Painting in Tempera

I have some suspicion that there are teachers out there who are afraid of using liquid tempera paint in the regular classroom. Well, it is paint and kids and paint and desks and carpet usually don't mix well. I hope that I can give you some pointers and if you are a teacher who uses tempera paints often and have other ideas- please share!

One- I save newspapers to cover desks and tables. I ask parents to send a large shirt as a smock. I also keep several for those who don't bring one. Wearing them backwards is the best, if you have a helper with the little dudes or if they can button someone else's. I keep the paint in plastic bowls like tupperware so it has a lid. It will last a good while in these if you keep it closed. Each color has its own brush. No rinsing brushes allowed. If you can get old cafeteria trays, they are the best for holding the paint bowls.

Have them put their name in pencil on the back before painting!

Step one: tell students to paint the lightest colors first such as yellow or if you have premixed lighter tints like pink or light blue. The darker colors go last. I sometimes have the colors by warm (red, orange, and brown) or cools and then switch the trays so part of the group is painting with warms and part cools. It just depends on the lesson. You may want them to learn to mix colors or tints and shades and in that case, you will need stryofoam or plastic plates for them to mix the paints. Remember: black is the last color to use. When two wet colors are next to each other they will run together so I try to demonstrate how to paint sections apart from each other before they start.

Step two: when the students have covered the paper, take the paint away! They tend to keep painting over places and creating "mud".

Step three: no one moves until the paint trays are collected and out of the way. Then, the brushes go into a bucket, I used a pickle bucket from Mickey Ds.

Step four: I collect the paintings to dry. Since tempera is water based, it will dry fairly quickly so as soon as I see the shine off the colors, I can stack them. I have used clothesline in the room to hang works, but found out that it violates fire code. So, I used clothes pins and pinned them to the blinds.

It is nice if you have construction paper to use as a back mat and glue the paintings down. Try to use the heaviest paper you can for the painting. Manilla paper works fine. So does the heavy construction paper. Watercolor paper is the best, pricey, if you plan to paint a lot. You might be able to split a ream of paper with another teacher.

There are so many subjects that can be painted with tempera. It makes a good paint for stamping too if you soak sponges.

My cleanup: have cheap babywipes for their hands. Unless they are covered in paint, the wipes will get it off without having to wash hands. Of course painting is nice right before they have a restroom break!

Have a colorfilled room this fall!

Durinda

Arts Infusion in Alabama

Art Production Time during the Arts Infusion Workshop in Dothan, Alabama

Arts Infusion! I love that title! It perfectly describes how the arts should be presented in the classroom. Infuse them with what you already teach! I get so excited when I think about the children that will benefit from the "hands- on" working with visual art, music, dance and theatre. I had the privilege of working with teams of teachers from Grandview and Fain Schools in Dothan, Alabama. We met at Troy University of Dothan for four days working with ideas on incorporating the arts. Randy Foster, AIEA program and music director, coordinated and taught lessons in music and Tina Cherry, a teacher from Sneed, AL, assisted us.

Beginning with the Texas artist, David Bates, we explored how to use the Big Ideas from works of art with students. What do you already teach using these ideas? Man's relationship to nature or man's relationship to man? Who doesn't teach something like that during the course of a year? Our production was a collage depicting one of those relationships. It could have been from a variety of different mediums- drawing, painting, sculpting. It is getting students to realize that most art and artists have meaning and they can communicate in their works of art as well.

Tuesday, we looked at da Vinci and how he painted the Mystery Lady (Mona Lisa). Then, what does a portrait show about a person and how can we show a portrait? Wednesday, we looked at the narrative works of Jacob Lawrence. Using an art criticism technique, we compared The Apartment to van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles. Can your students do this?? Of course they can! You can find a number of works that will compare and contrast to fit your curriculum. Urban vs Rural was a theme we talked about.

It was great to see the principals and administrative staff working along side their teachers in creating artworks. It can be outside someones comfort zone to draw or paint when you haven't been given the opportunity in a few years. It is not about the final product-- it is about the process. You will improve and feel more comfortable as you PRACTICE. Your students will too!

I hope that the teachers will be excited about finding connections and giving their students tools such as creative thinking and problem solving that the arts provides. I never approach a painting or drawing without THINKING- it is a continuous thought and problem solving attempt when you create art.

Thanks to all who made it a great week- the principals, Todd Weeks and Deloris Potter, the program coordinators, and the staff of both schools. Thanks too to the Dothan city schools Director of Elementary Curriculum Services, Susan Loftin, for inviting us to come.

Keep Making Art!

Durinda

Going Green!

Jo Taylor with Charlie Lucas

What do artist Charlie Lucas and SpongeBob have in common?

If you attended the VA Institute this summer, you would know. The focus for Thursday was sculpture, especially found object sculpture which we studied beginning with Picasso. Seems that artists have been "Going Green" with recycled materials for some time now. Nothing new in the art world! Our guest artist, Charlie Lucas, is still creating sculptures from things that he finds in salvage yards. Charlie works with all kinds of metals and woods.

And SpongeBob? He is made from boxes, tape, and paper mache by students taught by Dr. James Bender at Bellingrath Middle School. An inspiration for our participants to create their own "Green" sculptures with recycled materials. So start saving those tubes, cartons, and boxes!

Go Green!

Durinda

Great week in Alabama!

The VA "A (Art) Team minus Sally on Friday

I don't know about all of you, but I count last week as one of the most memorable and enjoyable of my summers in Alabama. Working with the greatest facilitators ever- Sabrina Hubbard, Donald Myer, Sally Chambliss, James Bender, and Margaret Snider- and having a group of participants who "played well together" made the week fly by. Along with the summer time temps- it was running HOT inside the museum with so much going on. Each day we studied a different artist and medium. Teachers worked in every component of the Visual Arts discipline with lessons in art history, criticism, aesthetics, and production.

I have tried to upload my photos from the week. I invite any of you to share photos and comments as well. As you work on your lessons for the new year, remember we are here to help in any way we can. Let us know what is going on in your classroom and we will keep you updated on our classes too!

Thanks for making the Visual Arts Institute so much fun to direct!

Durinda (Queen of Artland, if only for one week)