Kandinsky Inspired Trees

This is a simple but striking project children will love. A tree trunk with 5 branches is painted using black poster paint onto an A3 piece of cartridge paper. Circles of card are cut out in different sizes and colours and glued concentrically (with their centres in the same place) on the branches giving the impression of colourful leaves.

This is a great project for children to experiment with complimnetary colours.

Puppets with rod arms

Here are some of the puppets that the Art Cabin kids have been making. Constructed from wooden spoons, these puppets have string for arms attached to rods.

Art Cabin moves (temporarily)

our new home for the time being

It’s been so difficult to get time to blog lately. There are various different reasons for this lack of writing, partly because I have been extremely busy with commissions (2 hats and 3 bridesmaids dresses), preparing for the launch of a clothing range which will be out on 23rd March (more on this in my next post) and to top it all, there was a burst pipe in the Art Cabin which left some damage to the portacabin and its contents. So the Art Cabin has had to move to the School’s Library.

Consequently the contents of the Art Cabin have had to be relocated (this is no easy task due to the amount of stuff accumulated over a period of two and a half years).

Despite the upheaval, the Art Cabin kids set about making wooden spoon puppets with rod arms. Already they are taking shape and there is a real buzz about the characters being created.

our new home for the time being

busy working on the puppets

creating our puppet’s characters

half finished mouse puppet

creating Animal from The Muppets

Create a universe with UV paints

This project was a big hit with the Art Cabin children. The idea was simple, the kids had to design their own planets, Aliens, stars, moons, galaxies & Milky Ways etc.

Ideas were drawn onto white cartridge paper and painted using special UV paints and pastels. The children had to cut out their planets & Aliens and stick them to our ‘universe’ board which had been previously covered with white paper. At the end of the lesson the lights were tuned off and my special portable blacklight was switched on to reveal our new universe.

It’s worth noting that I had to black-out all the windows in the Art Cabin using black-out curtain fabric (which I purchased from ebay). I bought my UV equipment from www.uvgear.co.uk

The band Coldplay used UV Gear products on their ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’ Video

Lascaux and Chauvet inspired cave paintings

Before Christmas I found a fabulous over sized book in the library all about the Chauvet Cave paintings called ‘Chauvet Cave, The Discovery of the World’s Oldest Paintings’ by Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps, Christian Hillaire. It details how three cavers in 1994 (Ardéche, South East France) discovered by chance an hidden entrance to an underground cavern, inside they made the most exciting discovery. Paintings dating back 30,000 years covered the cave walls, there were also blackened remains of fires. Flint & bones littered the ground and footprints made by the stone age man were seen on the sandy floor.

With a little bit more research I found out that the Lascaux Caves were discovered by four boys in 1940 (South West France). The paintings in these caves date back 17,000 years.

For this project the children had fun mixing their own cave wall colour with powder paint. A large sheet of paper was painted using random brush strokes, texture was added by using a sponge too. Whilst the paint was still damp the paper was crunched into a ball to acheive a crinkly wall effect. Once straigtened back out the paper edges were carefully torn away for a rough old look.

Once dry, the children used charcoal and pastels to draw their own cave art. As an added extra I covered one wall with paper and let the children create their own cave graffiti.

Cave artists at work

Stoneage man’s ’signature‘

illustration of a mammoth dating back 30,000 years

Christmas Penguin sweet box

This great idea came from an Usbournes Christmas Crafts book. It’s a lovely project and my young artists have thoroughly enjoyed making them.

They are made from Pringles crisp tubes. You will also need some card, glue, paper, black & orange paint and felt (red and white) for the hat and tummy.

The tube was cut approximately 7cms down from the top (the smaller part becomes the head and the longer part is the body). A card insert, 2 cms longer than the depth of the head, was stuck inside the small part of the tube, this is so the head fixes on the body (like a lid).

Cut out wings, feet, tail & beak shapes from the card (leave small tabs on the tail and beak so you can glue them on the tube).

The body, head, tail & wings were painted black and the beak & feet orange. Glue all the body parts in position.

Cut the eye shapes from paper and stick above the beak. Cut out the tummy, bobble and fur trim from white felt and the hat from the red felt, glue the hat pieces together (or sew). Stick the tummy on the body, line up the top edge of the tummy with the top edge of the body. Finally, fill the body part with your favourite sweets or treats.

Christmas Reindeer

Christmas Penguin

cut tube showing card insert in the lid

Christmas penguin pattern pieces

Creating triptych panels and painting with egg tempera

This is a lovely Christmas art activity to do with children. Triptych panels (3 panels which are hinged so it can open and close) were often found in Churches during the Middle Ages. They depicted biblical scenes and were either carved from wood or painted with egg tempera using fine pigments on a gesso ground the base being wood. The Church congregation back then were often illiterate, so painting scenes from the Bible helped to explain the Christian message to them.

This project uses a thick white board, wide masking tape, powder paints (fine artists pigments are expensive and the preparation they require for use is not suitable for children), egg yolks and a drop of water. Begin by drawing a Church window shape on the board and cut it out using a craft knife (adults must do the cutting here). Trace around your shape on another piece of board and cut it out. One of these shapes must now be cut in half, this will give you 3 panels for painting.

For the tempera paint – crack open the egg and separate, keep the yolk for making paint. Use a teaspoon to place some egg yolk into a palette, add some powder paint and a tiny drop of water and mix.

When all of your painting is completed, tape the half panels either side of the whole one to form a hinged triptych.

The children who painted these triptych panels told the Christmas story. They worked in groups of three, each painting part of the panel.

placing some egg yolk in the palette ready for mixing with powder paint

craft board cut to form triptych panels

Example of an original triptych panel

Clarice Cliff inspired vases made by children

Here are a few more photos of jugs and vases created by young children in the Art Cabin. Information on how these were made can be found in earlier posts called ‘Clarice Cliff inspired vases’.

I would like to thank Ms Ale from Art lessons for kids whose ‘Greek Vase lessons’ got me inspired to do this project. Clarice Cliff designs are a favourite of mine and introducing the Art Cabin kids to her work through making vases of their own was a perfect project – I just couldn’t resist.

The vases have gone on display in the foyer of the school and are truly admired by the people who visit. The children are incredibly proud of their work and I’ve watched their confidence grow throughout this particular project – it’s priceless.

Children create work inspired by Joan Miró

This is a great painting project which can be completed within an hour. I showed the children (aged 5 and 6 years) pictures of the paintings created by Joan Miró with a brief talk about him.

With a limited palette of blue, black, yellow and red paint, a big piece of paper, I spoke aloud a list of painting instructions, such as:- Paint 3 black circles in different sizes. Now paint a yellow line from one side of the paper to the other. Now paint a red line. Paint 2 ‘m’ shapes anyway round you like . Now paint a blue line.

The children loved the fact that their paintings were similar but not the same. They went on to paint their own ideas of a Surrealist picture.

Clarice Cliff inspired jugs designed by children

At last we have a couple of completed jugs to show you. This project has taken quite a long time to complete, but I think the effort and dedication the children have shown it, has paid off.

These jugs were inspired by the ceramicist Clarice Cliff. They are made from paper maché and painted with acrylic and poster paints.

I will post some more photos up as soon as the other young artists finish painting theirs.