Looking at a NH Artist: Don Gorvett

Hello!

I never know where I am going to find inspiration for my art lessons! A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing a craft fair in New Hampshire (by myself--Yay! MOM TIME!!) and I was chatting with lots of the artisans there. To one couple, I had mentioned that my 7th graders were learning about relief printmaking and they mentioned they had seen a feature on NH Chronicle about a woodcut artist named Don Gorvett. Of course, I HAD to check it out! Boy, am I glad I did! Don Gorvett, a woodcut artist with galleries in Portsmouth, NH and Ogunquit, ME, does these amazing seaside-themed reduction prints that my seventh graders were in awe of.

Another great video about Don's work is "Moonlight Drawbridge"

I showed this video AFTER my seventh graders had completed a linocut project, so they had a bit of experience from which to view this video and process Don's work. Of course, their pieces were 4" x 6" and done using flexible printing plates I had in my new classroom. In contrast, Don's work is done on large piece of plywood and he sometimes uses up to 8 colors to our humble 1 color. After I showed this video to the students, there was silence. And some of them had their mouths gaped open. Seventh grade! :-) Yipes! 

Anyway, fast forward to the weekend. My hubby and I went away on a 23-hour anniversary celebration and we drove up to the Portsmouth, NH area to see the sites, shop a bit and have dinner at one of my, ahem, OUR favorite restaurants. My husband suggested we go to Don's gallery, and who do you think was there? Don himself, working away. He graciously took time away from his work to talk to my husband and I about his work and gave me some tidbits about being an art teacher and how I can foster a climate of creativity and wonder in my students. I am so glad we stopped in to visit! I also was able to post a picture of Don and me on "The Instagram"--the account I have for my students' work and artsy happenings at our school! Having an Instagram account is new for me, but I am trying (10 followers-YAY!)!

Hanging with Don Gorvett in his Portsmouth, NH studio/gallery.

So, I would HIGHLY recommend looking at Don's work as well as taking the opportunity to show the work of local (to you) artists. This can be done by showing the students real work or artifacts, a video from the Interweb, or a video you made yourself, or having the person come to your school for an artist visit and demonstration. BTW: Cassie Stevens just began a new series on her blog called "field trip" where she takes her students on a virtual video field trip to meet artists. Her first installment features a musician and visual artist named Bebo. Check that out too!

Enjoy!!

Printmaking: Warhol Self Portraits

For my last after school Modern Art class I wanted my students to explore the work of Andy Warhol. Last time we studied Warhol, we did the Handy Andy prints (which are a popular one on my blog and with my students). This time, I wanted to have them try printmaking so they could explore the Pop Art  repetitive printed images of Warhol's. With this project we are using foam trays to make a printmaking plate similar to a linocut or woodcut, but without the sharp tools.

This student loves to create Manga-inspired art.
I love this piece because it shows her interests and
is definitely a POP art piece--Warhol would be impressed!

This was a great first "real" printmaking project and the results are always so bright and fun. Some children really embrace this technique and I had one student complete TWO projects with the class time since she was having some much fun. I also did the project one-on-one with my Kindergardener and he loved it too. Clean-up is great since I used water-soluble printmaking ink (although I would love to try something in the future that is more permanent so that the kids could add color with watercolors afterwards...).

This might be a bit of an expense to buy the roller (brayer) if you are doing this project at home, but once you have the supplies on had you ca make a bunch of great prints for gifts, stationary, etc. Give it a try!

Faux Linocut Warhol Self Portraits

Supplies Needed:
Adjust the dimensions of your supplies based on the size of the foam trays you are using...

• A few 4" x 5 1/2" pieces of white paper for drawing your design 
• Pencils and erasers
• Foam trays or styrofoam plates
• Masking tape
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• A scrap piece of cardboard or mat board slightly larger than your foam printing "plate"
• Water soluble printmaking ink
• Brayer (I use the Speedball 4" soft rubber brayer)
• A few 5" x 7" pieces of colored paper (smooth paper with bright colors work well)
• Glue stick
• Large piece of construction paper to mount the finished prints on

Directions:

1. Use the pencil to draw a simple self portrait on the white piece of paper. Make it unique--just like you, but don't get too detailed. 

2. Place the drawing onto the foam tray and tape down. Trace the lines of your drawing with a dull pencil. Press down enough to leave an impression in the foam tray, but not hard enough to poke all the way through the foam or shred the paper drawing. This takes some practice...using the pencil at a slight angle helps. Once you've traced the drawing, remove the drawing and go over the lines you made in the foam tray to make them a bit deeper.

3. Mount your finished foam printing plate to the cardboard using hot glue.

4. Squeeze some printmaking ink onto a spare foam plate or foam tray. Use your brayer (roller) to move the ink around, coating the roller with ink. You don't need it gooping with ink--a nice even coating works best. Roll the inked brayer over your foam printing plate. Lay a piece of colored paper o top of the inked printing plate and press gently with your fingertips. I had the children use one hand to hold the paper still while the other rubbed the image. Remove the paper to see the transferred image. 

5. Repeat as may times as you wish. I had the children make at least four copies of the image ad the they mounted them onto a larger piece of construction paper once the prints were dry.

Enjoy!

This guy is super-cute, too! 

Love the freckles!

And this piece is super-sweet! It makes me smile!