Circle Paintings

I had seen a few posts and pictures of circle paintings on the Internet over the past year and had been very curious to try.   Check out the circle painting website for more information.   I finally convinced my son's grade 2 teachers to give it a try earlier this year and they let me come into the classroom to produce some with 80 students - it was SO MUCH fun!  Besides that the results were AMAZING! Check them out:

I was hooked and couldn't wait to give it a go again.  I had that chance a few weeks ago when we produced more at the school, this time on wood panels and also on some poles for the playground.  These were again done by the Grade 2's and my lunchtime art club.  They will be hung up around the school shortly (will post some pics then).

At the same time I decided that I have to do this in my after school classes, and thought how amazing would these look hanging in my back garden?????  So I purchased some marine ply (3 panels fit perfectly on the top of my art table in the studio), got out the acrylic paints and away we went.  These were the most enjoyable lessons ever.  I painted alongside the children and we all worked together as a team.  It was amazing what we achieved in just over an hour.

After the initial class I placed the panels out for two more lessons (along a wall so we could use the table for the main art activity,  these were there for the early finishers) and the children added to them even more with Posca Paint Markers and gold and silver acrylic paints.  Finally I sprayed them with a waterproof sealant to give them a little more protection and gloss.

I'm so happy with how they turned out.

I'm going to keep 4 of the 12 panels (I would have loved to keep all of them, yet that is getting greedy).  The other 8 I've put up for sale to the art class parents.

Here are my tips for circle painting if you are thinking of giving it a go:

• Place the paints pre-mixed in plastic cups 
• Use thick paints (so if the cup tips over the paint does not come out)
• Place one paintbrush in each cup and advise the children they have to use that paintbrush
• Use marine ply if you want to put them outside
• Paper can get soggy so if you have the $ go with a ply instead (even normal ply for indoors if you can)
• Advise the children they can add to others circles yet not completely cover them
• Try to get them to start in the middle and work out (prevents smudging of the edges)
• Posca paint markers are great for adding finer details later on
• Too many children working on it at once can get out of control so try to limit it to around 10 children per panel (size of a small table)

If you haven't given circle painting a go - YOU MUST!  It is so much fun.  I found it very meditative and I had trouble stopping myself.

Cheers
Fiona