And another calendar idea! Ripped Paper Winter Landscape

It's not too late to celebrate the New Year!

Here's a quick idea for a calendar you can make with scraps of paper. It's a nice way to use up scraps and practice ripping paper. I made this project with a variety of kiddos from pre-K to 4th grade and they all enjoyed it. I think they especially enjoyed adding the splatter-paint snow at the end!

Here's a close-up of a couple of the calendars. As you can see, some of
the older students added a few details to their scenes.
These were done as part of my "Gifts from the heART" class.

Ripped Paper Winter Landscape Calendar

Supplies Needed:

• A black or dark blue piece of paper for the night sky (ours was 4 1/2" x 8 1/2")
• Various white and blue pieces of paper for the snow
• Small scraps of various green paper for the trees
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Gold star stickers
• White tempera paint
• Stiff bristled brush
• Paper plate palette
• One 2015 Year-at-a-glance calendar printed on the bottom half of an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of white paper
• Laminator and 8 1/2" x 11" laminating pouch

Directions:

1. Rip some strips of white and light blue papers and layer them together onto the black paper to create the illusion of snowy hills. When you like the arrangement you have, glue the layers onto the black background using the glue stick. This part is where younger kids may need a bit of assistance, but they usually catch on fast. :-)

2. Cut some little triangles for trees out of the green papers. Glue them onto the hills you've made. Trees in the way back of your landscape may appear smaller than the ones in the foreground of your landscape. 

3. Add sparkly star stickers to the tops of your trees or in the sky or both. Don't forget to sign your work at this time.

4. Place your completed landscape into a box to reduce splatters. Dip your stiff bristled brush into white paint and use your finger to flick the bristles to splatter paint "snow" onto your landscape. A grown-up may choose to do this, but kids do really enjoy it (yeah, it makes a little mess).  Add the desired amount of snow to your landscape and let dry.

5. Once your landscape is dry, use the glue stick to glue it to the 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper that has the calendar printed on it. 

6. Run the entire piece through a laminator to seal it and protect it for  a year's worth of use.

ENJOY! Happy New Year!!

Rainbow Valley: Inspired by Alma Woodsey Thomas

I had never heard of Alma Woodsey Thomas until I received an art catalog in the mail and saw a tiny reproduction of her "Eclipse" painting being sold as a poster. WOW. Where has she been all my life?! Thomas began her art career as an art educator (for 38 years!) and after retiring, was able to devote more time to painting. Her first solo show was at the Whitney Museum when she was 80 years old! Her lovely paintings are colorful and abstract and my students really enjoyed looking at them and we had quite a discussion about many of her paintings. I enjoyed hearing their opinions of the pieces as well as hearing them using art terms easily in our discussion. It was wonderful being able to share the work of a contemporary female African American artist with them (Thomas passed away in 1978).

"The Eclipse," by Alma Woodsey Thomas

I left the project somewhat open-ended for my after school Modern Art class: they could create a radial, linear, or all-over, random composition based on Thomas' work BUT they had to use ripped paper pieces to create it. I showed the students how to create ripped pieces of construction paper (tear the sheet lengthwise into a strip and then into little squares/rectangles). I then passed out white card stock for them to use as a base.

Some of the students went with a radial composition and started with a circle. Others decided to do straight columns of paper pieces and many chose to just have random patches of color all over. It was all good. I didn't want to have a bunch of cookie cutter pieces of artwork all looking the same, so I'm glad I left it open-ended. Each piece has elements of different styles of Thomas' paintings.

The supplies for this project were few: card stock, construction paper and glue sticks. When they were done, they could work on a group piece that was larger: 20" x 30." The finished piece was a collaborative effort of the entire class and the title, "Rainbow Valley," was voted on by all. Enjoy these lovely, colorful pieces of Abstract Expressionist art!

"Rainbow Valley" made by my Modern Art class

This student was inspired by Thomas' paintings that had
multicolored backgrounds. This background was done
with crayon and then she glued the pieces over it.

This student also wanted a colored background, but chose
to use a solid piece of construction paper. This piece uses
a more radial composition, but it goes off the page.

And here are some pieces that have more of a scattered composition.
Lovely colors!