Thursday 22 October 2015

Glue and Chalk Pastel Peacocks, Flowers and Other....


I always love the combination of glue and chalk pastel.  The glue gives such a lovely outline for the chalk pastel. This is a two part lesson as you need to let the glue dry overnight.


In the past I have found some children find it difficult to draw with glue yet this time around they all seemed rather good at it.  Maybe its because we have done it before or maybe its the group I have.  I had children as young as 6 drawing like experts with glue.  The trick I think is to encourage to draw big and I got them to test the glue lines first on a scrap piece of paper so they could see how thick a glue line was.  I pointed out that if their lines were too close the glue would run together.  I just use standard PVA glue that I buy in bulk bottles (transferred into Elmer's glue bottles since I like their lids).  I test all the bottles first before I put them on the table.


Patty at Deep Space Sparkle just posted about glue and chalk so you must check out her post.  I literally read her post hours after I finished my 4th lesson on this for the week.


I used the oil pastel method with the children who were away the first week and this also works wonderfully well (sorry I forgot to capture photos of these).

I spray the work with hairspray, check the glue lines have been cleaned up (I get the children to use a cotton tip dipped in water to do this) then package all the work into folded pieces of newspaper before sending home.


Check out some of the wonderful art produced:

Peacocks:
I'm in love with peacocks after we produced these fab gold ones in the holidays.  I gave them a guided drawing demonstration of a peacock first.





Flowers:  Always a favourite topic for me, large Georgia O'Keeffe inspired flowers.  I just asked that they were as BIG as they could draw.





Free Choice:  I let them do a third picture of free choice if they wished.




Finally my early finishers started experimenting with pastel stenciling. Loving this technique, you may see more of this.....



Cheers
Fiona



Sunday 18 October 2015

Spring Holiday Challenge Winners Announced

I'm pleased to announce the following winners of the Spring Holiday Challenge.  The theme was SPRING.  Children could create anything they liked with this theme in mind, using any materials they wished. Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who entered.  I always love looking at the creative ideas the children come up with.  All entries as usual were wonderful.

1st Prize - Chloe Walton - great use of wool and other materials

 2nd Prize - Mia Kiernan - I LOVED the popcorn on this piece so original


3rd Prize - Poppy Wood - great stenciling


Highly Commended - Titouan (lovely flower and succulent display), Caitlyn, Alix, Lizzie (all three used tissue paper for blossom - just lovely!)

Titouan
Caitlyn

Lizzie

Alix

Well done everyone!

I also had a colouring competition on these holidays which was also open to my workshop participants.  I had thought that a colouring competition might be just the thing with the current faze in colouring books, yet I only recieved 3 entries!

Congratulations to Romani, Mia K and Caitlyn. You are all winners for entering and you will each recieve a pack of pencils so you can keep colouring.....

Cheers
Fiona


Tuesday 6 October 2015

Holiday Workshop Wrap Up

Here is my post holiday workshop wrap up...


I just love to do this post as it gives me a chance to review all the amazing photos of the students work that happened over the holidays.  The art flies out the door so fast I don't have time to truely appreciate it until after the workshops have finished.  As always I just loved running these workshops.  The children were a delight, the weather kind to me and I smiled every day.

Check out what the amazing artists produced:

Handmade Gifts
This was actually a hard one to photograph as we put everything in their bags as they were produced to keep them together.  In the bag is handmade magnets, key rings, stickers, bookmarks and CD Spinners.


Snowmen, Polar Bears and Snow globes:
Sorry no photos of the snow globes - I'm sure I took photos yet I can't find them.  It was actually sunny rather than snowing when we painted these, I should have scheduled this one for the winter holidays....



Pom Pom Animals:
Sorry some of these photos seem to be missing too....lots of cute animals made..




Watercolour Zebras and Octopus
Such funky zebras!  Considering some of these children were in Prep they did such a good job!


Gold Painted Peacocks and The Tree of Life:
I have a bit of a peacock obsession now and I'm already searching for the next gold paint project..... 




Felting:
This workshop was just lovely and relaxing.  For first time needle felters they did a fabulous job.  Only two band aids handed out for minor pricks. The mice are sooooo cute!


I'm already planning the next school holiday workshops.  With the warmer weather I'm hoping to include Science Art, Street Art, Action Art and Pottery.  Keep an eye on the holiday workshops page for more information and email me at Sunnysidearthouse@gmail.com if you wish to go on the distribution list.

Cheers
Fiona