watercolors inspired by "winter" animals

A lovely young girl had her eighth birthday party here at the studio a couple of weekends ago.

She loves watercolors and wanted to do something with animals that live in the snow. In past workshops and camps, she has gravitated towards penguins so I wasn't that surprised she chose to do an animal theme picture and winter animals to boot!

I pulled out reference for polar bears and penguins. I then had a couple of request for arctic foxes and snow bunnies. All easy request for me to fulfill.

I taped down large sheets of watercolor paper and gave the party guest time to work out their sketches on practice paper before transferring them onto the watercolor paper.

We discussed finding the shapes of the animals to begin a sketch and also how they could make artist choices to simplify their compositions from what they saw on the reference and even a bit about abstracting their animals and what that actually meant.

They then traced over their drawings with sharpie pen.

I gave a quick demonstration on some of the techniques they could utilize with the watercolors, wet on wet, scratching, salt, and blooming.

I then handed out a palette of primary colors and black.

Before they started I shared with them how they didn't have to paint their animals realistic colors, they could paint "crazy" colors that evoked feelings, temperature or was just their favorite color.

The birthday girl was using a diving polar bear for reference and she created an amazing sketch but was unhappy with her upside down polar bear, as she wasn't quite sure she wanted the bear diving underwater. Together we discussed and brainstormed all the different reasons her polar bear could be upside down.

birthday girl

And here is what she came up with, pretty fabulous.

grade 3

grade 3

These two friends used the same snow bunny for reference but I love the how interesting the compare/contrast is between the two artworks. Although the sketches are very similar the artist choices made afterwards are unique to each child. From choosing different directions for their paper, background and how they painted their rabbits.

grade 2

This arctic fox created by the youngest party goer was fun to watch. At the start, she used her watercolor paint as regular paint and had put it on thickly on one side and declared she needed more. I challenged her to see if by adding water she could get that blue paint to cover the entire paper and she was quite surprised to see that she actually could do it. She was then lost in adding more colors to the blue, trying her hand at using the water to bloom the color and of course, had a lot of fun adding salt. Her fox was a very solid blue at the end when she told me she was finished and so I handed her a bit of paper towel and asked her to find the highlights on the reference and blot them out with the papertowel. Love her use of brushstrokes around the fox to lead the viewer into her artwork.

grade 3

The simplicity of this diving penguin is in my opinion genius. I love that the young artist was brave enough to leave out the facial features even and look at the way she used her brushstrokes in the water to created a downward motion with the penguin!

grade 3

And this happy, leaping polar bear painted in pink! How sweet. Again we brainstormed a bit about what might be in the hand of that bear and she giggled at some of the ideas. No surprise this happy bear ended up holding a present while being created at a birthday party.

grade 3

grade3

And then there were these two penguins. I am so impressed at the restraint each used when using color and although these look simple, they took just as much time for the young artist to create.

At the end when it comes time to sign their names, I always give a little talk about making a mindful decision on how to add their names to the pictures. After spending an hour and half creating the pictures, we don't want the name that was written in less than thirty seconds to be the first thing the viewer notices in the artwork.  Children quickly catch onto this concept and I am always amazed at some of the creative ways they implement their names into the artwork afterwards.

Happy 8th Birthday Miss T!! Thank you for letting me share in your special day.

David Hockney inspired photo collage

This is probably my way of dealing with the disappointment of not being able to get to London to see Hockney's show last spring. This is also me remembering how much my own children enjoyed using a disposable camera to collect their own unique perspective on trips to keep for their memories.

Both of these things factored into my decision to create a photo collage project in the Contemporary Art camp inspired by David Hockney's artwork.

9 year old

Keeping my budget in mind two children shared each disposable camera.

I had not realized that this generation has not only never seen a disposable camera, they have no idea how to use a camera that is not digital! So after a lesson on the mechanics of how to use an "old fashion" camera, we took off for a walk in the studio neighborhood and woods.

When a child found something they wanted to shoot, we all stopped and let the child capture their image with a series of ten photographs.

Needless to say not being able to see what they had shot right away was a bit of shock for them.

What do you mean it has to go to the store and be developed?!

What do you mean it takes two days?!!!!!

I figured I wouldn't share with them how we also had to buy flashcubes when I was young and processing was over a week! That would be as mindboggling as when they learned I grew up with TV cartoons only on Saturday morning and no remote control.

I digress, back to David Hockney.

When the photos were developed they eagerly went through them. Some were disappointed with a few pictures that were out of focus and some were surprised that they didn't have the angles they had anticipated, but all but one child had useable photographs.

9 year old

For that one child however, all of her photographs were underexposed and did not develop. She had chosen to do facial close ups of one of the other campers and the camera just could not handle that kind of angle. We discussed that although disappointing what a great learning experience. We brainstormed what to do next and even though her project would be different, we agreed it would be equally as wonderful using my iPhone and black and white pictures off my computer printer.

10 year old

To be truthful, this was a great opportunity for everyone to learn some photography basics with their results as we discussed why some things had worked and others had not. I had not anticipated this project opportunity but it was a welcome bonus.

7 year old

I think when we first looked at Hockney's photo collages, the kids figured it was easy. They quickly learned putting together a photo collage artwork is difficult. It is a huge puzzle full of many choices.

6 year old

Two photos work together, but then how do you get the other to make sense?

How do you deal with creating a fluid image when you are missing a section of subject?

Or have too many of the same subject angle?

7 year old

In the end, they all figured it out.  They all got such great compositions. And like all children's photography, the works are a very interesting perspective for adult viewers who get a special look at the world through a child's eye.

gideon rubin inspired self portrait pillows

Have I mentioned what a huge fan I am of the work of Contemporary Artist Gideon Rubin?

This will be the second time I have introduced his work to children at the studio. The first time was with this printmaking project.

This time I had the young artist who were participating in the Contemporary Art themed camp focus on creating a self portrait inspired by Rubin. Also after hearing loud and clear from the campers in the Textile and Paint camp that they would love to do more work on pillows and such to put on their bed, I had the children create their inspired Rubin self portraits on canvas bags that I then turned into pillows.

I always find it interesting how children respond to his work. The idea that the facial features are left off the piece is difficult for some of them to accept, for others there is a great relief knowing they won't have to face the challenge of getting their eyes, nose and mouth correctly in the portrait.

Each child created a sketch on paper and once they were happy with their sketch, we transferred it onto the canvas bag using graphite paper. They then began adding acrylic paint that was watered down slightly, to help it move easier, onto the bag.

The results were lovely and caught the essence of each child perfectly.

9 year old

If you knew this young girl, you would be amazed at how accurately she captured the posture of how she holds her shoulders and the essence of her hair. There is no doubt who this portrait belongs to when you know the child.

7 year old

10 year old

The same can be said for these two young artist also.

7 year old

Of course some children needed to add their own twist to their portraits! Like these bunny ears added to this sweet portrait. And yes, her hair is that long and thick! 

9 year old

And then there were the two young artist who could not deal with not having facial features. I think he captured his feelings about my encouraging words to capture their portraits without facial features. 

He was not amused.

6 year old

The youngest artist did not want a pillow. She was quite excited to have a bag to carry to school. And no, I have not reversed the image. I am always impressed when children write their names so easily backwards! I don't know what possesses them to do it but she did that freehand and I think that is no easy task to do. She has this beautiful head of curly locks and I just smile at the way she decided to interpret this feature in paint.

I hope the kids enjoy these pillows for years to come. It was a lot of fun watching the kids create them.

conceptual art inspired by Matt Browning and Michael Drebert

During the Contemporary Art themed camp week, I decided to share a couple of artist I discovered while leading school group tours through the Vancouver Art Gallery's Vancouver Special:Ambivalent Pleasures exhibition.

Surprisingly I discovered that children really responded to conceptual art where the idea is more important than the result and were fascinated by the artwork of Matt Browning's collapsable wood sculptures carved from one piece of wood!

Matt Browning. untitled 2014

You read that right, one piece of wood! The time and labor that went into these works was mind boggling and kids were duly impressed. Browning's idea of creating sculptures that took time resonated with a generation of children where everything is available to them instantly, including the ones in my art camp.

The other artist in this room at the exhibition the children were excited about was Michael Drebert. Again working with the idea of labor and time, he refurbished a boat he called Poppy, built some oars, and then rowed out to Flower Island each day for the summer. At the end, he painted a very large but simple graphic poppy symbol on paper in india ink to represent the task and journey.

I liked the idea of presenting a project that took time, even if it was just a week of time during the camp. But I also worried that the children would not respond well to the project as there would be no instant gratification. 

I decided to have them spend the week building rubber band balls. I love my own. I have been adding to it for the past 7 years every time I get a rubber band from the weekly neighborhood newspaper delivered to my door or on the vegetables I purchase at the grocer. It is now the size of a softball and my family knows not to mess with one of my most coveted possessions.

I shared my rubber band ball with the kids, discussed the artwork of Browning and Drebert, and introduced creating a conceptual artwork based on labor and time.

Beyond my wildest imagination I could not of anticipated how much the kids would enjoy building a rubber band ball. Several of them asked to take the project home at night in order to continue adding rubber bands to the ball.  I was thrilled and where I thought four bags of rubber bands would be more than enough before the kids lost interest in the project, I ended up buying another five bags and would of needed more had the week not ended.

They were not easy to start. I did not give the kids a wadded up piece of paper to begin wrapping with, these are made strictly from rubber bands. Where I worried kids would want to give up or get frustrated at the beginning as starting the balls was challenging or get bored with the repetitive task of adding endless rubber bands to build the ball was all for nothing. Of all the projects the children created, I believe these balls were what they left the studio with most excited and proud of that week.

After building these rubber band ball "sculptures" inspired by Matt Brownings' wood carvings, it was time to create a symbolic artwork of the labor inspired by Michael Drebert.

I put out india ink, brushes and quill pens. We discussed symbolic drawings and then I sat back and watched these young artist figure out a way to symbolically represent their rubber band balls they had worked so hard on all week.

7 year old

9 year old

A couple of children created strong, simple black line images in keeping with Drebert's work but others began to add their own details and twist.

10 year old

9 year old

Adding shadow, color

6 year old

and even action to their artwork!

7 year old

Do I think these artworks will end up framed in their bedrooms? no

Do I think the balls are displayed and coveted at home? yes

And do I think these young artist walked away having had fun discovering conceptual contemporary artist and exploring creating work where the idea was more important than the results? absolutely

mixed media with rust dyed fabric inspired by artist Michelle Sirois-Silver

installation by Katherine Soucie

One of the projects I created for Seymour Art Gallery's Summer art camp was with rust dye. The assistant that worked with me is a beautiful textile artist in her own right and was kind enough to share this technique with me and the kids. She even gave me the bag of rusted objects we used at the end of camp so I could do rust dying in the studio during the school year with the kids!

You should of seen the look of puzzlement on my husband's face as I excitedly showed it to him when I got home. I believe he thought I was certifiable.

Creating hand dyed fabric to use in an art project was a perfect match to pair with the exhibition, as all the waste hosiery material was hand dyed that was used by both artists in their works of art. We even used discarded shirts picked up at the thrift store in both silk and cotton for the project!

Each child was given a piece of silk and cotton to work with for this project.

They each chose a couple of very rusted objects that were found on the beach shore near the gallery to wrap their fabric around and then tie up tightly with string. 

The gallery is situated near an old saw mill from days gone by and there are lots of rusted "treasures" you can find still marking it's existence.

Each child then placed both of their wrapped fabric pieces in a plastic zip-locked bag with their names on it and put it aside for two days.

Then came the fun part, opening up the bags

and unwrapping the fabrics

I was very glad we had used one piece of silk and one piece of cotton because the results were very different in how the rust reacted with the textile. Each child had a definite favorite and although my first thought was we would collage both pieces into their mixed media, they decided they wanted to keep their favorite one "as is" and use just the least favorite in their mixed media.

I can't say I blamed them as they looked stunning and were beautiful when hung as tapestries in the gallery show on the last day of camp. 

if only my one and only picture of them was equally as stunning....

artwork by Michelle Sirois-Silver

The least favorite piece of hand dyed rust fabric was then placed on canvas using a matte gel medium. While it dried, we went into the gallery exhibition and looked at the work of Michelle Sirois-Silver. The afternoon teen camp had been treated to a tour of the exhibition with the artist and during it she had told them how these artworks were about journeys. For the morning elementary camp, we focused on her use of shapes.

The morning camp then embarked on a mixed media project using paints, inks, and graphite to create a mark making abstract painting inspired by the shapes they found within their rust dyed fabric. 

They were quite arresting when finished and the campers were very excited to share the process with their parents during the art show on the last day.

The teen camp focused on a mixed media project inspired by journeys. The curator had collected some old photographs of Deep Cove and Vancouver that she then photocopied for me. I shared with the teens the process of image transfer that they tried on top of the rust dyed fabric they had already adhered to the canvas. Then using paint, inks, and graphite, they drew back into the picture to create their very own journey.

Some of the drawings stayed true to the photograph used while others, like the one above and below changed drastically from the original image transfer.

I thought they turned out beautiful and what a treat for the teens to share their artworks with artist Michelle Sirois-Silver at their art show on the last day! Things came full circle as they now toured and shared their process with the artist after she shared hers on the first day.

I enjoyed sharing with all the children an unusual way to inspire a creation using textile. It was fun to share with them a process that involved hand dying and then using the results in an interesting way on canvas and in my opinion the results were simply breathtaking.