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!

One Point Perspective and a Whole Lot of Fun

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….it’s amazing what young children can do when challenged

I introduced this lesson to my students in grades 3, 4 and 5. In previous lessons we had discussed foreground, background, horizon line and overlapping to create depth. The lesson came from Natalie over at Smart Class. Don’t let one point perspective scare you away. This lesson is so well laid out that success is almost guaranteed. For some reason the boys really liked this lesson. I’m very pleased with the finished products.

Doodle Painting – Children’s Art

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. this started out as a filler for students who had finished their last project

The last major project that I assigned most of my classes was a one point perspective landscape. It was very detailed and has taken some students three classes to complete. As is often the case there are always students who finish well ahead of their classmates and look to me for the next project. I found a great project that I felt reinforced and extended some of the elements of design that we’ve been learning about and allowed them to dabble in both watercolour and acrylic paints. It’s been so popular that most of my students wanted to make a ‘doodle painting’. Here are a few of the finished pieces done by my grade three students.

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.