Paul Klee Inspired Art

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….experimenting with Paul Klee’s style

The students in grades 1,2 and 3 that I teach art to were given a couple of quick assignments that could be finished in one or two periods. Seeing that we’re nearing the end of the school year this was important to me.

The first lesson I taught involved drawing a Klee style portrait. It didn’t have to be of a person. Many of the children chose to draw an animal. The technique that I used for this lesson came from Splat, Scrap and Glue Blobs and Deep Space Sparkle.

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A couple of weeks after introducing my students to Paul Klee, Carl Sonheim from my on-line course Y is for Yellow also introduced us to Paul Klee but instead of portraits she focused on his grid paintings. Some of my classes needed a quick project that could be framed for Father’s Day so I took a chance and taught the children how to draw a grid and how to carefully use watercolours to fill in the spaces. I limited them to three colours of their choice and demonstrated how to control the water and the amount of colour to use. They learned how to mix the water with the paints and control and change the darkness and lightness of the colour. They also learned how to erase mistakes by adding more water and dabbing away the excess water.

I’m always impressed with students who actually listen and follow the directions. Very few children created ‘mud’ and those who did were able to fix it or when they started again created a much better product the second time around. One of the grade one classes framed their paintings with a frame from the dollar store and wrapped them up for Father’s Day. Children’s art always looks so nice when it’s framed. I would have loved any one of them as a gift.

Georgia O’Keefe Inspired Art

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….a great lesson for symmetry and using oil pastels

My grade 1, 2 and 3 classes were given a quick introduction to Georgia O’Keefe’s flower paintings. I had some beautiful calendar pages that featured some of her florals. I pointed out how she blended colours and how the whole page was filled with her flower image. Most of the classes had studied symmetry in their math classes so I showed them an example of symmetry in nature and one that was man-made.

For this lesson I wanted them to try and create a flower that had at least two lines of symmetry. I showed them how to divide their paper into equal quarters and then I started the flower from the middle. I demonstrated how to blend colours and over lay colours using oil pastels.

Most of the students got the concept and many loved adding more and more colour. When a student didn’t like their colour choices I showed them how to add white or peach to lighten or soften their picture. They were so open to trying this technique and most came back with a completely different picture and much happier with their project.

The first slideshow is work from my two grade one classes and the second one features larger samples from my grade two class.

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Share Your World 2016 – Week 19

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….thank you Cee for some very unusual questions this week

You win a pet monkey but this isn’t just any old monkey. It can do one trick for you whenever you want from getting a pop out of the fridge to washing your hair. What would be the trick?

When I saw this question I couldn’t help but think about the Ikea monkey and all the grief the owner went through for owning a monkey. Washing my hair? Never! I’ll think I’ll pass on this question. I could never own a monkey regardless of the talent it may have.
What caring thing are you going to do for yourself today?

Today I went to see a chiropractor. In the last two weeks I’ve had chronic pain in my upper thigh and the side of my hip. It all started on the day that I walked 18 000 steps. I thought it would go away on it’s own but the pain persisted. I discovered that I have bursitis in my hip as a direct result of that long walk. I was tugged at, pushed and pulled. It hurt! The good news is that it felt better when I was done. My homework is to do some exercises, apply ice and not start any new exercise program. No running or long walks. With a few more visits my hip should be ‘all cleaned up’ before I go to Italy in July.
What color do you feel most comfortable wearing?

Believe it or not I love wearing bright colours like royal blue and red. I also like white, peach and periwinkle.
Complete this sentence: When I travel I love to….

….check out quaint little shops, markets and art galleries. I love outdoor cafes and restaurants that the locals eat at.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. I drove to the finish line for the Sporting Life 10k Run that my oldest daughter, her partner and her brother-in-law participated in. All three finished in great times.

We then drove to Hamilton where we met up with my husband and our youngest daughter and her little family. We had a great time playing with the baby and enjoyed a wonderful meal together.

It’s been a great week at school. The children did really well at the West Conference track and field meet and many of them are moving on to the city finals. All the plans for our Forest of Reading book club celebration are now in place and the silent auction contributions from the classes have been completed by the students and are ready to be fired. Here is the platter that my grade 3 class designed and painted. I did the black lines. I can’t wait to see what it looks like after it’s been fired.

The other thing that I’m grateful for was the amazing lunch that the parents put on for the staff for ‘Teacher Appreciation Day’. They really go all out. They used the library and came in the night before to set it up and decorate it. The food was over the top and there was so much left over that we had a second meal the next day. I also appreciated the fact that there were lots of things that I could eat and still stay on my ‘diet’.

I’m looking forward to a great day on Friday when the students who earned their 12 reading credits come to our Forest of Reading Celebration. We have an author coming to talk to the students, a drama workshop and a hands on journal making workshop plus a pizza lunch for the successful students and the staff who participated as expert readers.

I’m also looking forward to creating more paintings. I’ll write more about that in another post in the next few days.

Cheers!

Starting With a Child’s Piece of Art

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….an assignment from one of my many on-line classes

One of the classes that I’ve taken this year is from Sketch Book Skool. We had 6 different instructors who all assigned different sketching and painting projects. One that especially intrigued me involved getting a young child to draw in my sketch book and then work a drawing around the child’s original piece.

At school I have a couple of students who like to come to the library after school and help me put books away. When I was given this assignment I asked J in grade one if he would like to draw in my book and then allow me to draw around his work and create a new piece. He was more than happy to do that and he took my book and very carefully and thoughtfully began drawing his picture. I thought he might draw the typical house and tree with him and his family standing in front but to my surprise he drew six flower pots with a flower in each.

Here is J’s work and then what I created from it. I used watercolour and ink around the pencil crayon drawings.

Grade 3s Embrace Britto’s Bold Colours

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….Romero Britto is a Brazilian born artist based in Florida

Romero Britto is a well known pop artist whose work appears in posters, t-shirts, mugs and ceramic ware. I first came across his work last year when Second Cup commissioned him to create a line of coffee mugs and other dishes for their coffee shops. He uses very vibrant colours and bold lines. Today I would like to share some of the work that my grade three class did that was inspired by Britto’s style. After finishing this piece I photographed and printed their work and mounted the photos on blank cards that the class could send to their pen pals.

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The following photos are courtesy of http://www.britto.com/images/homepage/OpeningBackground.jpg

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A Few More Portraits and New Animal Sketches

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….the grade 2s can’t seem to get enough art assignments

After Easter, when some of my students returned from extended holidays the last of the artist portraits were finished and I promised that I would post their work on my blog. So here goes:

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For the students who finished earlier I introduced them to to doing line drawings of animals and then filling them into with pencil and erasing parts to highlight light areas, markings and fur or skin texture. I had learned this technique from Carla Sonheim. I like to challenge this class because they are so open to trying new things. I showed them my samples of the elephant drawings I had done using this technique and then I provided them with photos of a variety of animals that they could choose to draw.

We started this last week and it was suppose to be a filler activity for those students who had finished all their work but at the end of this week’s class almost every student had made at least one of these drawings. Can you tell that Easter just passed when these were finished?

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Grade 2s Loved the Portrait and Doodle Assignment

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….my grade two class always embraces my lessons and can’t wait to start

This is the same assignment that I gave to my grade one classes but I asked the grade 2s to add some colourful doodles around their portraits. Dali, Picasso and Warhol never looked better.

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Challenging Grade One Students

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….I was hesitant to teach this lesson to the little ones

How much can grade one students do? How far can I push them to try something new and something somewhat difficult? I found out today.

I thought I would try teaching my class how to draw portraits from photos. This was actually an assignment that I was given this week in Carla Sonheim’s on-line class Y is for Yellow.

I printed up several photos of some famous contemporary artists, including Picasso, Dali, Frida Kahlo and Warhol. I showed the class very quickly how to use the negative space around the photo to start drawing and how to lay out some points on the paper to help guide the pencil from one area to another.

Most of the students were very excited about starting and many of them chose to draw Dali. One student, however, was not happy with the assignment and didn’t even want to start it. I asked her what she was going to do because this was the assignment. After a few minutes and some gentle encouragement she asked me if I would help her. She chose the Andy Warhol photo to copy and I helped her with placing some of the key points onto her paper. Once she started she quickly found success. Here are a few examples of their work:

Pablo Picasso

Salvador Dali

Frida Kahlo

Andy Warhol

Share Your World 2016 – Week 7

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….thanks Cee for hosting Share Your World

What are you a “natural” at doing?

I think I’m a natural at teaching art to young children and reading stories to them.

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Would you prefer a one floor house or multiple levels?

I like multiple levels in a house. I find climbing stairs helps keep me fit. Maybe as I get older I’ll prefer a one floor house.

What was your favorite subject in school?

In school my favourite subject was Family studies. I’ve always loved practical hands on classes.

Complete this sentence: If only the rain..

….would happen only at night.

What are you grateful for from last week and what do you look forward to this week?

I’m grateful for my daughter’s wonderful wedding a week ago today. It was a beautiful and simple ceremony at City Hall. Afterwards we walked to a very nice bar down the street and toasted the girls with Prosecco. Dinner wasn’t until 6:00 so we stayed at Drake 150 for about an hour and then we headed to Terroni’s for the reception. The guest list was very intimate with only 26 family members and very close friends in attendance. The food was fabulous and a wonderful time was had by all.

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On Saturday I paid a visit to my friend Maria and brought her some goodies for her birthday, Valentine’s Day and Family Day. On Sunday my husband treated me to a very nice lunch at Snug Harbour in Port Credit to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The meal was fantastic.

This week I’m looking forward to pyjama day at school, the dance for the kids on Friday and hopefully seeing my granddaughter on the weekend.

Birds of a Feather

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Mama Cormier

…..just add a beak to a scrap piece of paper and voila you have a bird

I got this idea from Carla Sonheim and I find that it works with all age groups. I’ve used it with kindergarten children and children in grades 1 to 5.

This year I had the children create a tree by printing the shape with the edge of a piece of thick cardboard dipped in brown paint. While we waited for it to dry I had the students practise drawing a variety of leaf shapes and then deciding which one they would use on their tree.

Once the paint dried I instructed the students to tear small pieces of coloured and patterned papers and then glue them to the tree branches. With a pencil or a black Sharpie they started creating their birds by adding a beak and then an eye. After that they could add as much or as little detail as they wanted. Once the birds were done they were instructed to draw the leaves in the open spaces and colour them in.

I love how these turned out. The following are examples from my grade two class.