Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Chalk Flowers: The Smearing Truth

The snow has gone and mud is here, but flowers won't be out for a few weeks yet in North Pole. During this drab time of year, we just have to get down and dirty and smear a few of our own flowers.  Surprisingly, this rather messy, fingers-in-the-chalk method results in a delicate and lovely painting.

For inspiration, we looked at paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, who captured the beautiful forms and intense colors of flowers in her work.

Red Poppy, by Georgia O'Keeffe


To start, we tore some paper to make an oval shaped stencil, chalked the outside edges,




placed the chalked stencil over the paper, and smeared the chalk into the center with our fingers.




Viola!  A bloom appeared.




After doing several blooms we tore a vase shape, chalked those edges, and smeared more chalk to make a vase on the paper.





Next, we added a few stems,



and leaves to make a nice composition.


To finish up, a coating of fixative was sprayed on the painting to keep the chalk from smearing more, and a backing paper was added.

Our artists have smeared up some beautiful paintings to be proud of:

Amy


Gretchen


Hailey

Madyson

Melody


Next week, our final lesson, will be a barrel of fun!  Stay tuned for more details, coming soon.

4 comments:

  1. This was incredible to watch. Thanks for sharing. The little artist are so cute and their project turned out perfect.

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  2. Thanks for your comment. I appreciate the feedback and look forward to sharing more of our lessons.

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  3. Beautiful works of art! The colors are so nourishing this time of year too.

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  4. Thanks, Sue. They would rather have drawn the flowers instead of using the stencils, but enjoyed the technique after they tried it. Next time I would encourage them to use the darker colors.

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