Wood burning and acrylic, a beautiful combination

The studio has taken on the smell of an outdoor campfire this week as the students have all tried their hands at wood burning.

They have been fascinated by the technique and Tuesday night, the three girls enjoyed it so much I did not hear a peep out of any of them for almost the entire ninety minute class.

In fact with twenty minutes left to go, I had to entice them to put the wood burners down and pick up the paint brushes to put the final touches on their works!

I am so pleased and excited with the results the kids are getting with this art form. This is quickly becoming my all time favorite project.

I had picked out a variety of reference material of snowy landscape scenes and some Vancouver scenic pictures.

Two of the girls on Tuesday gravitated to the same reference picture and decided to sit next to each other to share, but look at how different their works came out!

11 year old

11 year old

It was also incredibly stormy during the Tuesday class.  We had wind warnings in effect and I had a burning candle plus a flash light in the studio..just in case. The morning after many people were without power and the sounds of chainsaws resonated outside as people were getting rid of fallen trees. So how appropriate is this stormy painting of Vancouver's famous Inukshuk?

11 year old

She definitely captured the weather we were experiencing during class.

Wednesday's class was not really all that sure about the wood burners and took a bit of convincing to give it a go, probably due to my stern warnings of being careful as to not to get burned, but I don't think walking out of art class with burn blisters is a good thing.

So once the nerves subsided, all five students were hard to convince to put the wood burners down.

7 year old

If you click on the above artwork, you will notice just how deep the burns go into the wood. He was the most vocal about not wanting to do the project at first and then had the most fun.  He even asked if he could do another one! 

8 year old

This little boy had a marvelous time creating snow flakes with the burner. He stuck with blue and grey because the ground is icy, not snowy.

8 year old

This artist was one of the other students who was not really sure about the wood burner.  She was extremely hesitant at first, so much so that I put my hand over hers for the first few times to make the burn marks until she gained her confidence.  By the end of class, she also was creating deep, dark burns into the wood so that the Inukshuk would look three dimensional.

10 year old

These two girls have become good friends over the past couple of months and love to work together on their pieces. I enjoy seeing how they each interpret the same subject matter and although similar always show the unique personalities of each child.

10 year old

All these artworks are so beautiful to me but the greatest testament to the success of this project was the pride I saw in each child's eye when they finished. They could not wait to show their parents at pick up.

Was there an upfront cost in adding the wood burners to the studio? absolutely.

Was it worth it?  A million times over.  I'm already mulling over new project ideas to use with them.

Horace Pippin inspired wood burning paintings

A year ago I was introduced to Horace Pippin through an online art course.

I fell in love with his story and knew it would resonate with children. His desire to create was deep and he spent his life overcoming obstacles in order to create his work, a story I knew my students would find fascinating and inspiring.

I particularly love his wood burning pieces.

He created his work with a hot poker iron, adding paint to some areas but also letting the burnt wood and wood grain have equally important roles in the work.  They are simple, graphic and stunning.

Last night in class, I shared these pieces with the students along with a brief history of Pippin's life and the storybook, "A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin", by Jennifer Fisher Bryant.

Then while the kids created sketches to flush out their ideas, I heated up the hand held wood burners. I gave each child a small wood plaque to use for creating their works. It was interesting to see how each child faced the challenge of working with the wood burner.

One was quite concerned it would be too hard.  He needed some coaxing to get started and we simplified his artwork quite a bit so that the project wouldn't be too overwhelming. This lovely Christmas stocking will be quite special hanging from the tree this year.

(After taking this picture, I added a ribbon to the top with a hot glue gun so he would be able to hang it.)

9 year old

This young boy wanted to make a flower to give to his grandmother for Christmas. He lightly sketched his drawing on the wood before starting to use the wood burner. I was amazed at how deep his burn marks were in the work. I would of never thought of that, but it looked so great in the piece.

He really went to town burning out the negative areas of his work and the final product?  Gorgeous! I love the deep grooves he created for the blacks, it almost looks like lace.

7 year old

Then over by herself (because I only had so many outlets in the room and had to move the tables around to utilize them), this artist was quietly inspired by the beautiful winter scenes Pippin had created in his works. She sketched this beautiful and quite simple scene of a winter tree by a park bench. The street light is the only splash of color in the work....very much inspired by the splashes of color in Pippin's pieces.

Her artwork is simple, serene and breathtakingly beautiful.

11 year old

Her father's reaction at pick up was priceless, he was so impressed with her work.

I am so happy that I have been slowly collecting wood burning sets with every 50% off coupon I get at our local craft store.  I still need a few more until I get a collection of eight, but am so happy I finally had enough for one of the smaller classes to use.  I have had this project tucked away for almost a year now and it was well worth the wait