Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Farmer's Market Meets Monet

 

I wanted to share some of our "Farmer's Market Meets Monet" paintings from Art Club, grades 1-6.

We had lots of photos of fruits, vegetables, and flowers to inspire us...

We chose photos to work from, and then drew lightly with pencil on our 8x10 stretched canvas. 

We painted a flat underpainting first.

(Two sisters decided to paint a shared photo of tulips!)


We worked on these, and at the same time worked on our circle paintings with our leftover paint. (These were cut into the heart art I posted previously.) It was a bit crazy doing two paintings at once, but it allowed for paint to dry as needed and made use of paint that would normally go to waste.

 
When the underpainting was dry, we added layers of color with cotton swabs, our fingers, or small brushes. We talked about optical blending and the Impressionists. I had some examples of master works to help them get the idea. 

















Here's a comparison that shows a work-in-progress, with the underpainting still showing in the background...

...And here is the completed painting. I love all of the texture and movement with the added layering.








The last step was painting the sides of the canvas. I didn't display these- I just didn't have a good way to hang them. Small easels might have worked, but I don't have a place to put them. So the paintings went home with the artists as soon as the paint was dry.

The kids were pretty proud of these! I loved them too.


Make it a Wonderful Day!

4 comments:

  1. I love them too! I wish my 3 year old grandson could take a few classes from you. For my Christmas gift he painted me a wooden dachshund (I have 3 dogs all dachshunds). He has always loved the tie dye look! The dachshunds looks like it is tie dyed. My favorite gift this year! Keep up the great work with those youngsters! Karen

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  2. They are sooo good. Gorgeous colours and textures. Wow!! Thanks for making a comment on my blog, I am so far behind with everything I have only just now come to visit. So glad I did.

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  3. These are fantastic- great tip about doing an under-painting first. I've never done that and this would solve the problem of having too much white showing underneath!
    Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Miss May, Thank you! I think the under-painting made a huge difference-and the kids were happy with the results!

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