Learning as I Go!

I tried something completely different today and learned a lot of "don'ts"! Up to this point, I've only had them paint with watercolors on paper, while "copying"an image from a postcard. (Landscapes, still lives, trees) Today, I gave them each a 6 x 9 piece of white bristol board, various colored construction paper, and glue sticks. The idea was to have them the tear the paper into odd shapes, then glue them on the paper in a pattern or picture to express the idea of spring. It didn't turn out as planned.  

Without a reference to kick them off, they were stymied as to where to start. 

And, the concept of putting odd shapes together to "say" something 

is way too abstract for them 

There was a lot of:

"If my kids saw this, they'd think there was something wrong with me!"

"Why aren't we painting?"

"Now What Do I Do?" 

"Please put this in the trash"

This eager and happy patient, did this all by herself. 

This is what I had hoped would happen!  

I should have given them pictures of gardens! 

This woman hated the "tearing" so much she asked for scissors 

and then came up with this. 

Then she loved it.

Don, who is not a resident there, came in with his wife to sit with her. 

He held her hand and talked to her the whole time 

She was happy to just sit there and watch.  

He made this for her then wrote, 

 "For Ro" above his name. 

LESSONS LEARNED:

Stay with familiar materials.

Give them an idea or an image for direction. 

Stay with concrete identifiable subject matter. 

Don't give them too many options.

Glue sticks are not a good idea 

Also; I'm afraid some of them thought this was a project 

more suited for children and that may have offended them. 

I didn't think of that.  

Thank you to ALL the helpers and volunteers today! 

I needed you! 

Talking About Trees

Once I got everyone settled, we talked about trees. 

The different shapes, different "personalities" they have, 

and the fact that spring is coming and the trees will soon be covered with leaves. 

I passed around postcards with images of trees painted by various artists that they could copy 

or they could make up their own. 

Here is some of the work from yesterday's session:

This woman got right to work! 

For some reason this one couldn't leave the edge of the paper.
She had all those colors  in there, they were just on top of each other.

This is from Lorraine, the watercolorist from the Cape.
She is so happy when painting, it just makes my day! 

Marie told me those trees were boring so she decided to make them Christmas trees. 

This gal "made up" those trees on her first one.
Then asked if she could paint the daffodils on the window sill.
She was really into it! 

I love this.
She worked so hard and couldn't wait to sign it!

I bought those paint sets on line at Discount School Supply and they seem to work better than the individual colors I used before. 

They can manage the smaller brushes better too.

Next week, I am going to do a simple still life demo for them in oils.