Blog - The Art Pantry

July 2, 2011 by Megan Schiller

Watercolor & Oil Pastel Batik

For our watercolor week in the 1s/2s class I was planning for an ice painting and oil pastel resist project like we did in the mixed age class. Before class began I came across some extra fabric lying around and decided to experiment with an oil pastel and watercolor batik instead. I taped the fabric to a tray so that it wouldn’t move around when the kids tried to draw on it. I first offered them white oil pastels to use on white cotton fabric, which is not at all exciting to toddlers (even when I tried to explain that they would magically see their drawing appear when they painted it). Here, a big sister demonstrates the first step.

After a very brief drawing experience, I offered the kids liquid watercolor to paint onto their work.

Even with the light pressure of a toddler, the oil pastel still showed up and resisted the watercolor, creating a batik effect.

After trying out the batiks, I finally brought out the ice painting project- offering them colorful oil pastels, watercolor ice paints and paper.

Eventually the kids began to collect items from the shelf to use in their paintings.

A fun day of watercolor experiments!

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June 28, 2011 by Megan Schiller

Watercolor Ice Painting Resists

This week the mixed-age art class worked on oil pastel and watercolor resists. The children began by drawing pictures with oil pastels.

When they were ready to start painting, I brought out a special surprise… watercolor ice paints! Now that the weather is warm, it’s the perfect time to paint with ice. The night before, I froze liquid watercolor and craft sticks in an ice tray. By class time the next day, I had an exciting new medium to paint with.

Our outside activities included golf ball, car, dot, and roller painting- and of course lots of water play!

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June 23, 2011 by Megan Schiller

Summer Contact Paper Collage

This week the 1s/2s class celebrated summertime with a flower petal and shapes collage. I taped clear contact paper (sticky side up) down to the table and offered them petals, sequin shapes, and tissue shapes to stick to the paper. I was inspired by the Artful Parent who recently used this method to make fairy wings!

The kids glammed up their work by adding plenty of glitter.

After the collages, I brought out some golf ball painting materials. The children caught on quickly how to shake the trays to create interesting lines on their paper. They had fun exploring the studio and periodically returning to the golf ball painting to do some more shaking.

Hard at work!

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June 17, 2011 by Megan Schiller

Summer Inspired Upcycled Collage

It finally feels like summer around here! After weeks of cold and rain, the summer heat has come around. I decided to celebrate this feeling with a bright, nature shape collage project for the mixed age class. I offered the children a sturdy poster board in a bright, summery yellow as a base. The collage pieces were made with paper shape punchers using scrap paintings that I otherwise would have recycled. Each shape is a beautiful work of art in itself! The children first glued down some butterfly and leaf shapes and then added sequins and glitter for a little pizazz. Some kids were really interested in squeezing a ton of glue on top of the shapes. When the glue dried, we found that the paint from the shape had bled out into the glue, creating swirls of transparent color.

Outside, I had a similar set up as last week (floor mural, easels, mixing table, etc.) with a different kind of water spray project as well as a dot painting table.

The second half of class was an open studio with water play outside and free choice inside.

I love summertime!

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June 12, 2011 by Megan Schiller

Printmaking and Open Studio

For the first class of our summer session, we worked on mono-type printmaking and stamping. We started off rolling out paint onto acrylic boxes and then using a cotton swab to draw a design. The mixed-age open studio class used large acrylic boxes as a base, while the 1s/2s class used small boxes to print fathers day cards.

We continued the theme of printmaking by using a variety of stamps. Some children used cookie cutters to stamp out shapes, while others used the letters DAD to add to their fathers day cards.

We also experimented with bubble wrap printmaking. The children painted the bubble wrap (which was taped to the acrylic easel) then pressed paper against it to make a print.

The 1s/2s class moved on to painting with fun tools and gathering new supplies from the shelf.

For the mixed-age class we had a large group of 11 kids, so while some children worked on printmaking inside the studio, others were busy at the five outside stations. These stations included a floor mural with gross-motor tools for painting…