Flower Petal Pigments + Pine Needle Paintbrushes

Our third Caring Creatives class decided to visit the 'duck pond' at Mountain Lake park.  
Together we filled the wagon with art materials like a roll of drawing paper, charcoal, graphite, oil pastels, kneaded erasers, and empty bags for any treasures that found us along our way. 

Ducks!

We played with and explored the myriad of ways to create images with natural objects. 

Rubbing pinecones, stamping eucalyptus pods, printing with assorted leaves, the children actively engaged in curiosity-inspired play!

A most intriguing experiment  was painting with the pine needles + water + charcoal.  
A splattered periphery enclosed sharp straight lines when quickly touching the needles to paper.  

What about painting with other leaves?

We try this too, of course.  

Cedar greens work well when stamped with the water + charcoal solution.  

How about painting with flowers?  

Could we create pigment from rubbing vibrant petals against the paper?

 Answer:  YES!   

Adding a little water, the artists experienced happy satisfaction as the pigment spread easily along the paper's surface.  

"Its like watercolors!" the children exclaimed. 

After engaging in art activities the girls played on the nearby slide, visited with the ducks once more, then helped pack up the wagon, and we headed on home.

Duck!

Join us next Friday for another exciting Art + Nature adventure with sisters and Caring Creatives,  Katherine and Caroline Coleman.

Chalk + Water + Sunshine

In our second class we engage the relationships between chalk (+ charcoal), water, and sunshine. 

How do they get along?  

What happens when they mix and mingle?

Our canvas is the sidewalk in front of the art studio.

After engaging the familiars - dry chalk on dry pavement - we add a new element: water.

We soak the sidewalk then apply the chalk.

The children describe this interaction as 'melting,' as in the chalk begins to melt with the water.

Next, we consider spreading the 'chalk paint' with various brushes including a hand broom, paintbrushes, and sponge paint rollers.   

Chalk - a stick that turns to powder - reminds us of charcoal!

Thus, charcoal quickly enters into the play.

Ephemeral chalk and charcoal art before it washes away

Using our fingers lends the most control distributing the 'chalk paint' on the sidewalk 

while our feet and toes serve as splendid stamps!

Our foot stamping is a transition to large-scale mono-printing.

Placing paper over the wet pigment the children dance in circles to soak up and transfer the designs.

We even wonder about bubble wrap, to stomp or to stamp?

Answer: both!

The sunshine is bright and warm, quickly drying our wet works.

                                        Water-bearing is an essential role in the afternoon's artistic discovery.

We pour it, spray it, squeeze it, and clean with it while the sun disappears it altogether.

The children's interests inform their activities making the curriculum emergent.  

 Focusing on the all-encompassing process of engaging everyday media in novel ways allows us to learn through doing. 

 As the saying goes, "There's nothing to it but to do it!"

Remnants of our artistic afternoon :-)

The Wood Line

For our first class we visited the newest Andy Goldsworthy earthwork installation titled Wood Line located within the eucalyptus grove along Lover's Lane.  

It is a very interactive piece that calls most who visit it to walk atop it.  

This work also inspires others to create their own ephemeral sculptures nearby in the grove. 

We were very interested in a pile of logs with spray painted numbers (the final components waiting to be installed) located at the end of the Line where the children spent time climbing, drawing, relaxing, enjoying homemade cookies, and more!  

It took little time to begin constructing their own structure.  

The children carried large sticks twice their size to lean against two nearby trees forming an enclosure.  

      

They positioned stumps inside the structure creating a seating area where they took turns basking in their creative invention.

Although there was some accidental poking and scraping whilst transporting the branches, the overall theme of our time together was cooperation, discovery, and teamwork!

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and our time creating together.  

We are looking forward to next week's exciting adventure!!! Stay tuned.