Dots and Dabs - Color Mixing Exploration

This young artist began with distinct dots of colors on her paper.

She experimented with adding additional dabs of color on top of the dots and using the brush to mix. Here she adds a dab of dark green to each color.

With layers of dabbing and mixing, the colors grow more and more similar.

Sharing color mixing discoveries with another artist.

After noting the similarity between the dots on her sweater and the dots in her painting, she added an in between color to surround the dots like the brown on her sweater.

Painting in Relation to a Partner

This collaboration began with two artists working across from each other and sharing a palette of cool blues and purples.

They decided to try using the same color each time in their paintings.

As they continued, each added lines that began to weave together and entwine. Each pattern was different but the color choices were synchronized.

Other artists in the studio came by to see how they progressed. Warm colors are added as they move to use additional colors.

The working process of the two paintings.

The finished paintings hung together in the studio, along with questions for the viewer, "Do you think these paintings were done by the same artist?" "What do you notice that is different about them?"

3D Design, Drawing, Building, Painting

Working on themes of architecture, drawing and building and 3D design, this artist began with building a structure out of blocks. (Thank you to the Corley's for their wood scraps:)

Above she draws a diagram of her structure to help remember it, also great practice representing relationships among the different overlapping pieces and mapping space by drawing.

She begins to reassemble, adding glue to hold pieces in place.

The final stage begins with painting - using liquid watercolor which seeps in like stain combined with tempera paint which behaves more like paint, drying on top of the wood.

The finished house - notice how the color choices highlight significant shapes and angles in the overall design.

Printing Mom's Painting

In the family studio, mother and son painted on walls adjacent to each other, each engaged in his or her own process. Here is the collaboration that unfolded when the young artist became interested in adding to his mother's image. This is mom's painting when her son first took interest.

Here, the young artist begins to add to his mother's painting - she shared that she had an intention to add a son and he helped her carry out that plan. Notice his reach to add to the paper.

With much additional painting and over-painting the paper was starting to get really wet. Standing back we see how thick the paint has become.

Mother and son chose to further their collaboration by creating small prints off the main painting. The printing process changes the texture of the main piece as well as creating new works of art in the small monoprints pulled from its surface. Three prints hang with the image while a fourth, featuring part of the sun is hung below.

Clay Bricks

This young artist was particularly intrigued to arrive one week and find that the clay was cut into rectangular prism shapes. They reminded her of bricks.

Here she uses a stick to smooth "mortar" on a brick.

Using one piece of clay to scrape off "mortar" to spread on a brick.

Here are a variety of objects built from the bricks. A bed in the lower right corner. This was a theme this young artist returned to in her clay work for several weeks, even requesting help making the clay square when she came in to find it in balls.

Exploring Paint - Tools, Mark Making and the Stickiness of Paint

This young artist began in a fairly usual way, painting with colors on the table. She experienced the mixing of the colors as broad brush strokes captured her motion across the page.

More mixing as she used her hands as a tool to smooth the paint, here the hand motions seem to create a symmetry of swirls.

The artist moved to the wall and chose a larger brush, creating bold strokes of color and extending her reach to the top of the paper.

She continues working to fill the page with paint, colors begin to mix more while the mark making is still energetic with her moves across the paper recorded in the textured marks of the big brush.

Getting her hands into the paint, she discovers the sponge (previously used to dab the wet brush) can be a tool in the paint. Here she has begun a second paper, printing with the sponge and discovering that the paint causes it to stick on the paper.

She explores variations with the sponge, making different shapes and lines using the side of the sponge and creating new mixes of color with each dab of the sponge on the paper.

The Zoo - A Collaborative Painting

This week the task for the family studio was to create a collaborative painting. This pair began with a sheet of paper 18 by 24 inches on the table between them.

As the young artist began with expressive red paint, dad began to add to the design with smooth circles of similar colors.

Here, the young artist begins to mimic Dad's movements in his own brush strokes.

Some cool colors are added to the initially warm palette.

The final image, named "The Zoo."