Painted Light

In a dimly lit classroom, year 5 created these light paintings in small groups while I took long exposure photographs. The brightly coloured lights are a combination of small torches and mobile phones with coloured cellophane attached. I've tried this lesson once previously, you can read a little more about the process and see the results here.

Since undertaking this lesson I've come across a 1949 collaboration between Gjon Mili and Pablo Picasso using this same technique. One of their resulting photographs is at the bottom of the post. This and some other photos from the same series ran in LIFE magazine in 1949 and then also featured in a show at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1950.

Designer Camouflage

This year 6 class was tasked with designing and painting their own camouflage print for a real or imagined environment — something to make them inconspicuous while traipsing through a Lego landscape, lolly shop or a far away planet etc.

The students dreamed up a location and suitable colourway, then quickly planned their shapes in pencil before setting about painting. Tints and shades were encouraged and I suggested a limit of 3 or 4 colours. Most students went for fairly typical interlocking organic shapes. Their environment/print titles were great, a few were: Pink Pop, Mercury Lake, City Summer Night, Swirly Sweets, Wacky Waves and even Sponge Bob!

Since this lesson occurred I've discovered Andy Warhol's camouflage prints from the 1980s. I wish I knew of them beforehand as they would have been great to show the class. You can see a collection of his prints and read some interesting commentary at this LA Times art review. It even includes a quote from Picasso, who on first seeing actual camouflage print during WWI reportedly declared "It is we who created that". I think this lesson has the potential to be even richer in the future.