Sunflowers 2/12/14

Beautiful "Sunflowers" painted with the teen youth group (and moms) at Penn Valley Church in Telford, PA

Charley Harper Stylized Birds

We are beginning our session with a winter bird project in the style of Charley Harper.  Harper was an American Modernist who painted highly stylized birds and animals. His style was called minimal realism which captured the essence of subjects with fewest possible visual elements.  To stylize is art represented in a way that simplifies details rather than trying to show naturalness or reality.

screen shot of Harper bird

screen shot of Harper bird

 

Our project is mixed medium meaning we will be using different supplies to create our finished piece.  Students will be painting snow on the ground, stippling in the sky and painting in their stylized bird.  We will collage the trees using old book pages.

finished example

Weekend Paint Parties

Here are some photos from LuAnne's Birthday Paint Party and a six year old's unicorn birthday party. It was a great two days of creative fun!

hard at work on tree

proudly displaying her great painting

group shot, 2 painters are missing

Adding details

happy unicorns

great job!

Paint Party - January 23, 2015

Here are a few photos from Friday's Whimsical Tree party.  This tree continues to be a favorite!

working on the sky

whimsical tree

beautiful, finished paintings

So Cute!

I love this fun winter painting geared towards kids, but I think a lot of adults would enjoy this cutie!

December Paint Party

Finally, here are some photos from December's paint party at the Boys and Girls Club in Lansdale. It was a great pre-Christmas night out!

working on backgrounds

beautiful paintings

winter version

great job!

Abstract Name Design

Sadly Tuesday November 25 is our last art class for this session.  Most of the students are still working on their "What Makes Me Scream" lesson inspired by Edvard Munch's "The Scream".  I have a quick project for those that finish early or those that want to finish at home.

We will be using our names to create an abstract design.  Abstract is defined as art that does not attempt to represent reality but achieves it's effect by using shape, form, color and texture (some of our elements of art).

Students will be given a square of paper and write their names in large block style.

block style name

The letters will be colored in with marker in one color. We will take care not to scribble with the markers, but to color with even strokes to fill in the letters.

letters colored in with marker

Next the paper will be folded so we get 16 rectangles.  These will be cut up into individual pieces.

cut up name

The pieces will be assembled together to create an abstract design. We do not want to put the name back so we can read it, but play around with the pieces until we achieve an interesting, balanced design.

putting the pieces back together

Students then have the option of adding some color to the background using crayons.

color using crayons