Watercolor Abstract



What does this remind you of?  Maps?  Islands?  Microscopic things?  I was teaching my students about art that has been inspired by microscopic things and also I had checked out Map Art Lab: 52 Exciting Art Explorations in Mapmaking, Imagination, and Travel.  So this has influences from both.


I am starting a huge mural with my students at school.  I will keep you updated as we start to paint it.  It's hard to see what's going on in these pictures, but we traced figures on to large white banner paper, cut them out and then traced those on to the wall. Next week the painting begins!


I was thinking of something school themed and since the wall is so long a parade of kids would be fun. The idea evolved organically through casual conversations with the principal, other teachers and students. We talked about how each kid could be holding something to represent subject areas of school. It started with just a few figures but in order to represent all of the subjects it kept growing to 8 silhouettes. The silhouettes will be painted black with the objects in color. We have music (blowing a horn, leading the parade), reading/social studies (a book), science (magnifying glass and flower), athletics (shooting a ball), computers ( holding a laptop), foreign language/cultures (holding a flag), the arts (paintbrush/drama mask) and math (ruler and protractor). There will be words written along the figures that say key concepts from the subject areas. There is also an eagle flying in front of the parade because our school is called Eagle. I had seen figural murals before and then the silhouettes of Bansky kind of gave me a more solid idea.


 The kids were able to trace a classmate using a projector and the shadows against the wall. The other art teacher and I (and other teachers and older students I grabbed in the hall) looked at the images and tried to make sure the proportions/lines made sense. 


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Watercolor Bird Painting

Hello there!  What a long and cold month this has been.  I was feeling sick for about 3 1/2 weeks there.  I'm starting a new bird series with watercolors.  I painted the bird below this week.  It's fun to show my elementary students my sketchbook because it's a big ego boost.  Ha ha.  "WOW!! You should be an artist!"  they say.  Well, I guess I am an artist.. art teacher.. 


If that colorful little guy above looks familiar, that's because I painted the same type of bird a few months ago.  Here he is below.


Stay tuned for more colorful birds.  Growing up I had a couple parakeets... maybe parakeets are next?!

If you like my art, you can purchase a Happy Mail Pack at my Etsy shop or maybe you would like a 5" x 7" postcard of one of my watercolor paintings?  If money is a problem, feel free to message me for a trade of some sort (I collect zines and love stickers).  Anyways.. I'm just excited when someone else likes my art enough to want something from my shop! :)

Have a great weekend, friends!

New Mixed Media Collage on Canvas



I love painting on canvas boards, because they are sturdy and can take a bit of scraping and wiping.  Materials in this collage include black and white images, acrylic paints, rub-on letters, stenciling, graphite, stamping, tissue paper and patterned paper.

I love to include things that are floating, like the upside down gingko leaf.  I also like to make things look a little ethereal.

EE Cummings is also one of my favorite poets.  I love his unconventional! use of punctuation.
 





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