Gourds in Watercolor

With the arrival of fall, we turned our thoughts to things harvest this week in the atelier. The children were introduced to gourds and colorful corn as inspiration for small watercolor paintings. They were asked to attempt painting a gourd on their paper, and they each chose the one they wanted to reference. We worked with the colors of the subject matter – light and dark orange, green and brown. One gourd stood out amongst the children as being a “small pumpkin”, which seemed to be a favorite. They also loved the “special” corn. They really enjoyed this project!

When introduced to the gourds and corn:

“Do you see this orange pumpkin? Juice comes out of them….but not a lot. And this corn is not the corn you eat, it’s special corn. You can peel it!” ~Anika

When asked what one of the larger gourds smelled like:

“It smells like pumpkin!” ~Sophia

“It doesn’t smell.” ~Alaira

“It smells like grayish.” ~Jalie

When asked what the cornhusks sound like when they rustle:

“The corn husk sounds like rain (when you shake it)!” And as she shook the corn she tried it out as a new tickling tool, “I’m tickling you with the corn!” ~Mia G.

When asked what the gourds look like:

“This one looks like a lemon!" ~Ava

“This one looks like a pear! This one looks like an octagon – I mean – a septagon”! This one is a drum! This one is a hat (wears the gourd on his head)! ~Corbin

“It looks like a cat, a very different cat. I’m going to paint this gourd!” ~Alaira

When asked how the gourds look and feel:

“It’s kind of bumpy, and also kind of brownish-orangish.” ~Jalie

Mia S. then became the facilitator for this process! She chimed in:

“Is this pumpkin like a circle? And what about this one? And what about this other one?” (she went through all of them together with Jalie)

During the painting process:

"These are beautiful paintings!” ~Mia S.

“I need more orange paint because I need a lot for this picture.” ~McKenna

"I want to use purple to make my gourd.” ~Ava

"When I mix peach and brown it makes light brown!” ~Corbin (he proceeded to do many color studies thereafter)

Until next time...

Yvonne

Colored Tape and Metallic Paint! (a note from Yvonne)

The children really enjoyed exploring the possibilities of colored masking tape over the last couple of days. They twisted it, crumpled it, and in the end, put it on paper!

The idea was to put the tape on the paper, while using more pieces of tape to overlap the other pieces. The children were simply asked to, “Put tape over tape”. The outcome was an array of random designs.

Next, we painted the papers (and the tape) with metallic paint using foam brushes, so that we could later demonstrate what happens to the look of the paint on the paper once the tape is removed. We let them dry over night…

The objective of this creative exercise was to see how tape, once removed, could leave clean lines while masking specific workspaces. We had an enthusiastic time "gettin' sticky with it"!

Some quotes from the children during this project:

“I don’t want to add more paint, I like it like this” ~Mia G

“I would like all colors of tape!” ~Corbin

“Look, I made a triangle!” ~Anika

“I made a triangle too!” ~Allie

“I made stairs!” ~Damon

"I have all of my tape on!" ~Gwen

“Wow, boo (blue tape)!” ~Jason

“I like mine this way (with straight lines)” ~Zaidan

“Look, I put the tape on the paper!” ~Sophia

“Can I have some purple tape please?” ~Jalie

“I want to paint the whole paper” ~Ava

"Ohhhh, paint!" ~Eddie

“I need more paint, I ran out!” ~McKenna

“I’m ready to paint mine now” ~Mia S.

“I want lellow (yellow) tape! ~Natalie

“I need a lot more tape” ~Alaira

Until next time...

Yvonne

Welcome Yvonne!

Today, we welcomed Ms.Yvonne, our visiting artist, to Terra Luz. She did an incredible job fitting right in and the children love her! Yvonne has been a life-long student of many subjects, studying more deeply in the areas of architecture, design, biology, art history, photography and various other types of arts and techniques. As a “renaissance soul”, she has worked in fields ranging from new home design management to specialty aquatic fish sales, and everything in between!

She is currently working towards a degree in Social Work, where she hopes to later use art therapy as a tool to help people express themselves more deeply. In her spare time, she volunteers at a children’s afterschool program called Heart House. Her hobbies include cooking, painting, gardening, photography and being a voice for the environment and helpless animals. She truly loves the arts, and believes everyone has a special creative talent within, which can emerge in many forms!

Yvonne stayed a bit late to get to know our friends while they played in the yard, and enjoyed passing out lunches. She will be alternating the days she spends in the atelier each week so all the children will be able to work with her, and will be back tomorrow! :)



Today, Yvonne introduced art tape and metallic paints to the children. I will leave the details of the experience for her post, but thought I would share some snippets from my group today. When Yvonne asked Jason what color of tape he wanted, he said, “boo!" [blue] :) Mia exclaimed that her tape was bumpy, Allie and Anika both said, "I made a triangle,” and Damon announced he was making stairs with his tape (see photo above). Anika and Allie methodically painted the inside of their taped shapes, Ava was feeling grand and covered her entire paper with the metallic paint, and Mia opted for minimalist design today. :)

::

In the classroom, Ava and Jason went right to the overhead and got busy drawing designs. Anika discovered the magnifying glass and used it to investigate items in the classroom and the vintage slides that were placed on the light table as a provocation. Damon found the extra magnifying glass and spent the rest of the classroom time scoping things out (including leaves that were brought in from the front patio).

If you haven't already seen the post on our upcoming focus on Family, please hop on back for details.

What an incredible start to our week.