March 18, 2010  by

Paint, Prints, and Glue

To end our 3-D art session, we focused on painting the clay sculptures we made the week before. I mixed paint in small glass jars and set them out on the table to entice the children. The glass jars not only show off the vibrant paint colors, but they also teach the children that they are competent and worthy of working with quality materials. Toddlers don’t usually get the chance to work with heavy, glass jars (for a reason! But these are hard to break on the wood floor).
The children were very focused on painting their sculptures as well as the paper-covered table.

Karuna and her daddy, Aaron, work together on her sculpture.
I then added more tools to the table, which Logan took to right away!
Karuna has recently discovered hand-prints. Whenever she has paint on her hands, she slaps them down on some paper and makes a print!
Austin paints with a horse on his clay.
Then he paints the horse!
Karuna and Austin make monoprints together.
As the children moved around, they began to look at the shelf for materials to work with. Austin asked if he could “scoop.” I soon realized that he wanted to scoop a cup of collage materials, so I brought the collage bin to the table. Logan then asked for the glue, which he squeezed into a cup of collage materials.
He continued to squeeze this glue for quite a while!
More experiments with glue…




Hmmmm…. interesting.

I love watching the progression of the children’s work throughout each class. In the beginning, they are quiet and focused on what’s in front of them…
And by the end of class, they are moving around, gathering new materials, experimenting with paint and glue, working together, and still very focused!
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March 3, 2010  by

2x Collage

(Due to two absences the first week, I am combining week 1 and 2 of this session into one blog post- scroll down for week 2)
For our first class of the new session we learned about 3-D art through collage making. The materials were placed in bins on the floor for the children to explore and collect. Missing their friends who couldn’t make it to class, Austin and Karuna got to work gluing their collages.
As it was their first experience with collage, they decided to promptly move to the easels to paint.
After smearing black paint over her hands, Karuna decided to make hand prints on the floor.
Soon the children were back at the table, adding glitter to their collages.
The squeeze glue and glitter were a hit! Austin and Karuna would squeeze out the glue (with a little help), pour the glitter over the paper, then shake it off and say “hang it up!”
The second week of our 3-D session, we worked on collage making again. Not only did I want Logan to get a chance to work with collage, but Austin and Karuna needed some more time to explore the process as well (we missed you Rogan!).
The collage materials started off on the floor, but Logan thought it would be better for them to be up on the table, closer to their work- what a great idea!
I soon introduced liquid watercolor to the table to get them more interested in the gluing process (it’s much more fun when it’s colorful!)


While Logan worked hard on squeezing his glue bottle, Karuna and Austin moved to the easels.
Austin began making mono-prints of his painting.
“Hang it up!”
Armed and ready to go…
The end of class turned into a music session, with Karuna leading us in “The Wheels on the Bus.”
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March 2, 2010  by

Collage- Take 2

For our second week of 3-D art, I decided to re-introduce collage making. Often times toddlers need multiple opportunities to explore a medium in order to feel comfortable working with it.
Last week, this group was given the materials at the table, but they were more interested in moving around the room. So this time, I put the collage items in bins on the floor and gave them cups to use as scoopers. They each brought scoops of materials back to their trays to begin their collages.
Soon after they began their gluing, I brought out liquid watercolors.
Colored glue is so much fun!


I then offered the children the squeeze bottle glue- which their small hands are still trying to master.
And finally the glitter!
I love to watch how the children work together and examine each others artwork.




As the children move around the studio, they experiment with different materials.

Kate and Grace return to the table to continue working on their collages.


Kirsten poses for the camera as she paints directly on the easel.

Karuna takes the opportunity of the paint on the easel to make another print!
After class, we decided to get a group picture- not the easiest task with 1-year-olds!

So sweet!

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February 21, 2010  by

A New Session Begins

Our new 4 week session is all about 3-D art. To introduce this concept, we’re starting off with collage making. I set up a variety of collage materials on the table for them to explore and taped the white paper underneath so that the materials would be displayed on a neutral background (rather than getting lost in the colorful tablecloth).
Once the children got a chance to check out the materials, I offered them a tray with sparkly glue, a paintbrush, and a piece of heavy paper.

After trying out the brushes, I offered them each a squeeze bottle of glue. Squeezing the bottle is definitely a skill that takes a little practice to master.


Collage is new to the children, so pretty soon they were moving around looking for something more familiar to work on… and they found it!



The freedom they have to move around the studio and explore familiar art helped them to return to their collage work with new enthusiasm.



Karuna decided to make a print of her easel painting by rubbing a piece of paper on top of the paint, then peeling it up.
She repeated this process about 10 times with various colored construction paper. Each time she peeled it off she would say “woooowww”, then put it on the shelf to dry and say “another one!”
Here is Grace, still working hard at the easel.
Clean-up time!

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February 12, 2010  by

Monoprinting

Just in time for Valentines Day!
For the third class in the painting session, we are focusing on printmaking. Valentines day is only a few days away, so we started off with red paint and white cards. Each child was given an acrylic box to paint on, a brush, a roller, and a tray of paint.

Then I offered cotton swabs to draw with on the trays. A cotton swab will take away paint from the surface, creating a design in the paint.

Then we pressed the paper (folded in half to make a card) onto the acrylic box, smoothed it out with our hands, and peeled it up to create a print.

Soon, the kids discovered the bubble wrap on the table and began experimenting with it. They painted it at first with the rollers, but quickly found out how it felt to slide their hands around the wet, slippery bubbles.
I added some bowls of new paint colors to the table. The girls were very interested in making pink and purple.
Here are some of the prints we made from bubble wrap
After printing an array of Valentines cards, I brought out the canvas boards from their previous class for the children to re-visit. They asked for some more tools to work with- the trucks necklaces and glitter of course!

Towards the end of class, Liam asked if he could bring the truck to the easel. Jordan joined him and they watched their painted wheels make tracks up and down the board.
Soon the whole class was driving the trucks up and down the easels!

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February 3, 2010  by

Valentines Monoprinting and Toddling

As an introduction to printmaking, we began today’s group with monoprinting on acrylic frames. The kids first used the brushes, rollers, and cotton swabs to create the design.


We then laid down a piece of paper onto the design, gently rubbed the back, peeled it up and… viola! A print!

These red and white prints will make great valentines cards!
For a different printing experience I taped large bubble wrap to the table for the kids to paint on.

This is how the bubble print turned out.

After a short time at the table, the kids began to move around the studio.
Sometimes toddlers just want to toddle.

Rogan shows Karuna a necklace he’s found on the shelf.

Logan and Austin are intrigued as Elizabeth demonstrates the watercolors that Logan found.


Rogan is checking out his most recent artwork (the yellow strokes on Karuna’s head).

What’s baby Will thinking about? Could it be brother Austin’s new hairdo?
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January 29, 2010  by

Printmaking

For the third class in this 4 week session, we’re learning about monoprints. Valentines Day is coming up so I decided that we could make use of our prints by turning them into cards.
Each child was given a small acrylic box frame as a base. They started off painting it with a brush and we made our first prints with these brush strokes as the positive space on the card.

Then they used the rollers to cover the surface completely and drew a design into the paint with cotton swabs (I got this idea from a truly inspiring blog called The Artful Parent).

Their drawings became the negative space in the design.

Kirsten was more interested in the easels today, so she took her brushes and paint and moved to a new workspace.

Karuna promptly joined her.

Our next printing exploration was with bubble wrap. I taped it to the table and gave the kids a few more paints.

Then we used the same printing process to make cards with bubble prints. Once the bubble wrap was covered in paint, we pressed the cards down into the design, gently rubbed the back with our hands, and then slowly peeled it away.


Kirsten and Karuna collaborated well and continued to move between the easels and table.

Kate and Grace sat at the table (for an entire hour) hard at work on their paintings.


It was a treat to clean up (and check out the garden) in the warm morning sun.
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January 9, 2010  by

Artgroups Start Next Week

Artgroup sessions begin next week! I’ll be starting with a few small groups and see where the journey leads. Hopefully, I’ll be adding more groups in the coming weeks.
In preparation, I have invited some of Karuna’s friends over to test out the studio. Here are the few pictures I managed to take.


Karuna discovers glitter (the entire bottle!)


Austin rolls out his paint for mono-printing

Sometimes washing hands is just as much fun as smothering them with paint!

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