Peek-a-boo dye painting

I had a make up class this Wednesday and the student had requested we work with the dyes she remembered trying with me a couple of years ago in a camp she attended.

She wanted to use the salt.

And so I had the dyes set up and waiting for her when she arrived, along with a file folder full of colorful fish for her to choose from for reference.

She decided on a couple of different references of a clown fish and sketched both out on working paper.

She looked at the composition combining both sketches and then each singularly.

Then decided to use her sketch with the fish peek-a-booing out from the anemones.

By the time she was finally on her watercolor paper, we were almost out of time in the class! Since this was the last class before summer, internally I began to panic that she would not have time to finish as I anticipated all the anemone work to take a long time.

I called her mother to see if it was possible to stay longer, but due to the running back and forth of children to a variety of activities, that we all experience, it was not possible.

What a great learning opportunity this became for the student.

As artist we all have to work within certain constraints.

Be it time, money, materials or a host of other unforeseen challenges.

For me, this is one of the best lessons learned in art classes. Using your imagination and creativity to resolve problems/challenges.

A skill that will serve children well throughout their lives in a variety of situations that have absolutely nothing to do with art.

Having the ability to think outside the box is in my opinion what separates the leaders in the world and I certainly do my part to help students attain this skill.

And this student rose to the challenge beautifully!

In just 20 minutes, this breathtaking artwork was created. The artist did not falter when faced with limited time and a complicated composition. Thinking outside the box and utilizing her imagination to come up with a solution that would interpret the anemones and the fish hiding within them, she resolved with brilliance.

11 year old, dye on paper

Don't you agree?