So Long

It's been so long since I've posted and I'm saying so long too! Does "so long" mean goodbye in other parts of the world? It does here! I really enjoyed blogging about the great art kids were doing here on the Central Coast, but I became a bit distracted with my own three bundles of joy and also I started painting regularly myself. This has become my main creative outlet and I'm really enjoying it. I've included some of my paintings below to give anyone interested an idea of what I'm chasing... If you like what you see and you don't mind Instagram, you can always see more @_joe.hall_ I will keep checking in here with the art teaching blogosphere to keep inspired for my days at school, I'm always so impressed with both the teaching and what kids are capable of. All the best - Joe : )

Australian Icons

When I ran this lesson with year 3 and 4 students, they were in the middle of an Australian theme —including a focus on Aboriginal Australia (I was lucky enough to be with the class on an excursion featuring a guided and very inspirational tour through the bush, where we were taught about the many types of bush tucker and medicine surrounding us). Another focus was Australia’s natural and man-made landmarks, so this art lesson was a way of bringing these two aspects together. 

First, we talked about things that were widely recognised as being Australian cultural icons. Together we made a list (some will be obvious to readers far from Australia, and others may not), which I trimmed down to those that could be easily drawn and identified in a simple silhouette. 

We also spent some time appreciating the work of Indigenous artist Bronwyn Bancroft. Looking at her children’s book Why I Love Australia, we especially noted the bright and often non-traditional colours she uses. 

Then, the children chose their icon and drew it with lead pencil. Next, they painted it and the background in a different single colour. The children then used cotton buds to finish their icons with repeated dot patterns as used by many Aboriginal artists, but also using bright colours inspired by Bronywn’s art. It was quite a process from start to finish, but the children did a great job and the results are stunning.

The most popular icon turned out to be Ned Kelly, as inspired by Sidney Nolan’s famous paintings of him. For those further afield, Ned is our most infamous bushranger. Probably his most lasting legacy is the home-made helmet and armour that he sported, although as it transpired, without much success. He’s a controversial figure in our history — loved and loathed in equal measure. He was convicted of three murders, and hung in 1880 at the ripe old age of 25. Our other, less controversial icons featured here include an emu, a kangaroo, the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Uluru and the Three Sisters. 

As well as enjoying the fine efforts of these students, I hope I may have captured the imagination of any of you viewing from abroad, and you're planning a trip here soon!

Serape Fiesta

Preparation for this lesson is nice and easy with the only requirements being coloured pencils and regular A4 paper. These colourful designs inspired by Mexican serapes were created by a composite year 2 and 3 class. Each pattern begins from a line of symmetry in the centre. To read more about serapes pop over to my previous year 5 and 6 post.

The Geometric Blues

Year 6 painted these "Geometric Blues" after watching a documentary with footage of scientists SCUBA diving underneath the ice in Antarctica. The colours were amazing. These were obviously inspired in more of an abstract than representational way.

Using lead pencils, the students began by dividing their paper into three equal segments. Next, they chose to fill each section with the same repeating shape (either squares, rectangles and most popularly, triangles). Finally, we used blue with black and white to mix and paint the various tints and shades within each shape.

They looked great together on the class wall and the blues were especially relevant with their Antarctic theme at the time, but I'm hoping to repeat the lesson some time soon and have each student choose their own colour to make tints and shades with — I'll keep you posted!

Kandinsky II

Some more pixel paintings inspired by Wassily Kandinsky's Farbstudie Quadrate from 1913. These are of course a collage of many students' work. The pieces immediately above and below are by year 5 and 6 students. Each student was responsible for six shapes. In the above collage, students made all their six shapes the same, whereas below each child used a selection of different shapes. Please click on the images to see the details more closely.

This second set was created by year one students. Each child was responsible for a single shape. The students featured above chose circular shapes like Kandinsky, while the children below used a variety of other shapes. For more information about the process and Mr Kandinsky, please see my previous post here.

Textured Landscapes

Year 6 sketched the bones of these stylised and vertically-orientated landscapes in pencil and then traced over these with black textas before adding different repeating patterns in each section. The students used a combination of coloured pens, textas and pencils to achieve the textured appearance. 

This is a lesson I copied verbatim from Miriam at artescuola.com - it's one of my favourite blogs! I showed the children the work of Miriam's students on the other side of the world, which really helped to capture their attention. Some students copied the scenes they saw there, others were inspired by examples I made on the board and some created their own altogether.

Choice Patterns

These patterns, made from complimentary colours plus black and white, were all made by Year 1 students.

Step one in the process: divide the paper in half with a single painted black line. Each child chose whether to halve their paper horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

Step two: paint intersecting straight lines on one half of the paper, and intersecting curved lines on the other side (as many lines as the students wanted, still in black).

Once these were dry...

Step three: choose a colourway from three given combinations (blue & orange, red & green, or purple & yellow). The combinations are all complimentary colours — those which are opposite each other on the colour wheel. Students then painted some (but not all) of the resulting shapes with these two colours.

As often as possible I try to plan for students to make some conscious decisions in their art making. Even though the time and resource constraints of the school setting mean that these options are not often left wide open, they still help to foster ownership and enthusiasm from the children and mean that there is more variety in the resulting art. Every child was asked to make two deliberate choices within this process (how to halve their paper, and which colour combination to use).

The first image above includes all of the students' work. Below are four that you can see a little closer (click on the image to see them bigger again). I know that simple graphic patterns won't be everyone's "cup of tea" — but I love them!

10 min Kandinsky

It's nice to have some meaningful but quick and easy art lessons up your sleeve. Here we imitated Kandinsky's famous "circle" art using a simple computer paint program. Small disclaimer: there's no guarantee it will take 10 minutes! It could take a little less or lots more depending on all the usual variables... But I can say that of the multiple students I tried this lesson with (ranging in age from 6 to 12 years old), they were all really engaged.

I briefly introduced the students to Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky and his Farbstudie Quadrate work from 1913. There's a small photo of Kandinsky and his original art at the bottom of this post. Using the computer paint program the students then made their own concentric shape patterns. The grid of circles above is the combined results of a year 2 class. Each child was responsible for one square in the matrix, pasted collectively here for your viewing pleasure! Immediately below is a collection of other shapes used by year 2.

The next collection (below) is by year 4 students. Click on the image to see all the nuances up close. I originally intended for all the year 4 students to make a grid of four concentric shapes, but had a bit of a brain freeze and asked some classes to make a grid of 4 and others a grid of 6... however with a bit of extra effort I still managed to stick them altogether in a rectangular shape : ) Down the track I'll post work from year 1, 3, 5 and 6 as well. 

Below is one student's example of what I'd intended for all of year 4 to create (all of year 3 and some of year 4 made these). Year 1 and 2 all created a single shape.

And below is a great example of a year 4 grid of six. All students in years 5 and 6 made grids of six.

And last (but not least), here's Wassily Kandinsky and the original work that inspired this lesson.

Footsteps

This colourful artwork was made collaboratively by students from kindergarten to year 6. The children's feet were traced repeatedly until they covered the surface with overlapping shapes. Students from year 5 and 6 then used watercolour paint to colour the various resulting shapes. How many feet can you see?

Footsteps was inspired by their library theme of Empathy. The students were encouraged to practise "walking in another person's shoes". Imagining and trying to understand the experiences and feelings of others is a great life skill for all of us.

Fibre pen and watercolour on six cardboard panels.

Rosalie Gascoigne Inspired Collage

A talented and patient year 3 class are responsible for these great collages. They are inspired by Rosalie Gascoigne's Tiger Tiger. I first tried this lesson with a combined year 5 and 6 class last year. Both times the students and myself have been really happy with the results. There's quite a bit of work involved and there are some very thoughtful responses from these young artists. You can read more about the process involved and see the work of the 5/6 class on this previous post.

I like the variety of themes the students have chosen, from single and varied colours, to typography, people, transport, hairstyles and more. I commented to one young student that I really liked his collection of colours to which he replied "it's not a colour collection, they're all different dress fabrics..." I was even more impressed! Some might find it a little creepy, but I was also really impressed with the student who amassed a collage of different skin tones. As I mentioned the students were very patient, mostly I think students of all ages like fairly fast paced art lessons but this process is fiddly and laborious. Year 3 is definitely the youngest I'll repeat this lesson with : )

Abstract Mosaic Collage II

These eye-catching collages were created by a recent year 5 class. I first trialled this lesson last year with year 2. I've been really pleased with the results both times. As a relief teacher it's great to have ready-to-go lessons that work well across multiple age groups (and are even more engaging than colouring-in stencils!). You can see the original year 2 results and read more about the lesson process here.

I was really impressed with some of these colour combinations and especially with the student on the very top left who opted to use only blue and black while most used their full "allowance" of four colours!

If you're too stretched for time to visit my previous post and instructions, here's a short overview : ) Students choose between 1 and 4 colours, then free-cut and paste pieces of these coloured papers down, covering the white paper without the pieces touching each other.

Paper Cutting + The Winner Is... + Your Opinion Please

This is a great lesson for those in-between times. Paper cutting is quick, easy and effective. Plus the students love it – one recent class literally broke into applause as I unfolded my example before their enraptured eyes! No kidding : ) Click here for some previous examples and the instructions on my first such post. These particular ones were created by an enthusiastic year 3 class.

I've found the children learn more and are frustrated less when they begin with some practice attempts on scrap paper before using this research and development to make their deliberate final cuts on their coloured square. 

I'd love your opinion on the display of this artwork. Please let me know which is your favourite method? The top grid of 4 is the way I most commonly display art here on the blog, but it's a looong scroll for some viewers to take them all in. I like to include every student's art as an indication of the success of the lesson across the varied levels of ability and enthusiasm within any given class. 

The second way is the patchwork you see above with every student's art pasted together in one image (including one artwork repeated twice to make a rectangular number). The individual artworks are seen on a smaller scale but look really neat altogether.

The third and newest way is the potentially seizure-inducing 'gif' below! It briefly flashes through every child's artwork and runs on a continual loop. The image quality and colour is not as high as the previous jpgs, but every student's art is potentially right there near the top of the post. Gifs are not widely loved, but I thought I'd at least give it a try... It's also possible to adjust the amount of time that each image is shown for.

Realistically I'll try and keep using a variety of ways to present the artwork. But I really would appreciate any comments, feedback, preferences etc. I've got big shoulders and thick skin : )

And finally, the Win a Joe Hall & The Treehouse Band CD competition has now closed. My wife Katherine was the band's drummer and I gave her the unenviable task of choosing a favourite as the winner. We were both really impressed with all the contributions and really enjoyed reading them. If you haven't read them, it's well worth clicking here! Those childhood experiences and the memories of them, really are so special.

Insert drumroll here... With all her wifely wisdom, Katherine has declared that everyone's a winner! From North America to New Zealand, congratulations Don, Phyl, Mrs Hahn, Mary, Jen and Gretchen. I'll catch up over email and get some postal addresses to send the cds to. Thanks a bunch for sharing : ) The competition's over but if you feel inspired to add your own childhood memory please do.

TTTPs (or Two Terrific TeePees)!

I'm always up for some alliterative fun : ) This year 2 class used textas to draw two tall (and terrific) teepees before adorning them with repeated patterns featuring triangles, lines, zig-zags, circles etc. To complete their teepee scenes they used watercolours to paint their background landscapes. Some teepees were set in front of sunburnt and dry desert-like landscapes while others featured lush green grass with far-off mountains.

I guess "Cowboy and Indian" movies, toys and the like aren't as prevalent these days—the children all being more familiar with subcontinental Indians than Native American Indians. Hopefully they'll now remember that the Native American Indian people are just like our Indigenous Australians, people who lived and thrived in these beautiful landscapes long before freeways, cities, factories and the rest.