Painting with Anna

My young friend Anna is back at it for her summer reading lessons that also include bonus time for painting.  She has been inspired by fireworks on the most recently finished piece.

She does plan on giving both of these away to people in her family.  Surely they will be treasured keepsakes.  Next week she'll be starting a new canvas.  I'll try to remember to get some shots of her in action while she is creating.

Summer Lessons in Art and other Subjects

During the summer I make time about 3 mornings a week to work with students to build and maintain reading skills.  It is an effort  to prevent the downward "slide" that often happens with so many weeks of down time. 

Livi Displays the Alley Cat Painting in the School Garden

 Livi came for 3 sessions and she was able to paint 2 medium sized canvases with her favorite subject her own cats Lovely and Junior and another about Alley Cats.  She loves this creative time.  This year she concentrated only on the art since she had just finished a reading program at a different location.  Reading is one of her strengths anyway.

Takes a lot of concentration

This year I worked with 2 students.  We had time to be creative together.

To read more about sewing the pillow

pop on over to my other blog.

FireWorks Canvas Painting



A School Favorite!



We constucted our most recent painting on canvas.   The students were able to finish it up in the last days of school.  It was a fun way to use up some bonus round weavings that we had on hand from some ambitious fourth graders. 

Painting up the Edging of Weaving

A sixth grade boy was inspired by Van Gogh's swirled skies and he and a classmate painted out the dark blue background.  At this time, the canvas edge was covered in a mixture of blue, black, and purple.

We tape looped the weavings into positions as the students went about deciding where each firework would burst open.  When the composition was decided, I hot glued the cardboard looms to the canvas.

Fourth grader volunteers used acrylic paint in bright colors to highlight and bring extra pattern to the sky. 





Bordering the canvas Edge

Several girls finished off the edges with a repeating pattern of finger and thumb prints in the bright acrylic colors.  I think they enjoyed this step a whole lot!

Thumbs Up!



Fireworks Over the Mississippi River 2011



Our Newest Painting on Canvas: A Patriotic Flag for Veteran's Day

Here is our latest collaborative project in which we are painting a flag image on a canvas. 


Our newest flag painting on the easel



I set up the stripes by having a long strip of cardstock cut to the correct size to get 13 equal stripes on the flag.  Students shaded along the edge of this strip with red and orange watercolor pencils. On the stripes outside edge it was shaded with blue and purple.   It was blended into the white gesso with a damp cloth.  They wiped in the direction of the stripe. 








A group working on bringing out the 50 stars from the dark BLUE background.

A different group working at bringing out the lettering on the prayer for veterans.



an older painting entitled "America's Heart"



Pictured beneath the easel is painting that was made in the year 2001.  We worked on it following the tragic events of September 11th.  We had painted the heart as a symbol for America and the doves in the lower corners were to remind of our school of the peace and healing that needed to occur for our country.  It was exhibited once at the local gallery, The PumpHouse.  We also showed the painting at a Veteran's Day Program just a couple of years ago.  This year we hope to have the new flag done by the end of Ocober.

Working at the Easel

Working at the Easel
Originally uploaded by quilterinagarden

After discussing two different reading assignments, we got down to the business of creating at the easel. Livi and I talked about her doll collection and her wonderful pets and she decided to do a painting of her bunny. She and her family rescued it from the humane society. She worked most of the afternoon and was able to finish it the same day she started. She is an awesome little artist!

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.