“Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.”
– Jasper Johns
Find a word you like.
Take the word and write it on canvas.
Mix some colors you like.
Take your word and paint the colors you like into the shape of the word you like.
Paint Jasper Johns Words.
And soon you'll be thinking like Jasper Johns:
“I am just trying to find a way to make pictures.”
As tradition goes, we usher in summer with a collaborative iMadonnari creation.
This year’s inspiration was “Still Life with Apples” by Paul Cézanne.
Up until recently I thought that the Twelve Days of
Christmas were the twelve days before Christmas. Not so. These twelve days, The
Twelve Days of Christmas, are twelve days after Crīstesmæsse, the Chrsitmastide.
Twelve days came down to us from centuries past to represent
the timing of the Magi, the Wise Ones from the East who followed stars and
discovered something unimaginable—the Christ child in a stable.
And so this year, here in the 21st century, we
are celebrating for twelve days after Christmas anticipating Epiphany or Three
Kings Day.
Here are some ideas how you might too…
Here’s to keeping our hearts contemplating the curiosity of
days, hope and joy for the New Year.
– The Whole Blackbird Team!
There are many things that can only be said without words. Yes, without words.
This summer we launched a visual literacy campaign inside my guild. We began with observational exercises. I call this close looking. The goal is to discover and decode the phonics of visual art—line, texture, value, shape, color. We began with Paul Klee.
Paul Klee wanted his make-believe faces to be truer than true ones. He wanted to portray complex emotions in his simple paintings, not just what the eye is able to see on the outside. Head of a Man, Going Senile or Senecio, is a perfect painting to learn just how he accomplished this task.
Spend some time exploring Klee's original.
Always use art vocabulary to guide the observation:
What is the personality of the lives in the painting?
What geometric shapes do you see?
Is the composition symmetrical or asymmetrical?
Is the texture smooth or rough?
Are the values bright or dull?
Is the color warm or cool?
Is the portraiture realistic or abstract?
This particular work was painted in 1922 while Paul Klee was teaching at the Bauhaus in Welmar. The painting now resides in the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland.
Klee is famous for his experiments with bold color. In this painting, notice how the variations of color in the face contrast with each other and how the combined facial colors contrast with the bright orange background. Look closely, notice how the hot red eyes seem to jump off the canvas.
The simple, flat construction of the shapes is child-like—quintessential Klee. Klee used simple geometry to communicate complex mood and this is what makes his art unique.
The colors in this painting are warm and the shapes are simple. But this doesn't mean the composition is simple. Quite the contrary, the warm colors are complex, the simple shapes are constructed in a simply complex manner. And the best way to discover this complexity is to slow down, read the painting closely, and make a copy.
To copy the abstract face you will need:
– Canvas
– Brushes
– Acrylic Paints
– Water
– Paper Towels
Tips:
1. Begin by mixing little tubs of paints that match the canvas, set aside.
2. Sketch Head of a Man onto the canvas lightly with pencil, paying careful attention to think proportionally.
3. Block in the colors using the paint in a thin manner with a bit more water.
4. Layer paint using a dry brush technique until the desired effect is achieved.
A close study of an abstract work of art takes time, cultivates patience and a host of wonderful character traits in the apprentice. But the most important benefit of a close reading of a painting such as this is the discovery that each line, each stroke of color, each simply constructed shape is certain phonics with vast potential to speak.
– Kim
Fall always provides inspiration in abundance. Pumpkins are everywhere! But we all know that once fall arrives, it's too late to actually plant. So if you've missed your window for sowing pumpkins seeds in your garden, use this summer to make some cute and easy quilt squares. These can be finished off and used for wall hangings, pillows, buntings, or festive table top decorations.
Materials:
– various fabrics scraps for pumpkins & stems
– background fabric
– fun coordinating fabrics to surround the base square (I used bright blue which is the complement of orange)
– fusible webbing such as Wonder Under or other brands
– sewing machine, needle/thread
– fabric scissors, rotary cutter, cutting mat
Directions:
– fuse one side of the pumpkin and stem fabrics that you have chosen
– draw pumpkins and stems onto the fused backing with a pencil, cut out
– cut your square for the background and border pieces
– following the directions on the fusible web, iron on the pumpkin and stems to the background square
– hand stitch around the shapes or machine stitch about an 1/8th “ from the edges
– apply contrasting fabric strips along edges of square (we used a skewed log cabin technique)
– square up your finished square with an Olfa cutter and mat
– finish edge according to what your final project will be
– Sara
It’s become quite a tradition to usher in summer with a collective i Madonnari creation. This year’s inspiration started with “The Geranium” by Henri Matisse.
From Wikipedia…
The Italian I Madonnari were itinerant artists, many of whom had been brought into the cities to work on the huge cathedrals. When the work was done, they needed to find another way to make a living, and thus would often recreate the paintings from the church onto the pavement. Aware of festival and holy days in each province and town, they traveled to join in the festivities to make a living from observers who would throw coins if they approved of the artist’s work. For centuries I Madonnari were folk artists, reproducing simple images with crude materials such as tiles, coal and chalk.
Have fun creating your own sidewalk masterpiece! For a step-by-step tutorial, visit this post.
I have to say, I'm always a little proud of myself when I can scrap together a cute and do-able art project for my 5 year-old with materials I already have on hand. And since I'm not a huge fan of pre-printed drug store cards I decided to make some springtime blossom cards inspired by the Bougainvillea growing in our backyard.
First I gathered some random envelopes and card stock in lovely spring colors. I think I've literally had these envelopes for over ten years. Today their destiny has been fulfilled!
Next I prepped the paint. I love craft paint. I'd buy every color if I could! I picked three colors for the blossoms, and for the stems I watered down a few drops of green paint in a small bowl.
For our "paintbrush" I used a cotton ball and clothespin to help keep little fingers cleaner. I decided to cut the cotton ball down to make it a bit more manageable and discovered a perfect blossom pattern hiding inside. I love happy accidents!
Time to make art! I puddled some of the watered down green paint at the bottom of the card and gave my boy a straw that I had cut in half. I encouraged him to blow the puddle around to create the stem and branches. It helped for me to rotate the card as he was doing this to spread the design out a bit. I have seen this techinque many times throughout my blog surfing adventures and I was thrilled to be able to finally try it out.
Next came the blossoms themselves. I squirted three small blobs onto a plate to mimic the colors of the Bougainvillia blossoms. Very little paint is required, depending on how many cards you want to make.
Taking the cottonball brush, my boy then added the blossoms. I encouraged him to "plant" them at the end of each stem. I have to say he did a pretty good job with that. Don't worry, should your young artist go on a wild dabbing-spree, the result will be just as perfect and adorable.
Once the cards dried we added a simple, heart-melting message to the inside.
This was such an easy, quick and fun crafting session with awesome results. And we've still got a day to get some of these into the mail for grandmas.
Honestly, even though I know what's coming, I'm so excited to open my own card come Sunday!
HAPPY MOM'S DAY and blessings to all of you amazing mothers out there! What you do is important!
-Tracey
Jasper Johns was born in America, on May 15, 1930 in Augusta, Georgia to be exact. As a boy, he knew he would be an artist one day. So when he grew up, he moved to New York and studied art. Jasper Johns became famous for painting ordinary things that people sometimes take for granted…
flags…
maps…
targets…
and numbers.
Using this last Jasper Johns painting as inspiration, our group of young artists learned how paint their ages! It was a great exercise in color, scale, form and composition!
To begin their paintings, each student was given a large 11 x 17 stretched canvas, a pencil, and examples of numbers in different typefaces. You can do this by typing a row a numbers on your computer, changing the font a few times and printing them out large for your children to draw from. Have them look at and observe the nuances of line and curve that different letterforms have.
Next, I demonstrated how to lay down a design first in pencil. Since the entire surface would be covered in multiple layers of paint, it was not so important to create perfect drawings but rather for students to concetrate on their compositions. I encouraged the use of the whole canvas, emphasising size and shape, and having students pay extra attention to white space.
"Make the numerals big so that the negative spaces around the image of your age are really interesting to look at."
Then we talked about color. I reminded them that painters don't use color straight from the tube.
Using acrylics, I pre-mixed a palette of bright, complex colors to share so the artists could focus on design and painting technique. I explained how more interesting hues are created by combining a color with a bit of its complement—green has a dash of the red, blue has a dash of orange, yellow has a dash of blue, and so on.
My students then helped me drape the table with a plastic drop cloth, I set out jars of water, and set paper towels at each place for blotting and drying brushes. Then the painting began!
This was a two session lesson, each session taking a little over an hour with a snack and stretch break in between. During the first session the artists drew their composition and blocked in their design, covering all the white canvas with paint.
During the second session the students built up their paint layers. In some of the negative spaces they experimented using dry brush techniques so that the under layers peeked through. And and in the positive spaces (the numbers), the artists experimented laying down wet thick paint onto the design.
The results were fantastic, gestural and bold—a friutful exercise in Abstract Expressionism! Mr. Johns would be proud!
Fall is cozy….and has to be the best season for making! We had so much fun this year getting creative ideas from many of you around the wonderful-wide-web! It's a blessing to be able to find inspiration at your fingertips and we're really grateful for the sharing that happens from blog to blog. Here are some of the projects we made…enjoy, and Thanksgiving blessings to you!
Fall Leaf Cutting Practice inspired by mmmCrafts
Leaf Lanterns inspired by …imagine childhood
Handprint Mayflower inspired by Fryman Four
Thanksgiving Story Bracelets inspired by My Montessori Journey
Paper Leaf/Feather Garland inspired by Chasing Fireflies
"Coneucopias" filled with gummy fish, caramel corn, candy-coated sunflower seeds, berry chews and Reeses Pieces inspired by Busy Bee
Turkey Handprint Cards (in process)
Our "First Thanksgiving" Feast shared and ejoyed by our little ones. We served beef jerkey, baby carrots, fishie crackers, nuts, dried green beans, dried blueberries, grapes, apples and cranberry juice.
This past week Søren added JFK to his Book of 100 Heads. This time I noticed that he drew in two sessions instead of one. He told me that after he set it aside the first time and looked back at the drawing, he noticed that he needed to add more range of value. As luck would have it, I had photographed the drawing after the first session of drawing.
At the end, Søren was inspired to read a book about the man he had spent a couple hours drawing. He may even write a little report.
Creativity inspires the mind.