Kid's Painting

Paints are a fantastic medium to teach blending and colour mixing through. Students need plenty of opportunities to experiment with paint and colour, and need to be thoroughly familiar with the colour wheel and tints and tones. Acrylic paints allow for better coverage and are more opaque than tempura. Block paints are a great option when working with students and are more economical and easier to clean up. Oils are slow to dry and need turps for cleaning, so are best suited for older students. Watercolour is another great medium, however you do need to use a higher grade paper.

WISH TREES

I led this art activity with a year 7-8 art extension group at Stonefields Primary. The purpose was to create a display for the newly built schools foyer, that represented the school's new beginnings. The foundation students each had to include the symbols for the school's corner stone values in their quirky trees. I wanted these to represent the idea of growth of the school and community.

On canvas, students painted the background in two shades of acrylic...working on having a lighter area of focus. We studied the physical form of trees and children sketched their trees in white chalk over the background. They then filled the tree in black paint and added colourful quirky circles to the end of the branches. I love how every tree is unique, and how the colours chosen work in such harmony with one another.

BIRDS OF THE AMAZON

I completed these birds with year 3-4 pupils. The large examples are my own models, and the others are samples by students. For these we used acrylic paint for the birds and backgrounds. Crayon and dye were used for the plants. Features were done individually and then 'collaged' together to make an interesting composition. Bright, fun, and funky! The children were extremely pleased with the results!

CHERRY TREES

I did these with children aged 8 -10 during a holiday programme. We painted the backgrounds on canvas first, then drew and painted the branches of the tree. Blobs of paint were used for the blossoms. Beautiful!

          ANZAC POPPIES                     

These stunning poppies were the art project for a year 5-6 class who were studying Gallipoli. The backgrounds were painted using acrylic. Once they dried, chalk pastel was used to add a 'field of poppies' or a few single flowers. We drew from life and googled images of poppies for motivation.

Children also wrote some stunning poetry to accompany their work.

STRAW BLOWN TREES

These were done with a year 2-4 class using block tempura paints. The background (sea and sky) were done first. Indian ink was then used for the island, maori motif, and tree. The trunk of the tree was painted, then a blob of ink is put at the end of each branch and blown with a straw.

Loads of fun and really effective!

BUBBLE ART

This is a really fun project with the juniors, or can be used at any level to give a marbelled effect to paper. 1/4 fill several paper cups with bubble mixture mixed with dye. Children use straws to blow bubbles into the cup until it nearly overflows...then they place the paper on top. The bubbles burst leaving interesting patterns on the paper. Really easy and enjoyable. These were done with a year 1 class, and we published their writing on top of their artwork.

COLOURFUL RAIN

You will have seen this idea done by melting crayons with a hairdryer...allowing the wax to drip down the page. Here, my year 3/ 4 class used the same visual concept, but dripped acrylic paint down the page instead. They drew silhouettes first, covering their umbrella with play-dough before dripping the paint down the page. I love their quirky drawings...especially the little man on the rock with his briefcase!

NAME PLAQUES

I've done these a few times over the years using different materials. Coloured pencils are an 'easier' medium to use, but I wanted to gauge children's painting skills so used block tempura paints with these year 3/4 students. Children printed their name first...learning to stretch the 'word art' so it filled the page. They then divided the page using curved lines. They studied the colour wheel first, and had to select either warm or cool colours for the name and the opposite for the background.

TIKI

These were completed as part of a study on the NZ artist Chantze Rohe, as I assisted in a colleagues year 3-4 class. Children looked at common features on his work and completed these in acrylic paint and pastel. Well done Miss MC and her talented pupils.

TAKAHE

I did these with a class of year 3-4 students. We used vivid, block tempura paints, and pastel.