Surrealist Collage

Surrealists liked to paint as if in a dream world. This is why Surrealism doesn't always make sense. Surrealist paintings even create an unsettling feeling with the viewer, much like dreams do. I've always been haunted by such paintings by the artist Giorgio de Chirico, such as The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street.

The thing just gives me the heebie jeebies. Heh.

I wanted to give my students the opportunity to create wacky, Surrealist-inspired collages, minus the haunting, melancholy feeling. These are elementary students, you know. A good way to find images that can be juxtaposed in an interesting way is to use magazine cut-outs. Finally, all the magazines I have laying around my home that I never want to throw out because you just never know when you're gonna need them have been put to good use.

The cut-outs, along with regular pieces of scrapbooking paper gave this project that authentic randomness that is Surrealism. The collages turned out really cool. The students had a blast going through all of the magazine scraps and reinterpreting them in their collage. Oh, one handy tip is to be mindful of the magazine cut-outs that you allow your students to look through. I didn't just toss stacks of magazines in front of them. I went through each mag, tore out what I thought would be great to use and collected a pile that way. InStyle ads are very suggestive, and you don't want to pollute the minds of the very young, now do we?

• Since you'll be somewhat censoring the ads you are presenting to your class, it'll take you a few days to prepare for this lesson to collect everything you need.
• Some things I collected were giant pics of food, skateboards, animals, interesting backgrounds, make-up ads, random body parts, etc.
• Though the students could create a perfectly good collage comprised of all mag cut-outs, offer pieces of multi-colored collage paper as well.
• I prefer to use good quality glue-sticks when creating a collage. It is just tacky enough to put your images down, but it doesn't make the whole process overly sloppy. I don't recommend Elmer's Glue because the students get carried away with it. Rubber cement is great, as long as the container has a brush inside. It's actually much more archival than a glue stick.
• The collages can be created on poster board, Bristol board, construction paper, whatever paper you have on hand that is sturdy enough to take the weight of the cut-outs and glue. Also, the size is completely up to you and the time frame you have available. In my 45-50 minute-long class, a 9 X 12 is large enough.
• Encourage students to be neat with their cutting skills, taking their cuts all the way down to the edge of their images. It just makes the overall appearance that much nicer.
• The finished collages were so amazing and very humorous! We had a good laugh at some of the random ideas that were generated from this project.

The collage above was created by a 5th grader.

Henri Matisse: Collage

Henri Matisse was a printmaker, a sculptor and most notably a painter from France. Matisse created paintings that were bursting with expression and discordant colors. After an art show in 1905, critics started calling him a "Fauve", which means wild beast in French.

Later in life when his health began to fail, Matisse took to his bed and began to create large-scale collages, which is cut paper on canvas. See the post about Henri Matisse, Painting with Scissors.

I decided to create a project plan inspired by Matisse's Beasts of the Sea. This is a great lesson for the small classroom and the larger classroom alike. It's also a wonderful homeschool activity for the kinesthetic learner. Students really enjoy this hands-on activity!

I can email a printable pdf file with instructions for Matisse's Beasts of the Sea lesson for just $5. Click the “Buy Now” button below to access PayPal for same day delivery.

The artwork above was created by a 7th grader.

Carmen Lomas Garza: Watercolor cactus

Carmen Lomas Garza is a Latina narrative artist who created images about the everyday events in the lives of Mexican Americans based on her memories and experiences in South Texas. Although she wouldn't be considered a "modern artist" because of the time period in which she was working, I thought it was important to share with the students that Garza validated styles classified as "folk art", and that her imagery was powerful, even in it's simplicity.

I was inspired by one of her pieces, Prickly Pear/ A little piece of my heart because of it's illustrative quality. For this project, I kept the materials to a minimum, so that the students could really explore the creative and technical skills they've acquired while working with paint and color pencils.

• Hand out 9 X 12 sheets of Bristol board or Canson watercolor paper. When you are using a wet medium and applying a dry one, you need a paper that can hold up. A floppy piece of construction paper/poster board/drawing paper will simply not do.
• I had several pictures of different varieties of cactus and I showed them to the students, so they would be inspired by all the shapes and colors. They picked their favorite and completed a light sketch.
• Remind students that whenever they are going to use watercolor, any/all of their pencil lines will show through. So they should practice with a light hand.
• After students completed their sketch, they painted their cacti using watercolor paint.
• Once that was dry, they painted a watercolor wash over the background, using several different colors, to give it a rich look.
  
• I handed out prismacolor pencils to the students so that they could enhance the shape of their cactus. Forget using cheap student grade color pencils. All they will do is break down your paper and possible create holes. You will never get any sort of vibrant color from them so toss them out and invest in a good quality student grade and/or artist grade set from Dick Blick. Personally, I am a loyal fan of Prismacolor pencils, but I understand that they are a little too pricey for the classroom. I've had a set for the past fifteen years that are still in great condition.
• Last step is to give the watercolor a tactile edge by cutting out pieces of scrapbooking paper to create the spines/thorns of the cactus. Encourage students to be very sparing of the glue, or else they will make a mess! I prefer stick glue to liquid.

The artwork above was created by a fifth grader.

Henri Matisse: "Painting with Scissors"

Over here at Modern Art 4 Kids, we are no strangers to Henri Matisse, the most beloved Fauve of all! When Matisse was nearly 72 years old, he became ill and it was difficult for him to stand and paint. However, this did not damper his creativity. He began a new technique, which he called, "painting with scissors", which was painting large sheets of paper with different colors using gouache, an opaque watercolor. He would then cut beautiful, organic, free-flowing shapes with scissors. "Une seconde vie”, a second life, was what Matisse called the last fourteen years of his life, working on his collages, or cut outs.

Here is where it gets good.

He used several assistants to be his "arms and legs", moving and arranging his cut outs along the walls of his studio. I decided to try our own painting with scissors workshop, with each student taking a turn being the artist, while the rest of the students became the assistants.

"Move it a little to the right."
"To the left!"
"Ok, a little more...a little more. No! Go back. Tilt it. Ok, that looks good."

Needless to say, it was harder than it seemed! Trying to convey your vision as an artist is quite challenging when you have to rely on someone else to help you bring it to life. But it was alot of fun. We all shared a good laugh that day. We also learned just how tenacious and dedicated Henri Matisse was, to continue his creative work well into his 80’s. Matisse’s cut-outs are among the most admired and influential works of his entire career.

• I used an inexpensive poster board and painted each sheet in a different color using tempera paint. Tempera paint is very similar in texture and consistency to gouache paint.
• I tried to use a wide variety of colors.
  
• After each sheet dried, I cut shapes out myself. You don't have to be precise or crazy analytical, just think organic and free-flowing, just like Matisse.
• If you have the time in class, you can have your students take care of this step. Cutting out shapes is fun. Since I wouldn't have the time in class, I did this step at home.
  

• After all the paint was dry and I cut various shapes into the poster board, I arranged the shapes into piles, according to color and laid them out on the table.
  
• This made it easy for each appointed artist to find what they were looking for.
• The colors were vibrant and the shapes themselves took their cue from Matisse's work.
• I made sure to show the students several examples of Matisse's cut out art.
  

• Each student took turns being "artist".
• Since we have several students in class and not enough cut out shapes to go around, I had the students mount their shapes up on the wall using small strips of masking tape.
• This made it easy to move around and to remove at the end of each student's design.
• I contemplated using push pins, but I didn't want to make a bunch of holes in the cut out shapes--I also didn't want to poke holes in the wall (since we rent the building!).
• The tape ended up working just fine.
• Each artist had to speak clearly and had to know exactly what their vision was. The assistants just had to have patience. :)
  

The finished projects came out beautifully. They were simple yet had the same visual punch that Matisse had. This is definitely a project that I would consider doing again. It was fun to use such large shapes against the wall. Its so boring to use the same, small pieces of scrapbooking paper in our collages. This time we got to use bold and graphic shapes. I also recycled all the shapes for the next week when I let each student create their own smaller-scale collage. No assistants this time, just their own hands and artistic abilities.

Henri Matisse in his studio, working on his famous cut outs.

Marc Chagall: stained glass windows

I promise that I'll update this blog more often. Its Spring here in So Cal, and it feels good to be out in the sunshine instead of sitting in front of a computer screen!

As I've said before, this blog might venture a little off track in terms of modern art. This year, we've focused on lots of fundamentals, so what we've been creating in the classroom is a little different from what we've done in the past.

But back to some fabulous modern art in the form of stained glass windows by Marc Chagall. Chagall was a wonderfully whimsical artist who was a born in Russia. Being Jewish, many of his paintings reflect a religious overtone. Chagall is most known for his vibrant use of color, as well as the stained glass windows at the Metz Cathedral in France. He was entranced by the way the light reflected through the stained glass, and how it was constantly changing. This was a project he took on while he was in his 70's!

I wanted to create a paper project that had the similar effect of stained glass. Taking cues from that old elementary school project of melting crayons between wax paper, this project involves torn colored tissue paper and matte medium.

• Consider setting up three work stations: one to sort through the tissue paper and lay out design, another to glue down design with matte medium and a third to iron the designs.
• Before class, I went ahead and cut the wax paper to mimic the shape of a rounded window. Each student
  
• Instruct your students to create a design using torn pieces of colored tissue paper. I bought the big pack of tissue paper that contained a huge variety of colors. Also a wide, shallow rubbermaid bin to contain all of the torn pieces of tissue paper you are bound collect. Discourage the use of scissors because you want the overall feel to be a whimsical, organic one. Some children will freak out by this, enjoying the control scissors can bring. They need to loosen up! Also, inject some thin pieces of black construction paper because they will mimic the look of the lead in a authentic stained glass.
  
• I experimented with what I would use to adhere the tissue paper to the wax paper, since we aren't working with sticky wax. Glue would be a little too sticky and goopy, so I decided to use some watered down Matte Medium. You know me and my Matte Medium! I think decoupage glue would work just fine.
  
• After the students have laid out their tissue paper in a satisfactory design, allow them to lightly coat it with the Matte Medium. Yes, the tissue paper will move around some, it might rip too, just remind the students of the potential for creative greatness in moments like these!
• Once they've finished coating their design with Matte Medium, it's time to sandwich it with another piece of wax paper. Then its off to the ironing station.
• Please have one of the classroom helpers help your students with the ironing of their stained glass window pane. We used it on the lowest setting.
• Before your eyes, the heat will melt the Matte Medium and it will dry your tissue paper design.
• While I was preparing for this project, I cut several "frames" out of black construction paper. The students can then sandwich their project in between two of the frames, glue it together with stick glue and then use scissors to cut any excess wax paper. This way they will get a nice, neat and round stained glass window.

Enjoy!

The artwork above was created by a fourth grader.

Jim Dine: Watercolor Resist Hearts

Hello, fellow art lovers! A few months have passed. I had a great summer doing absolutely nothing! And now, in the thick of the Fall semester, I've been slammed with schoolwork and projects to keep up with. My art classes have changed somewhat, although I still have quite a few projects I'd like to share. I'm now teaching about the Renaissance era, specifically the great masters.

Can I get a snooze button?

No seriously, after you've studied the Modern Art masters and all the fabulous, visionary, amazing art these artists created, the "Mona Lisa" seems a little plain. However, I understand the importance of learning foundational subjects. And without Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", we might not have gotten a Picasso "Weeping Woman". So there you have it, this is where I am right now.

I was inspired by this project over at Art Projects for Kids a few months ago. So the students and I delved into studying the artist Jim Dine. He was an artist that found a icon--the heart-- and then explored it for many years, in several different incarnations and mediums. We artists are funny like that. This project requires watercolors, oil pastels and rubber cement.

• Hand out a 9 X 12 sheet of watercolor paper. You are going to need something sturdier than drawing paper as you will be creating a watercolor resist painting and it needs to hold up.
  
• Encourage students to draw a pattern using hearts. They can be repetitive shapes, overlapping, formed in a grid pattern. You may even want to create several heart templates, for those students who need some help with their drawing skills. The templates will provide them with the confidence to lay their design down.
• As usual, encourage students to be neat about their sketches, making sure not to shade with the graphite.
• They should then color with their oil pastels. There is a rule in Mrs. Pearmama's art class: thou shall press down hard when using oil pastels. None of this feather light coloring in my classroom! These are oil pastels, not cheap crayons! Encourage your students to blend their oil pastels and create interesting patterns with their colors.
  
• The students then painted a light watercolor wash over their drawing. At first, they are very reluctant to paint directly over their freshly created oil pastel drawing. But then they discover that the oil pastels resist the watercolor.
• Have all students take a turn by the hair dryer to dry their watercolor washes.
  
• Once they're dry, hand out small bowls of rubber cement. I have a favorite brand, but imagine my surprise when I opened up the 16 oz. can to find that they don't provide a brush attached to the lid like the smaller cans do. That said, you will need to designate a few cheaps brushes that you don't mind throwing away after this project.
• Have your students brush on the clear rubber cement over their drawing, making sure not to leave behind any clumps. Teach them to use flowing strokes.
  
• The rubber cement dries fairly quickly and is slightly stinky. Make sure you have fans blowing and/or windows and doors to your classroom open.
• Lastly, students are to paint another watercolor wash in a contrasting color over the entire paper once again.
• There you have it, a watercolor resist painting a'la Pop artist Jim Dine.

The artwork above was created by a third grader.

Louise Nevelson: Found Object Sculpture

I am a big fan of American sculptor Louise Nevelson. She appeals to my love of symmetry and found object sculpture. She is well known for assembling "crates" grouped together to form a new creation, then painted in a uniform color to unite the objects.

"When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."--Nevelson

As is my custom, I've been mulling over a Nevelson project for quite sometime now. I found an interesting take on the project here, but I had my own ideas to take the project to another level, to appeal to my older students.

I have six children, so broken toys, mismatched legos, naked dolls and bits of junk abound. So what I did was, with my kids, go through all of their toy bins. We pulled out stuff they no longer played with, multiples, etc. etc. This was a good way to clean up their stuff, so I totally killed two birds with one stone.

And now I had a collection of things for our sculpture. I wish I had a pic of the sculpture that was created with a doll head that I sawed in two, but it came out completely blurry and the student took it home. Boo hoo. It turned out fab, though. And the doll heads cut in half were big ticket items the day we spent assembling sculptures, to be sure.

Heads up: This was a project that I had to extend into two class sessions. There is too much to do in one class period, even with classroom helpers.

• Acquire some sturdy cardboard as the base for your sculpture. I used the backing from all of my Canson Value Artist pads because I had so many laying around. They worked out perfectly. Of course you can used regular old cardboard and cut it down to the size you wanted to work with. We worked with a 9 X 12 piece.
• Arrange your classroom so you have three working stations: one to assemble, one to glue with hot glue gun and the third for painting. This will make life easier for you because there are always students who rush through their work, and others who are very meticulous.
  
• The fun part: after showing students examples of Nevelson's work, they got to dig into my found object/toy graveyard piles and pick out objects they wanted to work with. Break up the squabbles over the coveted doll heads and airplane parts.
• Encourage students to explore different arrangements just as Nevelson did.
• Then its off to the hot glue gun table. Yes, it might be a little time consuming and I usually melt off half of my fingertips, the end result is much neater and more sturdy compared to basic white glue.
• This is the point where I end the first part of the project. Now I get to lug home all of these sculptures. Yay!
• To prepare for day #2, you will need some white primer. Any primer will do. Students will need to paint a coat of primer over their sculptures so that the paint will adhere to the toys/buttons/dominos/matchbox cars, etc. I also mixed up my own shade of charcoal gray. I believe matte looks best.
  
• On day #2, let students go to town priming their sculptures. The challenge is to get into all the little nooks and crannies of the toys. Primer dries fairly quickly, but if you want to speed along the process, break out with the hair dryer.
• After the primer coat is dry, they need to paint using the charcoal grey color. I choose this color so it would look similar to Nevelson's pieces. Several of the students asked why they couldn't use blue or red...so feel free to use whatever color you want. Use the hair dryer again.
  
• IMHO, the charcoal grey made the sculptures look very dynamic.
  
• At our open house at the end of the semester, these sculptures were one of the most eye-catching displays.
  

The sculpture above was created by a third grader. As you can see, he couldn't quite get the paint into the thread spools and lego nooks. Still looks cool, though!