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Skye, age 6, (welcome back!) and her work above. Asher, age 5, below.
I love this project for the new year!
My youngest students named it "Wishing Trees" because they said the flowers looked like dandelions at the tops. Cally, Alabama, Asher and Clara really are my sages and poets! On thick watercolor paper, we used cut cardboard to scrape acrylic paint to look like birch bark, and once that dried, we used chalk pastels to layer colors to create backgrounds and tops to the "stems".
Wow!
Ilana, age 8, above. Benidict, age 2, holding his brother Kevin's, age 8, work below.
Lucas, age 7, above. Zahrinah, age 9, below.
Iesha, age 13, above. Anne, age 9.75, below.
Above, Annie (age nine), below Liam (age five)
This was a great winter project!
The kids (ages four through nine) were bursting out with their after-holiday energies and tackled this project like the brave artists that they are.
We used colored pencils on black paper. It really makes the colors pop off the page. We started with a snowy horizon line, added verticals in brown to start our trees, and then added detailed trunks and limbs, delicately covering them with pine needles in two different greens, then added a light dusting of snow. We discussed shadows and how to show distance using grays, and making the white of the snow brighter the closer it is to you. (Objects far away are diffused because there is a lot of atmosphere between the viewer and the object.)
Showing the falling snow, and adding animals (and glitter) were the frosting on the cake!
Above, Thomas (age seven), below Ilana (age eight)
Above Caleb (age six) and below Aoife (age seven)
Above Kevin (age eight) and below Johnny (age eight)
I was so happy to hear from parents how proud their kids were with their projects!
I count myself lucky to be a part of this little group! With the addition of Alabama (above) the harmony and good spirits of the group skyrocketed. The four of them laugh, tell stories and stay focused on their work, producing such masterpieces as shown here! (These photos don't really do the originals justice. The lighting was poor and the pieces still wet.)We started with quick sketches and a short talk about a self-portrait that was done by Swiss artist Paul Klee. I had laid out an already painted canvas, aprons, simple templates, (so they would fill up the canvas) acrylic paints, four brushes of different sizes, and then I just stood back and watched. As the kids had snacks, I set up the blow dryer in the bathroom and got the pieces really dry. After snack, a few of them went back in with chalk pastels and added some finishing touches. 
After seeing the current show at the DeYoung, ( I LOVED it and recommend it for young and not-so-young!) and being so moved by the Les Nabis artists works (pronounced Na-bee), I realize these kids don't even have to strive for the qualities of simplification and enhanced colors that were so sought after by those artists. These kids are the real thing!
Skye, age 6, (welcome back!) and her work above. Asher, age 5, below.
I love this project for the new year!
Ilana, age 8, above. Benidict, age 2, holding his brother Kevin's, age 8, work below.
Lucas, age 7, above. Zahrinah, age 9, below.
Iesha, age 13, above. Anne, age 9.75, below.
