Monthly Archives: August 2011

Summer Field Trips

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It wasn’t my plan to let three weeks go by without posting; my kids and I have been enjoying the last month of summer, spending lots of time outdoors, often at the beach. Today is the last day of summer vacation (a bonus day, thanks to Hurricane Irene), so I thought I’d post a few pictures from arts-related excursions over the summer that I didn’t post about.

Above and below are photos taken at the Firefly Projects exhibit by China Blue at the Newport Art Museum.

My two younger children and I visited in July. We all liked this exhibit quite a bit; you can read more about it in the Museum’s summer newsletter (scroll down a bit here).

That’s a photo of a tattoo flash book on display at Mystic Seaport in their exhibit (which closes soon) Skin and Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor. All three kids and I spent a great day at the Seaport (we’re members, and I highly recommend the place), and we agreed that tattoo artists deserve the title “artist.” N especially loves dragons and asked that I photograph the above.

We also visited the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art over the summer. The studio project at the time was painting portraits. Look closely; you can see the other side of G’s face in the mirror she is peering into.

I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting as we (reluctantly) transition back into the school routine. I have some decisions to make about all sorts of things.

The Lighthouse

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Materials: Watercolor paper, liquid watercolors, painter’s tape

Saturday night I was reading T is for Tugboat to G before bed. When we reached “L,” she told me she wanted to paint a lighthouse–right then. We agreed she could paint one in the morning.

From T is for Tugboat by Traci N. Todd and Sara Gillingham

The next day–our rainy Sunday–I presented my idea of using tape resist to create the stripes on the lighthouse. We’re getting to the point where G has ideas, but can’t necessarily get there all on her own. Because I feel strongly that children’s artwork is their own, I look for ways we can collaborate so she is happy with the result but is also the one actually making the artwork. So I also suggested that I could cut out a lighthouse for her to paint, if that was okay with her. She said yes.

So I sketched a lighthouse shape using the picture in the book as a guide–because while lighthouses come in various shapes, that was the lighthouse she wanted to make–and we placed some painter’s tape on top of it. This also served to secure the paper to the table, because it was narrower than the paper she usually paints on and likely to move around a bit. I’m sure you can tell that G had lots of say in how the tape was placed. She chose to use liquid watercolors. She kept to red for the main section and chose green for the light.

Once it was dry, we peeled off the tape. She’d said at the beginning that she wanted to add some colored pencil to the lighthouse once the paint was dry, so that’s what she did next. Then, she told me where on her bedroom wall it should go and she helped me push in the tumbtacks.

Then she took her brothers and her dad into her room to show them the lighthouse she had made.

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How do you handle specific requests from young children–do you have some tips on successful collaboration?

Rainy Day Open Studio

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We’ve had very few rainy days this summer. We’ve spent our time at the beach and exploring tidepools; riding bikes and scooters; finding critters in the yard and digging holes. We’ve been picnicking at the playground and visiting local museums. In other words, we are enjoying the outside while we can. Sunday, though, it poured. It was so unfamiliar and even welcome, and I pulled some rainy-day ideas out of my virtual hat. I gave the kids some choices, and as per usual, they all chose different things, so I’ll actually be splitting this into two posts.

V decided to start with artist trading cards, and that’s where he ended–he never moved on. ATCs can be intricate and involved, but I decided not to show V examples. I told him they were the same size as baseball cards and he could draw whatever he wanted on them. (He was using the Bristol board, so dry media only.) He chose to make a collection of super-hero symbols. He’s not done yet.

Here’s a close-up of a few of them.

He started with the ones he knows best, but eventually books, posters, and even the Internet were consulted.

N decided to start with the sheet I offered on how to draw a pirate ship, from Zenobia Southcombe‘s site. Here is his drawing, complete with “Blow the man down!”

When G finished her first project (the subject of the next post), she wanted to draw a pirate ship too. So I handed her the instruction sheet and some drawing paper, and she got to work.

Do you see that yellow circle in the top left-hand corner? She carefully drew a circle and colored it yellow, to be the moon. (Her brother’s drawing has a moon, too.) I didn’t even know she could draw a circle that well. She’s not even three. I can’t help it; I’m impressed.

When N finished his drawing, he asked to do the third item I’d mentioned, creating a color wheel using these instructions at That Artist Woman. I thought this would make a good tool to have around the studio, and in the future I think we’ll each make analogous and complementary paintings. Our color wheel–we did it together–is not as neat and tidy as Gail’s, and it’s also not in a sketchbook but just floating loose.

Still, it will come in handy, and we enjoyed mixing the colors. (We always enjoy mixing colors around here!)

The rain stopped in time for the kids to have a damp water fight in the yard with their dad. I have more rainy-day ideas, should we need them, but we’re happy to be outside as much as we can.

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How has your weather been? (If you’re in the northern hemisphere) are you making the most of the outdoors while you can?

Art as Habit

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I began this blog nearly 100 posts ago (this is post 99, according to WordPress) with a few modest, personal goals. I wanted to document what we did. I wanted a record of what worked and what didn’t work. And I wanted a bit of help with accountability. See, about a year before I began this blog, we finished our basement, which, at my request, includes an art/craft area. We built a big table with lots of storage and an easy, wipe-off surface. The floor is just linoleum, and we had a utility sink installed–mess isn’t a concern. A year later I realized we weren’t using it all that much. We weren’t taking advantage of this great space I’d created.

In October of last year we attended a workshop at Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum entitled “The Artful Family.” I began thinking about how I wanted to use that space and what I could do to accomplish this. I thought perhaps I could leave provocations for when the boys came home from school and began poking around for ideas. In one corner of my head, I sort of hoped I’d find an outline, neatly arranged, available online. But I wasn’t looking for crafts, and I wasn’t looking primarily for ideas for very young children, and I came up more or less empty.

One of V's sketches from our visit to the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum

At about the same moment I realized I’d be making much of it up as I went along, I decided to blog about it. I’ve blogged on and off for a long time, and it’s a method of documentation that feels very natural and comfortable to me. Also, because it’s public, it feels more accountable to me. Even if absolutely nobody reads a blog regularly, it’s still out there in the world, and it helped me make this sort of art-making–the kind where we’re all together, exploring, learning, together–a priority. Because just like everyone else, our family juggles–work, school, out-of-school activities, chores, errands, all that stuff that comes along with just life.

Making art together

My original thought of leaving provocations after school didn’t work. By the time my boys were home, had a snack, and completed homework, I’d be starting dinner, because we have a toddler with an early bedtime, so we eat dinner early too. Not only that, but the boys (and my daughter) quickly came to see these particular art experiences as an activity we did together. Trying to do this after school would just be rushed. I realized we’d need to explore together on weekends and days off from school, and that I’d need to schedule it, to treat it like any other important commitment. This isn’t to say we do things on a schedule; but I try to keep track and make sure we don’t go too long without some sort of art-making together. This blog helps keep me accountable to this goal.

So what have we gained by making art a habit? My toddler (nearly preschool now!) daughter sees painting as a viable activity choice, as much as reading together or building with blocks or any other game we may play together. She will ask to go downstairs and let me know exactly what materials she wants to work with. She has gained fine-motor coordination, color recognition, and confidence in her mark-making, among other things. But it’s more the changes in my older kids that interest me.

My children's artwork framed and on display in our dining room.

My 7yo has always considered himself an artist. In the past nine months, though, he’s become better at planning, thinking ahead, and becoming comfortable with different techniques. My 9yo, I think, is better able to see himself as an artist now than before; he recognizes his strengths. Last summer when we went on vacation I bought sketchbooks for all the kids, which were hardly used. They didn’t want to draw anything. This summer, it was as natural as anything for them to take their sketchbooks to the deCordova Museum and begin drawing. When my husband brings flowers home, the kids ask when they can paint a picture of them. And I suspect, too, that they are more observant, although they have always been the sort of kids who walk slowly, look at their surroundings, and try to really see.

Some of N's sketches from our deCordova visit

And then there are the benefits to us as a family. This is, primarily, a family activity. I make art right alongside my kids as much as I can–it’s not always easy, because I’m also helping and fetching materials for three kids. I bring my sketchbook places too. My kids see me being creative, both with them and on my own projects. We all have our own projects, but we come together often. And over the past nine months, I’ve felt my own creativity expand as well.

Some of my blind contour drawings of a flower

My kids like to read in part because they see their parents reading and we’ve always taken them to the library. My kids write things down in part because they see me jotting notes and typing at the computer. And my kids see themselves as artists in part because I’ve made it a priority to support art-making in our family. This is what art as habit can do, and the first step can be as simple as drawing whatever is at hand.