Hard at work in the studio

While Talullah supervises from her basket, I've been working on a new series of paintings that I'm really excited about. I had started painting small 12"x12" paintings this fall. I didn't really have a focus as far as subject matter, which started to bother me. I've found that I need to have a theme. I can't jump around from subject to subject. So, I've started painting closeup images of plants and gardens that I photographed around our neighborhood. I'm lucky enough to live in close proximity to a lot of skilled gardeners who don't cut all their plants down in the fall. On my walks through the neighborhood it finally struck me how beautiful some of these plants are especially as they turn color and decay as the weather gets colder. I became even more inspired after it snowed which added a whole new element. So here is what I've come up with so far. I'm also going to start some large scale paintings in this same vein. I love painting small paintings, because I can finish them in under an hour if I put my mind to it--or take my mind away from it in some cases. But I need to have big paintings going too. More to come as those get underway.

Happy New Year!

My blog posting diligence kind of fell off after November, but here are some new photos of the projects my students are currently working on. Right now, they are thinking about and practicing methods of effective collaboration. I gave some direction when needed, but they were able to choose what form their projects take. They are required to work as a class or in small groups. The challenge is to first communicate with their teams about what direction they will go, the theme of the project, etc. Then they must delegate tasks so that the parts of the project are made and come together cohesively. For these particular students, practicing how to shift their thinking from "my work, my ideas" to "our work, our ideas" is really necessary. Hopefully this project will give them the opportunity to strengthen those skills. This lesson format has also allowed me to introduce new art techniques and processes as students need them. They are also seeing how they can really delve into a project when everyone comes together and shares the work. They are having fun watching it unfold.



So far, all three age groups are coming up with great ideas and are showing a lot of skill in working together. Each group is approaching the challenge of collaboration a little differently, and I addressed the issue a little differently in each class. In the photo above, this group is creating a group mural of a neighborhood. We started with a whole class period of learning about watercolor washes. Thinking about the sky in its various states, the students created beautiful washes on small pieces of paper. These separate pieces later came together to form the sky of their group mural. The next class I asked them to spend making buildings and houses. After we had these two basic parts of the mural completed, students naturally started making their own additions--people, trees, playgrounds, a ballerina, and even a few spaceships for good measure! After gluing all the pieces down, students ended their last work session with the idea to make the mural a progression from night time to day time. More photos to come as this progresses!

Below is a project being built by two students in the oldest group of students. At left, another group from this class works on watercolor paintings as part of their project.