Mini Masterpieces

When I am not with my kids or creating my own artwork I teach some art classes at my local community center.  I started a preschool class when my son was a year old and now he is 9!!  I can’t believe I have been at it that long!  But I love it.  Preschoolers are so much , usually very enthusiastic but can loose attention very quickly!  My kids always came to the class with me and I remember times when my son would smear some paint for 5 min. and then jump up to run circles around the room!  But he always loved helping me wash up the brushes at the end:)  

This is an old photo of my son, but this is the project we did this week. Van Gogh Sunflowers.  I give the kids blue and green paint and mix it with some sand and the kids smear it all over their paper with a fork and spoon-or some jump right in with their fingers!!  I love to include lots of sensory experiences, especially for the young kids.  Sometimes I even mix spices or peperment extract etc. to the paint.

Last January I started an after school painting class for about 6-10 year olds. I let them paint on real canvas which for some reason is always a big deal for kids! We do a different project each week and I show them different acrylic painting techniques and usually bring in an artist for inspiration.  

This is the project from this week!  Some Kandinsky inspired circles.  And we talked about color mixing.  I gave them each blue, yellow, red, black and white and they got to mix up their own colors and paint in the circles.  Our 45 min. went by super fast! And the kids were so quiet and focused but we were still not able to finish! So I’ll update with pictures of the finished products next week!