Creating with the Kids

The art room has been a busy place this summer. I've been doing some tutoring and various kids have been in and out for lessons in reading and painting.

I have a few photos to share about the paintings.

These 3 girls were here on some of the days together and were able to paint in the mornings until lunchtime. It has been a great incentive to get the reading lessons done first so that we have time for painting too!

Here are some, but not all of the canvases that have been worked on by my students in the last 7 or 8 weeks.    We will finish up the week after next and I'll have to start getting the room ready again for regular classes to start again at the end of August.  It has been a joy having so many kids come in and design their own compositions.  Most often we used canvases that were 16 x 20.  It has been an ideal size to finish in 2 to 3 sessions.  They love painting in the changeable background colors.  Then I encourage them to do drawings on plain white paper to be collaged onto the canvas.  Often they also work back into the collage pieces using oil crayons and it blends right into the painted background.  The acrylic medium we were using was the mod podge in a matte finish.  It worked super well for the gluing and the final varnish. 

The twins with their paintings about the Amazon River

I hope to add another post about our summer painting sessions in a couple of weeks.  I need to have the camera along at the right time!

Anna with her nature painting

We'll have about a week or two to continue playing around and then I will need to give the art room a thorough cleaning in time for school to start in the last week of August.  I believe we have an open house somewhere around August 25th.  I've got a couple of canvases started too, and there is always more to add to my classroom door.  It's an ongoing project and it would be nice to call it finished.