Self - what do I really look like?

My camera has a dead battery so there are no beautiful pictures for this are lesson. I will try and describe the lesson in word art.:)

To start with each child had a mirror so that they could see exactly what they looked like as they drew. they worked into white paper using oil pastels. First we looked at the shape of our heads and discovered that they are not round but rather and oval or egg shape.  We looked at where our eyes are positioned and discovered they are in the middle of the egg shaped head and the ears are basically along the same line to the side. The nose has a unique center stage position and finishes up right near the lips. Lips and teeth were interesting to look at to as were necks or under arm pits as one little man called it:) and then the throat , eye brows and other interesting things like eye lashes  and hair. All this was put together with great care and with lots and lots of re-looking at actual shape. I just love the way the pictures unfolded like a master baker creating a delicious feast. I love they way they talked about what they were doing. The tooth that peeped out over the bottom lip and the tiny little beauty spot or red spot all made present on the skin.  How to make the nose stand out from the skin presented a problem and was fun to try and solve. They children decided to use different colours to do this. The more quick worker , being the younger, was able to paint a background and wow! what an end result. Just lovely!!

The Apple - art lesson

 In this lesson the children had to work in three quarters on their paper.We talked about the fruit before hand - observing and shining the skin.Noticing colours and shape.

 We set to work!! Children draw apple in pencil. first and then set about using the three primary colours.

 The backgrounds were watery and the results were delightful!!

Lets Look Again Kids

One of the things I feel very passionately about is children . Another is Art. Putting the two together for me is great fun and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  I like to help children re-learn to look at the world around them. My own children and those who come for lessons.

Something happens to children as they get older. They seem to stop looking at things. I mean really looking. Art is a fun and relaxed way to " switch the eyes" back on again. So we try and really see what is in front of us. Like this Hermit crab we found at the beach. What a great thing to draw especially after we watched him unfold himself and creep in and out the shell he had chosen as his home.

What about looking and seeing every detail on a beautiful face!

Children also like to look at ideas and express those on paper and we create lots of opportunities in our home for our own children to do this.

Taking concepts like learning to read and letters and turning them into a picture is great fun and I guess falls into the spectrum called art.

One of my sons did this art work at school. I love it. It is part real and part fantasy.

This is a free painting experience by a 6 year old. He made his own flag on a canvas for his room. .

Taking favorite pictures is a good way to get older children this child used a picture from the internet and created a picture using information from it.

Children can also draw their experiences like and outing to the beach.

These two war pictures were part of a book created by a child. Clearly a boy who loves ideas around war. I love the tank. It has such a feeling of might and strength.

So , get painting and drawing and let your kids have fun as they interpret the world in which we live and share it with you in art.

Van Gogh and his Sunflowers

                                                                          Van Gogh's Sunflowers were inspiration for these great works. I had two groups of children aged 12 to 6 . They used Van Gogh as a beginning point for dpoing their very own pictures.

A work in progress starting with oil pastel and ending in paint.

Wow! the conversation around these was great. Art brings lots of concept work like how to draw a see through vase and what part of the stalk will show out the top.