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Archive for the ‘Art Lessons’ Category

I hadn’t taught the high school camp for years, and it was incredible how fast they caught on and were just so hungry to learn. It was very rewarding, intense, and heartbreaking to understand that even in normal times, they are not getting what they need, as far as being seen, being able to make things and respond to the world – and how much they have lost, the past couple years now, how mature they seemed, they have had to grow up fast.

We all need to support our young people, give them space and permission to be young people.

At Sitka Fine Arts Camp you don’t have to have ever done any art. In Alaska and probably other places art classes, if they have any in school in the first place, don’t teach drawing from observation. Fine Arts Camp classes are basically college classes, except in an hour a day for a couple weeks! these kids worked so hard.

Drawing and Watercolor

We worked outdoors, from the model, drew still lifes, and copied master watercolor landscape paintings as we learned the conventions of landscape and how to manipulate watercolor.

We had some very challenging exercises, like drawing a model, in a landscape, using water media or marker.

Printmaking

We did drypoint etchings, rubber cuts, wood cut, stencils and monoprints, and even wood engraving:

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In 2021 the Sitka Fine Arts Camp held a very special camp, at half capacity, with amazing students starved for art and being together. It was intense, rewarding, and heartbreaking what our kids have lost the past years. We all need to love our kids!

The classes I taught were Printmaking, Drawing and Watercolor, and Graphic Novel. At some point I’ll try to scan and upload some of the comics but for now, some of the prints and drawings:

Printmaking

The camp runs two weeks, so days to work is about 11 1́/2. Woodcut is a lot of work, we also did rubber cuts, monoprints, stencils, collagraphs, and etching on both metal and plexiglass. Creativity is never a problem.

Drawing and Watercolor

We focused on what students wanted to work on, and did a lot of work outdoors, from a model, and finally of flowers. These kids worked so hard and were so focused. One day we were at the beach drawing, and a young deer, whose habit it apparently was to cut through the beach at that tide, came right up to our group, and after hesitating, made his way through the group. Of middle schoolers. Who were absolutely calm and thrilled. Not a typical group of young people!

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Creating using cardboard boxes and trash is the Number One activity in my opinion for kids.

I had the opportunity to work with children going into First and Second Grades at the 2021 Sitka Fine Arts Elementary Camp. This was over five days, in which (this year) groups of eight children came in for 45 minutes, also also went for 45 minutes each to three other classes in music, movement and ceramics.

The first two days, we looked at slides of paintings and then painted. On the next two days, we made constructions/houses/sculptures/environments/stories, starting with a shoe box, and using hot glue and Elmer’s, fabrics trims and yarn, papers, railroad board, and trash, such as toilet paper cores and interesting packaging (like the boxes phones come in).

The second day of this we had parents send special trash in with their kids, because what I had brought in was exhausted. Some of the things were surprising, like a used Subway drink cup, and a squeezed out tube of toothpaste – but the creativity of these kids knew no bounds: a drink cup became a cannon, the toothpaste cap a cup.

The second day we also gave them paint the last 10 minutes, if they wanted it.

The last day we all presented the work, which was amazing as well, the work and detail and humor that went into these creations.

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I had the opportunity to work with children going into First and Second Grades at the 2021 Sitka Fine Arts Elementary Camp. This was over five days, in which (this year) groups of eight children came in for 45 minutes, also also went for 45 minutes each to three other classes in music, movement and ceramics.

I showed them slides of paintings by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and went around and each said something they noted in a painting. We then painted, using a limited palette of yellow, red and white, with paint on a paper plate, and mixing colors on a second plate, on 18 x 24 inch 80# paper.

The next day I showed pictures by Helen Frankenthaler and photos of her working, telling about her, and we went around and all told about one thing they noticed in one of her pictures. This time I gave them cups of paint, that they could pour onto the paper plate mixing palette. I told them to mix three new colors.

Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock: this picture is over 17 feet wide, and is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Canyon (1965)by Helen Frankenthaler, 44 x 52 inches, at the Philips Collection in Washington D.C.

The results were amazing, to my mind. What is most exciting though is their painting process, the way they really get into it, each in their own way.

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In 2018 I got to teach at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp Elementary School session. The camp groups students by age and rotates four sections of each age group through four different classes, in music, theater, visual art, and dance.

This year I had the 5th grade group, kids going into 6th grade, who came in for I think around 50 minutes each. Each group had around a dozen kids, and we had to set up, work, and clean up in that time before the next group came in. The camp was one week, so five mornings total.

The cleaning up is an important part of the process – young people actually like knowing what’s going on and they actually like cleaning up, especially sponging off the tables.

The first day I gave them watercolors, and had them try various techniques, with nice watercolor paints (they are Cotman travel sets, and over the years we have replaced the paint as it was used up with Daniel Smith watercolors) on 80# drawing paper. First we looked at some slides of the work of Helen Frankenthaler and Vasili Kandinsky, and told a little about those artists and periods.

Tuesday, we did observational drawing, of a wooden stool, doing fast draw, blind contour, then a longer drawing, then, if they had time, a smaller object of their choice. In this one I showed them basic drawing tricks, using angles, proportions, overlap, scale, and the trick of using the back ground, and the angles of the box the stool was on, to give their drawing depth.

Wednesday we drew the counselor, with the same drawing instruction, with the addition of learning to show the model respect.

Thursday we drew a still life of at least two objects, on the table near them. We didn’t do any warmups, but instead sketched on newsprint, then drew with pencil and outlined with pen or drew with a pen, then watercolor, on 80# drawing paper, using the various watercolor techniques from Monday.

On Friday, I set up lights and pushed the tables together, with the lights at one end, and kids sitting on the long sides of the tables. They did a quick draw then shaded (modeled) drawing of white styrofoam balls. Then, had them gather all their art, and put their favorite piece on top, and we did a little art walk, where each said something they liked about (someone else’s) picture.

One more thing was to have each kid at the end of each session put his or her work in a stack. I didn’t have any drying racks, so we arranged the stacks of pictures all around the edges of the room on the floor.

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Paul Cezanne, The Basket of Apples c. 1893 25 7/16 x 31 1/2 in. (65 x 80 cm) Art Institute of Chicago
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The same Fifth graders who got into Abstract Expressionism tried their hands at Post-Impressionism. And, it was a sunny day just a week before school let out. So they weren’t exactly calm, and yet did fabulous work. The image above is the inspiration, which the kids each talked about. We went around and each kid said something they noticed or liked (or didn’t) about the picture – things like the color juxtapositions, how he made the fruit look round, the strange perspective that makes the table look tipped. We also looked at images of paintings by Henri Matisse.

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gotham news 1957
Gotham News, 1955 by Willem de Kooning ( 69 x 79” Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo)

We looked at images of paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning, including pictures of the paintings in galleries, and Helen Frankenthaler and Jackson Pollock working in their studios, to show the very large scale of pictures in this school. I also told them where some of these pictures are, and had a snapshot of one (Small’s Paradise, by Helen Frankenthaler) I took in Washington D. C. in March.

I told them how Abstract Expressionism was painting that was not of something, but was the thing, in the words of Jackson Pollock. And how painting is a language, in which you can express things you can’t put into words.

The paintings they liked were both by de Kooning: Excavation and Gotham News, which is the one we talked about. The kids each noted something about the picture, and brought out the bright colors, and how it references people, dogs, layers, cities, noise, excitement, heavy equipment, Batman, buildings and other structures, without being pictures of those things.

It could be too that they were drawn to this picture because it holds up better on the rather dim “interactive white board” projectors the school has. You don’t get the benefit of the brilliant colors of Helen Frankenthaler’s work. We held up the laptop so they could get an idea of the brilliance of the actual paintings.

Inspired by the picture, they made paintings in the manner of Abstract Expressionism. I think some of them felt like they were being naughty, by using a finger or their hands, in making layer on layer, in using gobs of paint, and even in scraping back to get to layers below. But they were not naughty, they were all fully involved in the paint and what it was doing. This was the most energetic and focused group I’ve had, as far as everyone diving in.

We asked them to mix at least 3 colors, and this time not to make a picture of a thing but to paint with colors and shapes and lines, and to try different brush sizes.

As in other classes, each kid got a paper plate palette with primary colors and white, a yogurt container of water, paper towels, a plate to mix colors on, and they had had a short reminder of how you rinse your brush between dipping into the color.

We even had time to clean up and to spend a few minutes looking at our work.

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A Still Life by Henri Matisse

The very beautiful still-life paintings by Ms. Love’s Fifth Grade class in 2015. I’ve been meaning to put these up for a while. The students first learned about color mixing. They did these paintings in one session, painting from still lifes set up with colored cloths and fruit. They are done with tempera paint on canvas board (just because the teacher had some she wanted to get used!).img_2132smallimg_2133smallimg_2134smallimg_2135smallimg_2136smallimg_2137smallimg_2138smallimg_2139smallimg_2140smallimg_2141smallimg_2142smallimg_2143smallimg_2144smallimg_2145smallimg_2146smallimg_2147smallimg_2148smallimg_2149smallimg_2150smallimg_2151smallimg_2152small

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IMG_2312smallChoose Your Own Adventure

By the 2014/15 7th Grade Literature Circle

We used large sticky notes to brainstorm this. Image by a student in the 2015 Fine Arts Camp mini camp.

1.

You wake up in your middle school bathroom. “Uh oh,” you think, “what if someone sees me there.” You hear the sounds of the jungle. “Hmm,” you think. “Middle school is wild, but not this wild.”

Do you:

Consider getting up, but you fall back asleep. Go to 2A

You get up and forget the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” and get up and explore. Go to 2B

2.

2A

You wake up again and look around. You are in another dimension. There is a Laser Unicorn right next to you. The unicorn runs at you and tries to lick your face off.

Do you:

want to hug it, go to 3A1

want to kill it in self defense, go to 3A2

2B

You see trees growing out of the trash and fungi in the gym lockers. You’re scared but also curious. A coffee mug is sprouting an oak tree. You think this is the best and worst thing that ever happened.

Do you:

decide on a safe approach and hide in a locker where unfortunately someone left their lunch a little too long, go to 3B1

Go look out a window while standing on a desk. Eww gross you stick your hand in some gum. Go to 3B2.

3.

3A1

The glittery unicorn gives a shuddering tremor, and then suddenly, it erupts into a poof of rainbow flames. You catch a whiff of peppermint poo, for some reason. After a while of the unicorn burning, a few mean, yucky, bright orange bears come into view.

“We smell peppermint. We eat you,” they say in a flat tone. Obviously they have not spoken much.

You fight your way through the bear’s sharp claws, but all too soon, you perish a sad, sad death.

3A2

The unicorn hugs you with its furry hooves but it starts to eat your hair. What do you do?

Let it eat your hair, go to 4A2A

Tell it to stop, got to 4A2B

3B1

Unfortunately, the old lunch in the locker becomes overpowering and you remember you accidentally shut the door. You die.

3B2

You see a rabid tiger. You panic but search in your pockets and along with the pocket lint you find a very squished cupcake and an old carrot. You know your only chance is to feed it something.

Do you: go for the the sweet choice (cupcakes) thinking that although it’s squished you like it, so they’ll like it. Go to 4B2A.

Or, do you go for the carrot, and save the cupcake for yourself. Go to 4B2B.

4.

4A2A

You let the unicorn eat your hair, and after a while you forget about the old school and you live forever in an alternate universe with your best friend the unicorn living off of peppermint poop and candy corn.

4A2B

The unicorn gets extremely moody. After an irritated whinny and a flick of its irridescent tail, the pubescent pony trots away. However, after you poke around for a while, you find a minty mound of poo. It smells delicious, and you fight the urge to stuff every last sticky bite into your mouth. In the distance, a clear blue lake shines and glimmers.

Do you – throw it into the lake, because you’re afraid it’s toxic – go to 5A2B1

Or, do you eat the delicious peppermint poop. Go to 5A2B2.

4B2A

The rabid Rabbitiger loves you but licks frosting off your face and you die from the stinging saliva that melts your skin and bones and fingernails.

4B2B

You feed it the carrots, but that makes it upset. It decides to eat you, and you die. Start over!

5.

5A2B1

The bratty unicorn gallops off, leaving a glittery, blue-green, minty-smelling poop. For a second, the smell overcomes you, and all you can think about is filling your growling stomach with this mint-smelling poop, then your senses return! That’s absurd! It’s poop! Ew! In disgust, you pick it up and throw it into the rather pink colored lake. When you throw it, your foot slips, making you tumble, into the sweet smelling water. The fumes of it play with your mind. You start singing of a turtle and a duck as you sink. Your mother was right, too much pink will kill. The end.

5A2B2

Suddenly, you wake up back in the bathroom where you started.

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At the 2015 Elementary-age Sitka Fine Arts Camp, I got to work with the 3rd through 5th graders. The first day we made abstract paintings, after looking at slides of paintings by Wasilly Kandinsky. Then we drew for two days, and the next, we painted their counselor modeling, or, if they wished, a figure, or anything they wanted.

Each group of 15 kids rotated through four classes:  music, theater, dance and visual art through the mornings during one week.

The only thing I asked on this one was that they mix three new colors for their picture.

Their work:

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