CartaBella

l'Artista Blog

October 20, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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MONDAY MONTAGE. Why are young children so attracted to the paintings of Van Gogh?

The appeal of cheery sunflowers seems to resonate with everyone. The lure of Van Gogh’s intense palette, combined with the harmony of his compositions and the use of complementary colors, is a tribute to the artist’s ability to express himself in a universal language.

Of course kids are also drawn to Van Gogh’s impasto technique, especially if an art project includes replicating impasto, by adding flour or sand to tempera paint, for the Van Gogh effect!

Yesterday my husband and I attended a stimulating seminar, “Van Gogh Reconsidered,” sponsored by mueoarts, a local urban church in Atlanta with a lively engagement of the arts within their community. Next Sunday’s final session will include a panel discussion. Visit their site to find out more about their academy, studio and gallery.

October 10, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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MONDAY MONTAGE. Extreme Building Blocks.

My preschool grandsons are not the only ones who enjoy my basket of blocks! ALL of my students, including Middle Schoolers, love to work hard at creating fantastic buildings with just a few simple shapes.

Try similar constructions on paper by using the blocks as tracers. And then fill in with color— crayons, pencils, markers, or even paint or cutouts of scrapbook paper.

October 10, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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Yesterday, my art-teacher friend, Melissa Duffy, reminded me of an effective classroom exercise for picture studies. Homeschool students, as well as any family or group gathering, would find it entertaining and educational, to set up a Tableaux re-creating a favorite painting.

We tried it in one of my art camps this past summer and had so much fun we’ll do it again next year—with more preparation and attention to detail.

CARL LARSSON: The Flower Window, watercolor painting from artist’s book series, “At Home”
ART CAMP 2, July 08, spontaneous tableaux vivant with Mattison Frank posing as Suzanne, Carl Larsson’s daughter featured in the painting.

Before radio or television, tableaux vivants were popular forms of entertainment. And before the age of color reproduction of images, the tableau vivant (often abbreviated simply to tableau) was sometimes used to recreate paintings “on stage”, based on an etching or sketch of the painting.

Now I’m trying to decide which painting to choose for my students to study via this Tableaux exercise! Any suggestions?

October 5, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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MONDAY MONTAGE. Lois Ehlert Books.

One of my favorite Picture Book authors/illustrators is Lois Ehlert. I was hooked by her book, Planting a Rainbow. It lends itself to a style of collage work which can be re-created with the rainbow hues of card stock and scrapbook papers now available.

Elizabeth, a third grader, creatively “reproduced” this garden scene with scraps of cardstock, inspired by Ehlert’s bookcover design!

October 5, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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MONDAY MONTAGE. Shoe Fish!

Students of every age enjoy this project


Stand on a large sheet of paper (12X18 in.) and trace the outline of your shoe. Then, after erasing some of your unnecessary lines, use that “template” shape to create an imaginary fish by adding a tail, fins, and so on. Seth, a sixth grader, picked out an orange marker and started making a plaid pattern all over his fish. A mosaic design emerged as he continued coloring in all of the tiny boxes with a unique color palette. As you can see, Seth completed his creation by adding stripes on the top fin of his Shoe Fish.

Try it! Send me a copy of your creation!