I’m teaching my 3/4 class how to include foreground, middle ground and backgrounds in landscapes. We used tissue paper and paint to make the foreground appear closer. We also made some trees out of torn newspaper. They painted on some recycled lino donated from the Pre Primary classroom. They look pretty cool so far, can’t wait til they add the finishing touches with oil pastel..although, these ones look pretty good as they are 😊
Today my year 3/4 art students created collages of aerial views. We discussed how an aerial view is a view from above, like in a plane. A lot of aboriginal art is based on the aerial view. We westerners are really biased toward seeing the world and art from a frontal viewpoint!
The important thing about aerial perspective is that there is no horizon line, so this was a great follow up for the alien landscape activity, because the focus there was on putting in a horizon line that shows where the land and sky meet.
We also talked about collage and how it’s a really flexible way of using lots of materials. We used newspaper, coloured tissue paper, coloured construction paper and dry pastels. After I did a quick demo, kids were very keen to explore their own ideas and they came up with some unique ways of using collage to show aerial views.
     
My Grade 3/4 and 5/6 classes both created ‘Alien landscapes’. First, we brainstormed movies we had seen that included an alien landscape (for younger students we unpacked the idea of ‘alien’, that it can have some features of earth, but different). Students  came up with movies such as Green Lantern, Star Wars, Avatar and Planet 51. I wanted children to use a horizon line to map out where the sky and land meet, and encouraged them to think of the different landscape features on planet earth (such as cityscapes, deserts, rainforests), and how they could be altered. Students made preliminary thumbnail sketches, then lightly drew their designs using pencil. For their final piece, the older group used dry pastel and the younger ones used watercolour. This provided another teaching opportunity, in the characteristics  and possibilities of the materials. Both provide good colour saturation with a fair amount of control.
Most important, though, I think this project inspired their wonderful creativity and they really expressed their imaginations.
After using exclusively acrylic paint for several years, I was recently inspired to take up the oils once more. I have only done a handful of paintings with oils, and my reason for ditching them was due to impatience. I reasoned that acrylics dry faster, so you can paint over the top creating layers of colour for interest. Oil paints are far more sumptuous colour wise in my opinion, however. For some reason I never realised that you can simply wipe away areas with a turpsy rag or brush, making paintings easy to renovate just like in acrylics (one of my reasons for turning to acrylics).
Oil paints seem to cover large areas of canvas more easily and you feel a bit like a sculptor when using thick paint (note to self: buy a pallet knife, a very useful tool for scraping back paint, adding sharp areas and cleaning the pallet!)
For those colourists who are concerned with detailed accuracy ( that’s me only sometimes), acrylic colours flatten off and change to be slightly lighter. I have noticed this when doing skies or faces, but because my style is somewhat expressionistic, this factor has not really bothered me. I often work on textured recycled canvas anyway, so I see it as part of the overall effect akin to varied brush strokes. The flattened effect of acrylics is something I address using loads of glossy varnish. The reason oil paints don’t change in their colour or consistency is because oil paint doesn’t actually dry, it cures.
I was confused about the mediums to use to thin oil paint down, but after asking a few knowledgable people, I decided to keep it simple: odourless artist quality turps to was brushes and wipe back areas of paint, and the Art Spectrum no.1 medium for mixing. The mediums are a mixture of linseed oil and artist quality turps, so it’s just more convenient than doing it yourself. The no.1 medium is the thinnest (paint will crack later if you apply to much linseed oil under thinner applications).
So… The verdict? At the moment I am in love with oils but not inclined to give up acrylics either. If I do plein air work, I will go for oils because you don’t need water, and you don’t have the problem of paint wastage due to speedy drying. Acrylics are wonderful when I want to paint lots of layers quickly… And just when the mood takes me, they lend themselves to different marks, and are great in mixed media operations.
Acrylic paint. I use atelier interactive, usually. At times it’s anything I can afford. I bought some cheapies recently (global) which were not very opaque, so a bit frustrating to use. I’ll probably use them with my kids.
My oil paints. They are art spectrum mostly.
 a close-up of an acrylic painting. You can see how it ‘flattens’ when it dries (especially in the darker areas)
 a close-up of an oil. I used heavy brush-strokes. Colour and shine holds. Although I will probably still varnish, because I love shine!
Last year I resolved to post art lesson ideas and photos. I was so busy getting to know my new school (I work at two different schools) that it didn’t happen!
By far the biggest highlight of 2014 was the Alice in wonderland project I did with my upper primary students. They exhibited their artwork at the local library, and the exhibition ‘Journey into Wonderland’ got into the local paper.
I also enjoyed teaching students about the sumptuous, lush, bold work of Henri Rousseau, the whimsical work of Chagall and the quirky fabulousness of Perth born artist and author, Shaun Tan.
The biggest challenge last year was teaching art to kindergarten and pre-primary students. I found this to be difficult because of short attention spans, and also the speed at which they work. A year 5 project may drag on for four weeks, but for the little ones I had to constantly come up with new ideas. We used a lot of mixed media, and I tended to run three activities at a time for kindy students.
I am excited to see what 2015 holds for me, what a privilege it is to be able to teach art! 😃🎨😃
I have finally begun working on my art programmes for this term, after a very long break from teaching over the summer holidays. I stumbled upon the idea of creating ‘anthrophomorpic portraits’, which led me to explore the concept of human-like animals in art and literature in general. The initial idea sprung from funky yet comical portraits by photographer, Yago Partal (right).
My idea is to get students to choose an animal, brainstorm what kind of clothing they will wear and create anthropomorphic portraits using paint or watercolour.
This project links really well into art history. The word ‘anthropomorphic’ simply means attributing human qualities to non human subjects; be it animals, forces of nature, plants or insects.
Humans have a long history of using animals to express personality traits, supernatural abilities, describe the attributes of mythical deities (such as the case in Greek mythology). 
Examples of anthropomorphic art and literature popular in today’s culture is overwhelmingly rich. Think teenage mutant ninja turtles, superheroes like Spider-Man and batman, stories like C.S Lewis’ ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’, Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’and Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’. All of these tales use personification of animals, insects and in the case of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, inanimate objects (remember the talking door and the opinionated flowers?) Examples abound across cultures, too. In aboriginal dreamtime stories and fables from Korea and Japan (not to mention anime-a big obsession with my year 6 group).
I’m excited to see what my talented students come up with on this theme.
