Feature on a Feature - House Themed Art

While living in Turkey, one of the most wonderful things Yashar and I did together was go to the art workshops at LOLA (lots of lovely art) with Alara.  You might remember that I wrote about LOLA here. Remember her amazing Children's Art Studio?  I don't know who misses it most - Yashar or me!

Recently The Crafty Crow (which is a wonderful resource for art and craft activities to do with kids) featured one of Alara's art activities - a fantastic post on house themed art.  For some reason I have a special place in my heart for creating artworks of architecture and homes -so this one got me inspired for lots of activities to do with Yashar.  Check out the LOLA blog for ridiculous amounts of inspiration.

The Art and Design Projects: Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock was an American painter, mainly known for his work at the forefront of the abstract expressionist movement.  The technique that he is so well known for, involved fixing a canvas to the floor and then dripping, pouring and spattering paint on to the canvas.    By having the canvas on the floor he was able to move around it and 'paint' on it from all directions.

The painting that I know best is Pollock's Blue Poles - probably because the National Gallery of Australia bought it (amid much scandal as it was the highest price ever paid for a modern painting at the time).

This technique is just perfect for kids to have a lot of fun!  This is how we did it:

1. While Yashar was busy playing, my neice and I picked out the colours and mixed the paints.  It was great to have an older child (my neice is 12) for this part - we chose colours to reflect our mood on a cool and rainy Summer day.  We put the paints in small containers and bottles - so that it wouldn't be a huge mess if Yashar got carried away!  We added a little water to ours to make them more 'drippable' (although we probably added a little too much - you want it drippable without then running all over the place)

2. We also cut some thick paper (canvas would also be great) and put them on the floor on plenty of newspaper.

3.  Then the fun part!  We dropped and flicked and poured the paint on!  Yashar loved it!  And my neice took a more thoughtful approach - which I think Pollock would have approved of - he denied that his paintings were 'accidents' and said he usually had an idea of how he wanted his paintings to look.

4.  We left the paintings to dry overnight.   Yashar and I were so excited about how they turned out!

Resources:
Pollock Krasner House and Study Centre
http://www.jacksonpollock.com/ -
The National Gallery of Australia

Books
Jackson Pollock (MoMA Artist Series)

The movie Pollock (with Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock).  I found this movie so interesting - definitely not one for watching with young kids though!

Making Mondays: The Art and Design Projects - Charles Harper

Ok, finally the project that I keep mentioning and that has been running around in my head for a while now!

There are so many amazing artists and designers out there, many of whom I actually hadn't heard of until after high school!  (and, I sheepishly say, probably many that I don't know about...yet).   I thought it would be fun to base the Making Mondays projects with Yashar around different artists and designers.  An early introduction to a world of possibilities out there - to the many different ways these talented people worked and created.


The plan it for these to be every fortnight...and if you have a suggestion for an artist or designer you would like to see featured, let me know in the comments - I'm sure we will be able to come up with a project about them!


These are not meant to be reproductions of their works - the projects are all about inspiration and fun for kids! - ok...and for me.

The first project is based around the work of the talented and inspiring illustrator and artist Charles Harper.

Charles Harper worked in a modernist style that was bold and colourful, using simplified shapes to capture the essence of animals and nature.  He said:

When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures.

So this week, we created little artworks using cut paper.  Charles Harper mostly painted, but I thought cut paper would be a great way to focus on the flat colour and simplified shapes that are so integral to his work. 

For inspiration I recommend looking at charleyharperprints.com and especially through this slide show of recently discovered originals done for the Ford Times. 

This project can be as simple or complicated as you like.  Yashar is only 2 and a half so I kept things simple - I cut the paper pieces out while he was sleeping.  These are trees for an autumn forest.

This artwork above was inspired by the amazing work 'Autumn Train' found here.  And then we also did a nice green forest one to show Spring/Summer.

This bird below was inspired by the work 'Whiskey Jack' which can be found here.

We stuck the pieces on some spare watercolour paper we had using glue sticks.

We made the bird (above) one with lots of guidance together and then he had free range on the little forest!  As we stuck the pieces down we talked about what the pieces looked like - a tail, a beak, a tree and about the forest we were making.

Then later I drew in a few details with a grey stabilo pen and put it in the simple frame we had on hand.

For older children though, it would be fantastic to get them involved in the whole process - you could collect some items from nature or some nature photographs together - fish, trees, plants, birds and together pick out the essential shapes in them, then cut them out of paper and stick them on a nice thick piece of paper.  They could then add the little extra details using pen themselves.  I bet we would all be amazed by the creative artworks they come up with!

For more:

The Charley Harper Art Studio

Charles Harper Fans Flickr Group

In my research I came across these gorgeous books:
Charley Harper ABCs

Charley Harper 123s

Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life