BIG

An abstract piece by members of the art club. After last weeks 'Autumnal Mondrians' they wanted to go brighter and more colourful. We created 4 large (65 x 90cm) pieces on thick black card supports. The children 'signed' them with hand & finger prints.

 

 

red elephant

We've started to stitch our elephants onto a backing. This was the child's first ever go at sewing - I think they've done a grand job. Pins out, ear on next time.

 

 

no sale

No takers on ebay for my painting (sad face). Some page views but no bids. Was the starting price too high (£4.99 with free worldwide p&p)? Or was the painting simply not up to scratch? I would have thought a Man Utd picture would at least attract some interest although they did lose the local derby in the middle of the listing period!
Back to the drawingboard/easel to try again.

art club

This week at our first art club meeting we painted 'Autumnal Mondrians'. We used black card, gave it a coat of white acrylic, let it dry and then applied lengths of masking tape running both horizontally and vertically. We then selected autumnal shades and proceeded to paint the rectangular areas. After drying overnight the tape was carefully removed and voila!

 

 

STOP PRESS

Have just listed 'Manchester Derby' on ebay (see previous blog entry). Please feel free to check it out.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190906051650

Today in the parallel class we sketched elephants. I first got them to draw their version of a pachyderm in the top left -hand corner. I then showed them several different ways to depict an elephant - using a letter 'e', beginning with a circle and adding a letter 'g' and finally, starting from a square, then adding a 'g'. Hopefully from the pic below you can make out the different methods and see that they were certainly able to draw more recognisable images than at the start.

We then went on to using a 4x4 grid to create a very simple 'elephant' pattern that we are going to use to create embroidered, applique pieces.

finished

Lined the paintings today. Pleased with how they turned out. I toyed with the idea of doing more 'realistic' hands ie. ones with fingers(!) but am still content with the very simple 'mitts'.

'Manchester Derby'

Acrylics & ink on wooden panel

roughly A4 size.

a bit more



Did some more painting. Finished off the figures and added the background colour. Have just got the black lining to do. Not decided what to do with these yet - Folksy, Etsy, Ebay or just keep!

 

 

 

a bit more

Managed a bit more painting today - snuck up to the art room at lunchtime and sploshed away. The pic looks a little blurry though - must try harder next time.

 

 

progress

Began painting the two panels today. I've overpainted the lines because I'm going to be doing the backgrounds in grey - much like on the large painting I did a few months ago.

 

I've gone off the idea of making them into clocks but am considering painting up a series of 'derbies' ie. 'Manchester derby' (Utd vs City), 'Liverpool derby' (Liverpool vs Everton), 'North East derby' (Newcastle vs Sunderland) etc, etc. I could even do an 'El Classico' (R. Madrid vs Barcelona)!

wooden panels

Whilst trying to get the new art room ready I came across a small pack of wooden panels. They're thin ply and roughly A4 in size. Thought I'd give them a whirl and see how they'd paint up. I gave a couple of them a coat of white acrylic, sanded it down a bit and then drew a couple of footy pics on them. Next week I'll have a go at painting them up. Am already thinking about what I could do with them - putting a small clock in one corner is an idea that has already sprung to mind! Would love to know your thoughts.

 

 

 

today

In our maths lesson today, inspired by the 'picture pie' work of American illustrator Ed Emberley, we reminded ourselves all about simple shapes and fractions by creating pictures from circles. 

 

back again

The new school year has started - though not quite in the way I was expecting or looking forward to. I had eagerly spent the summer anticipating setting up and using my new art room to it's full capacity. Unfortunately one of my colleagues has had a nasty cycling accident during the summer hols and is off work for several weeks. I therefore have been 'volunteered' to cover his class whilst he recovers. So instead of being up to my armpits in paint, clay and glue I've gone back to the reality of day to day classroom stuff. This is as far as I managed to get with setting up my new room.

 

 

The stools are from IKEA. I decided that they would be far more practical than chairs - you can push them under the tables better and, as the children have to sit on them properly rather than just balancing on the edge as they seem to do on chairs, they take up less room when in use. My local branch only had the stools in 3 colours - but I assembled them all mixed up.

 



 

 

Meanwhile in class, as we slowly get to know each other, I've managed to sneak in some creative stuff. Today I gave each of them a small booklet with pre-printed shapes, lines and patterns. Their task was to use the printed matter to create pictures. These are a couple of things they came up with;

 



 

 

 

 

It may be that I might just be able to keep my sanity intact if we can keep producing stuff like this. Although, here's wishing my colleague a full and very speedy recovery!