Art Together Giveaway

At our house art takes many forms: a color pencil drawing, a paper mache mountain, an abstract collage filled with ripped bits of cardboard, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps, or even rocks gathered and arranged in just the right way. There are few bounds to what we consider art. Even when mining books or websites for ideas, the things we run across are more like jumping off points, rather than the ultimate project to be followed step by step.

And, I learned early on that any attempt to get these kids of mine to conform to a cookie cutter project was going to quickly fail. That is, it would be considered a failure if I wanted the end result to look like the one in the book, on the website, or the cute little example on Pinterest.  The successful result would be that they would take all of the supplies I had gathered for this special project and make something completely original and unexpected. I just had come to see it as a success!

When we are between projects and the kids are in a bit of a lull, I like to introduce new techniques or skills to inspire, or add to their stockpile of internal resources.

And this leads me to Amy and how much I really appreciate her approach to art. Her focus on process and technique over result is just what I need in guiding these kiddos of mine to grow their skill set, and continue to create art uniquely their own.

I was excited when she asked me to take a peek at her new e-zine, Art Together - named after her wonderful series on art with children, because I am always game for new art inspiration in the form of technique, philosophy and skills!

This week we have spent time with some of the exercises and suggestions made by Amy in Art Together. It has been wonderful to see some of those lightbulb moments that come with not only learning something new, but applying it in new and creative aways.

A color mixing review, and talk about tone, brought on new inspiration to not only make a color, but play with the tone and the exact match to what was in the minds eye.

Which, in turn, resulted in just the right green for the top of the pond!

Continuing with the theme of color in this issue, we used the color wheels we created to paint with color schemes in mind, combining this with the suggested activity of using black outlines with color. For our black outlines we used india ink with a stick as our drawing utensil, filling in with watercolor.

The results were stunning. It was so neat to see how the colors complement each other and how the different schemes work together to make a visually pleasing piece. 

Along the way Amy shares links and visuals of famous artists, with a splash of history to add to the understanding of a philosophy or technique. She also shows examples of art from her own children, which my kids loved to see.

We still have more to do and lots of resource suggestions to check out. This issue will keep us busy for quite some time.

Amy has generously offered to give an issue of Art Together away to one lucky reader. 

To enter the giveaway please leave a comment on this post. If you would like to share something you love about art, making art with kids, or even what most intimidates you about it, we would love to hear your thoughts! Optional sharing, of course. 

Comments will close and I will announce a winner here on Friday, October 4th. 

In the meantime click on over to check out Art Together and all of the other wonderful posts and resources Amy has over on her blog!

And the winner is Kim! 

Backyard ART Camp: Andy Goldsworthy

I am very happy to be a part of this wonderful series filled with awesome contributors and inspired projects. It is always fun to have new art techniques in our back pocket for just the right expression of our project work. 

The idea behind the series is to create art inspired in some way by an established artist. We have been spending so much time outside this summer exploring our new environment and all it has to offer that I knew we would be inspired by nature. I talked with the kids about all of the habitats we have been learning about, the creatures we have been spying, and the new weather we have been experiencing. All of those things came together when I thought of Andy Goldsworthy's wonderful nature inspired creations.

We went to the library to check out books. We looked at photos of his works online and we watch parts of this documentary. The kids were very excited to see that he worked in Nova Scotia and New Mexico. What a fun connection! 

We decided on a rock inspired creation first, excited at the idea that there was now some redeeming value in our new rock yard. 

Up early before the rocks got too hot to handle we started collecting and separating the rocks into colors, with the help of our handy dandy muffin tin. 

We talked about the process of collecting and how what was found would inspire the finished piece. Once this wonderful round rock was found the idea for the shape of the piece was decided.

We looked at what we had collected and decided on the order of the colors, then started placing them around the center piece. 

In the weeks since we created this piece it has endured the blazing sun, the crashing rain of our afternoon thunderstorms and the occasional squirrel running past with one of our prized apricots to stash away for the winter. And it is standing the test of time very nicely. 

One of the things that is so inspiring about Andy Goldsworthy's art is the way he uses whatever is on hand at the location where he is creating his art work; whether it be rocks, leaves, sticks, grass, ice, snow, or mud he uses what he can find and he only uses natural materials, even using thorns to help hold things in place. In this way art inspired by his techniques can be made anywhere you and yours find yourselves out in the world.

On a hike we floated leaves attached by their stems down the creek. 

In the backyard we used twigs from a fallen branch to attempt a circular design.

And learned just how difficult it is to make a circular opening with straight sticks!

The other aspect of Andy Goldsworthy's art that is so appealing is the natural lifespan of the work; sometimes lasting months or even years, and other times being washed away by the rising tide or blowing wind, or even an excited sibling running through the yard! This provided us wonderful lessons in letting go and reining in perfectionism. Much needed lessons around these parts! 

There have been some wonderful post in the series already. 
If you missed them you can find them here:

Melissa posted about their found object art adventures in the style of Peter Blake.

Jane shared about how they were inspired by the many artist and techniques they saw at the art museum.

Danielle and Andrea went big with their kiddos with outdoor fabric art inspired by Christo & Jeanne-Calude.

Deborah and her kids had colorful fun with circles inspired by Kandinsky. 

Stephanie created a huge mixed media jungle art instillation with her kids inspired by Henri Rousseau.

Miranda and her kids were inspired by Jaime Zollars and Lisa Congdon to mix graphite and collage with super cool results. 

And we are looking forward to what these talented bloggers have to share in the second half of the series as well:

Stephinie from gypsy forest
Courtney from mon petit lyons
Carla from small + friendly
Sanae from sanae ishdia
Jennet from feathered nest studio
Tara from girl like the sea

Many thanks to Jane from buzzmills and Melissa from a happy stitch for putting this fun series together and gathering this group of inspiring folks to share amazing works of art with us!

Making & Decorating

Making here today. And decorating for Halloween. Finally.

Pausing to capture our project progress reminded me of how funny life can be sometimes. Chances of seeing decorating show up in the detritus of our work. One.

I am giving a presentation at the library this weekend about quick quality homemade gifts.

Extra making going on to share.

I will share here too. Next week.

Wishing you a great start to your week...

Make a Match

The idea sparked. Pencils came out. Reference book. Card grid.
Off he went.

Growls where heard. A pencil came skipping across the kitchen floor. Frustrated.
Calm reassurance. All artists have stuggles.
Let it set overnight.

Renewed passion. Non-stop drawing. Coloring. Push away the eraser crumbles. Keep going.
Ask mom to read. Label.

Set. Twelve tanks. Ready for cloning (making copies.)

The game complete.
Make a match?

Satisfied. Excited. Proud of himself.

Another hurdle jumped. Another idea realized.

Building skills.
Adding knowledge.
Boosting confidence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Artist wanted me to record the "how to" of making the game:

• Decide on the size of your cards. Measure and draw a grid on paper.
• Pick a topic. Choose a reference book or real life models for realistic drawings... or just make fun drawings of people, nature or what ever interests you.
• Once your drawings are complete clone them (make a copy) twice on cardstock (so you have two of each one... to make a match.)
• Cover the back with another piece of colored cardstock (so you can't see through the back of the card.) Be sure to spread the glue all around (we used a glue stick.)
• Once it is dry cut the cards and play.

P.S. Favorite tank book found here.