really fault the grade 2s for using too much paint, except that the only instruction I gave they chose to ignore. In the end I love the finished projects. Some of them need a little more tweaking but they are 90% done. Only one student didn’t quite get the monochromatic theme but I liked how it turned out and it is mostly green.

Some of the students finished early so I gave them an old floppy disc that we had gessoed in an earlier class. I showed them some pictures of famous paintings for inspiration and then gave them free reign to create anything they wanted. They loved it. Here are some of their masterpieces.

January Photo a Day 2013: One o’clock…somewhere!

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. and paper, two challenges rolled into one

Yesterday my computer was giving me grief and I couldn’t post anything. When I finally got it fixed it was too late to come up with photos of paper. It just so happened that at 1:00 today I was teaching art to my grade 2/3 class and we were colouring and painting large sheets of paper. The lesson was on texture and they experimented with a variety of materials and techniques to create virtual texture. They loved it and I loved what they came up with. We will use these creations in future works of art.

Check out the other January 2013 Photo a Day photos at Jeanne’s blog…a nola girl at heart

Movement

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….Day 5 of the January 2013 Photo a Day Challenge

Today my husband, sister, brother-in-law and I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see the Frida & Diego show. This exhibition features more than 80 works on paper and paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and more than 60 photographs of the couple, whose shared passion for each other and Mexico’s revolutionary culture during the 1920s and 1930s have made them Mexico’s most famous artists.

The exhibition was wonderful but the entire time I was thinking about how to come up with photos that expressed movement. The moment came when we moved on to see the Penny exhibition in the same building.

Evan Penny is a famous Canadian sculptor based in Toronto. His figures are composed of layers of colour pigmented silicone, hair, fabric and resin. They come across not only as realistic but also as highly artificial. He likes to use distortive techniques; often presenting an otherwise life-like portrait bust in skewed proportions or in an odd colour scheme.

One of his pieces is a stretched distorted bust of a girl that literally seems to move across the wall. This is not a camera effect but the actual sculpture.

Evan Penny’s Panagiota: Conversation #2, variation #1, 2008, 274 x 71 x 15 cm
silicone, pigment, hair, aluminum

We took a break between the two exhibitions. I tried to convince my family to give me some action shots. This was the best I could get from my husband, K. He looks like he’s about to fall out of the window to the street below.

K, hamming it up for the camera. Gotta love him!

To join in or follow the January 2013 Photo a Day challenge check out Jeanne’s blog…a nola girl at heart.

Cheers!

A Few New Art Pieces to Share

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….before I send them home with the kids

In grades 4 and 5 we’ve been studying positive and negative space. We started with a Japanese art form called notan where you cut away a positive image and flip it so that the negative space becomes the mirror image and part of the design. I posted some of the students’ creations in an earlier post.

In the next class we studied winter trees and how the branches create Y shapes. On black paper the students had to draw a tree shape using white pencil or oil pastel and then extend the branches onto to a sheet of white paper and fill in the branches with black. This creates an interesting black and white, positive and negative image. The idea came from

http://en.paperblog.com/positive-negative-scratch-tree-335521/

It’s always a challenge to find something that can be started and finished in one art class, especially before Christmas. Field trips, science presentations and assemblies often cut into someone’s art period. When I found this project using ornaments as the focus of the lesson I was excited. It held the students’ interest and most of them finished it in the one class.

In this lesson the students learned how to create reflection of light using watercolour and how to paint, on wet on wet and blend analagous colours to create depth. I think the students in my grade 3/4 class did a great job.

The idea for this project came from http://www.artsonia.com/museum/art.asp?id=16233632&exhibit=465172&gallery=y

Painting at 91

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. Ray Cattell

Ray with his granddaughter and daughter.

On Saturday I had the pleasure of going to Ray Cattell’s opening for his latest group of paintings at the Moore Gallery in Toronto. I’ve known Ray for over 20 years and he never ceases to amaze me with his beautiful collection of paintings. He’s been displaying his work since the 1960’s.

We were all surprised that he wanted to do one more show. Most of the paintings are smaller than what he’s produced in years past but with his recent health issues it’s not surprising. He also recently won an award at a juried art show to add to his list of numerous awards granted to him in his lifetime. Some of his work can be found in the Vatican LIbrary, Windsor Castle and in the private collections of The Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth and Henry Ford II.

If you’re in Toronto between Dec 1 and Dec. 22 you can catch the show at the Moore Gallery on 80 Spadina Ave. For more details you can go to the website: Moore Gallery Ltd.

It’s Finally Friday

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….it seemed like the longest week ever

I’m sure that the full moon had a lot to do with it. The students were unusually chatty and restless. For the first time it was a struggle to get them to finish their work. Our mayor was found guilty in a conflict of interest case by the courts and stripped of his position. The teachers’ union made work to rule official and is threatening rotating one day strikes across the province. The minister of education is trying to convince the media that the government is putting students first and that the teachers are bargaining in bad faith. City council was caught in the middle of a shouting match between the mayor, with the aid of his brother and a few councillors on issues that turned out to be non-issues. A crazy week, all in all.

So if the mayor’s appeal is denied we might be looking at a by-election and the same judge that found the mayor guilty clarified today that he could run again in the by-election. He’s convinced that he would win again but I’m not so sure and the polls aren’t in his favour at the moment.

I had my fitness test this week and signed up for 24 sessions with a personal trainer and then the next day I found out we are be in a strike position and could be walking the pavement. Yesterday I cancelled the sessions with the personal trainer until things are a little more settled at work.

Last Friday I discovered I have mice in my library office. They’re living under the sink and have been chewing through my paint mixing containers. All week I’ve been throwing away containers that have big holes in the bottom. I haven’t seen them but there’s lots of evidence that they’re around.

I started to mark some of the art projects. I have to use my time more wisely because as of December 10th we have to leave school 1/2 hour after the students leave. This will be a challenge for me and a few other teachers who regularly stay at school till 6:00 most days. After the 10th, no more field trips, sports teams, extracurricular activities, and anything that involves collecting money and administrative paperwork. I marked about 100 projects tonight. Only 320 to go.

Art classes will continue but displaying the work could prove challenging when I have to leave the building early every night. Some of the work may have to stay up longer than it would normally. Here’s what the halls look like at the moment.

Not everything was bad. At the school council meeting this week the parents put my new art cart on the top of the priority list of things to purchase. It was ordered the next day and arrived yesterday. It only has to be assembled.

On Thursday I went to the One of a Kind Show with my daughter and her partner. They made me a great dinner. I had a free pass into the show and parking was free (that’s never happened before).

The weekend looks promising. I’ll start the day with a walk with the dog, workout at the gym and then to an art show opening in the afternoon. My friend’s 91 year old father is exhibiting his work at the Moore Gallery in downtown Toronto. He is a very accomplished artist and has had many shows in his lifetime. Just a month ago he won another award for one of his pieces at the Watercolour Society.

On Sunday we may be taking a trip to the Niagara region and do some wine touring. This is what my daughter wanted for her birthday and it looks like it should be a nice day weather wise. With Christmas just around the corner and winter on our heels we need to make this trip sooner rather than later.

We had a dusting of snow today in the afternoon. By 4:15 it was already dark, partially due to the overcast sky. Of course for the next 21 days it will continue to get darker earlier in the day. How depressing but I can’t let the stress get to me.

Warm vs Cool

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Mama Cormier

……from one disaster to one triumph

Last week I had my first failed art class. Well half of it didn’t work out but the second half was more successful. I was teaching my grade 2/3 class about warm and cool colours. It was a concept they easily grasped. I had seen a great project that involved bleeding tissue paper onto white paper to create a beautiful new paper that was either in warm colours or cool colours. In the following class we were going to cut the new paper into pine tree shapes and create a landscape of warm or cool trees.

Unfortunately I didn’t do a sample ahead of time and I didn’t test the tissue paper we had to see if it would bleed. The colours were steadfast. The boys and girls created a colourful collage of tissue shapes using only water. When they dried very little colour came off the tissue. I’m not sure I can salvage this project.

The second project was somewhat more successful. After the children put their papers away to dry they chose warm or cool construction paper and cut out interesting shapes and created a 3D effect by curling or fringing or folding their papers before gluing them onto a black background. I’m hoping to arrange all the cool projects together and all the warm projects together to create two separate wall murals of warm vs cool abstract design.

The next day I was desperate for a new warm vs cool project for my grade 3 class. In the morning before work I got on the internet and googled ‘warm vs cool lesson’ and the first two sites that came up were youtube clips. The one demonstrated a lesson for painting a warm and cool city landscape. It was excellent. The instructor said it was foolproof and that you couldn’t make a mistake. She was right.

The kids loved this activity. The only part that gave them a little bit of difficulty was drawing in the windows. I had to show them several times how to angle the windows and doors so that the buildings maintained that 3D look.