Parrots and Choices

 I wanted to share some parrot inspirations with my after school art class and brought in a beautiful book, Glorious Inspiration by Kaffe Fassett.  It has several pages of paintings of colorful parrots.  I did a little demonstration of how to draw animals, by breaking the animal down into shapes.  Then I showed them how I made some templates of those shapes for the children to use in drawing a parrot, if they wanted.  What do you think about using templates?  I'm a little mixed about it but learned about it from some art teacher blogs.  I does unfreeze children who are worried about their drawing ability, and I offer it as an option.  I suggested that the children make five sheets of collage paper, and use them for the parrot.  They could create a jungle background by doing leaf rubbings.

 Look at these gorgeous collage papers.  Some of the children traded bits of collage papers.  I'm glad the children are making their own, but I really miss my big treasure box of the papers I made last year for my classes.  They were lost during a school move.  Below, some jungle backgrounds.

Two children just wanted to use nature materials they had gathered during recess to make a collage together.  I encouraged them to do it, and I loved the way Sophie showed me her treasures, and the way the children worked cooperatively in creating their picture.

 Look at these beautiful little nature collages and sculptures they made and gave me.

 This child spent a lot of time wrapping layers of leaves.  I think there was a baby person inside.

 In the meantime, some of the children had used the inspiration to do a collage parrot in the jungle, and the results were wonderful, (some not finished yet.)

 One boy preferred to do a spider instead of a parrot.

 And after doing a rubbing with leaves, one girl wanted to sketch a parrot.

In the meantime, my son, who isn't taking the class, started making an origami water bomb!

I like the way things are going in the class.  Last year, I urged all the children to follow my instructions and give the projects a try.  This year, I urge them to go off on their own tangents and explore their interests.  After all, this is an after school art program and I'm not trying to teach an art curriculum.  I'm inspired by reading Franciful Arts blog.  I think the experiment is going really well so far.  I hope the children are happy, too.

The Seashore of Endless Worlds

The Seashore of Endless Worlds

I've been missing Cape Cod so much and wanted to revisit this posting from a few years ago.  I got the idea of gathering these photographs together after seeing a beautiful poem by Rabindranath Tagore on Anna's blog.  I love the pictures of my son communing with the waves, standing on the rocks!  He was exuberant that day.


"On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.

The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous.

On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances.

They build their houses with sand,

                                              and they play with empty shells.

With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep

Children have their play on the seashore of worlds.

They know not how to swim, they know not how to cast nets. Pearl-fishers dive for pearls, merchants sail in their ships, while children gather pebbles and scatter them again. 

They seek not for hidden treasures, they know not how to cast nets.

The sea surges up with laughter, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach. Death-dealing waves sing meaningless ballads to the children, even like a mother while rocking her baby’s cradle.

The sea plays with children,

and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach.

On the seashore of the endless worlds children meet.

Tempest roams in the pathless sky, ships are wrecked in the trackless water, death is abroad and children play.
On the seashore of endless worlds is the great meeting of children."

—Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali)

I discovered this wonderful poem on Anna's blog, Our Homeschooling Journey, http://days-that-never-end.blogspot.com/ Thank you for sharing the work of one of your favorite poets with us, Anna!

Paper Patchworking with Children

 Oh, goodness, it's all a bit blurry; I took some of these photos in a big hurry during class.  But wait until you see what the children did!  The picture above is my experiment sample.  I used some collage papers I made last spring and crazy patchworked them using a stapler.  I wanted to see what the upper primary class of after school art would do with the idea.

 Here's how!  Start with a square of fabric you like for inspiration.  Lay down a strip of collage paper or other colored paper so that the right sides are facing and the edges together.  Staple near the edge.

 Now fold the paper back and trim the excess paper off.  Wow!  It's gorgeous!

 Keep going in a spiral, always using a piece of paper which is a little too long, so you can trim it after stapling.  I had to demonstrate this several times.  It is kind of tricky if you have never sewn.

 So here is the finished demonstration, a first round of patchwork.  It started with the aqua, followed by the lime, then the stripes, and last of all, pink.  The next piece of collage paper would lay across the pink, aqua and lime.  Get it?

 Here are a few pieces of the children's work.  I like the way this boy decorated his papers before cutting them up and I especially like the white on royal blue.  Some of the children did not do a spiral, and that is perfectly fine; the results are dynamic.

 This one fascinates me.  I'd like to have a piece of art like this at my house.

This one is a spiral.

What do you think of this project?  I sure hope all these children like doing paper projects as much as I do!  I'm overflowing with ideas...Next: Swiss Papercutting with Children!

Geneva Botanical Gardens

 Except for the trouble of juggling an umbrella and a camera, a rainy day is a perfect day to take pictures of flowers!

 The raindrops are so beautiful on the petals,

and colors glow when the light is so gray.

This is a picture of a structure which provides lots of hidey-holes for pollinators, but it looks like sculpture to me.

And this is the most beautiful carousel I've ever seen.