Summer Art Exploration

by Maria Friesen • Teacher, Mother, Occassional Artist • photo provided by Maria

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you have it, rather than basic paint sets. If you do not have paint brushes, cotton swabs and cotton balls can do. Work with what you have. In fact, I even looked up online how to make my own dyes. They are used for dying paper or cloth, the colours would not be as vibrant, but they still could be an alternative if you have no paint or dye at all. Also useful are larger hard cover books or binders that the papers can be gently taped to so that there is a smooth firm surface to work on. Once you have these supplies collected, you are set to go. My hope was to provide a calming alternative to some sort of electronic device as well as a chance to provoke creativity. A calming activity, which does not need to be a ‘project’, but more of a stress release, is Zentangle®. This is like doodling, but a bit more organized. You can search online and find sites that have examples and patterns that you can copy or that will inspire you, check out zentangle.com as a starting point. When you ‘Zentangle’ you can divide up a space of paper into sections and then draw different patterns in the sections. The results can be quite beautiful but are really a good way to relax.

Summer break is a wonderful time for kids to relax, enjoy nature and have fun. After the first couple of weeks, when they have had a chance to do many of the things that they had been hoping to do, there may be a sudden lull. This is an opportunity to work in a little creativity and try an art project. My (captive) audience consisted of my child and a few friends, some of whom were enthusiastic participants and others not as much. The age range of this group spanned from 8 to 13 years old. Not only was it a chance to explore your sur oun d ing s a d make art encourage creativity, but also some perseverance. If I was at school, I would have access to a number of useful art supplies but being that I was doing this at home over summer, I figured I would try to work with what most people would have kicking around the house. You can easily adapt the materials as you wish. Most people have some white paper for their printer, or partially used art sketch books, as well as leftover school supplies, pencils and erasers, rulers, wax crayons, pencil crayons, fine black permanent ink pens, markers and possibly oil pastels and basic paint sets. Food colouring dye can stand in for coloured ink if

The first project idea was straightforward, a hand design. What I like about this activity as a parent, is I have a little snapshot of my child (their hands anyway) at a certain age. Kids trace their hand in three overlapping placements on an 8 ½ x 11” paper. Then, using a ruler, they draw three or four straight lines through the hand tracings at different angles. The idea is to break up the background into sections. The kids recommended using the lines to make the sections smaller. They found large sections harder to do than more smaller sections if you were doing the fade shading. Once they have the hands and lines drawn, the kids can then complete the design in one of two ways: choose three or four coloured pencil crayons (oil pastels can work but are a little harder to work with and require smudging) and shade each section solid to pastel from one point to the opposite point. Start in one corner of a section shading solid and full strength with the colour and gradually fade to a very light pastel in the adjacent side. It is important to have the pencil strokes even and in the same direction and to alternate the colours so that the same colours are not side-by-side. Another alternative is to draw Zentangle® patterns to fill in each section or use texture rubbings. For texture rubbings, take the paper and place it over something with a raised texture (like wood grain, tile, concrete, woven material) and then gently rub the crayon or coloured pencil over in the area that you desire to fill. The second project idea was a little more involved and is called shadow silhouettes. It also allows for creativity and the chance to look at things differently. This activity requires some sunshine or at least a flashlight. Using a white printer paper or art paper if you have it, tape the corners of

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the paper to a smooth binder, hardcover book, or clipboard. The next step is to find shadows that look interesting and trace them onto the paper. The trace lines can be light and quick, as they can be cleaned up later. Grass, flowers, trees, or plants will move in the breeze so kids will have to be less fussy and patient to get the shadow. Other interesting shadows can come from bikes, outdoor furniture, or lights. Shadows can overlap and can come from different directions. It does not need to make a picture, but it can. Once the shadows are traced the lines can be cleaned up a bit and then the next step is to add colour. I recommend ink or dye (the kids commented that more water on the paper helped the dye move and spread and more water and less dye was best), but paint will also work. Kids can add the colour to the different areas as they see fit. It can be more realistic or more creative. It does not need to be very exact, in fact it is better if they let the ink bleed and move a bit. This is the part of the activity that kids might need encouragement to let things happen and work with what the dye/ink is doing rather than trying to get it to stay within the lines. You can also use oil pastels to go over the lines before the dye/ink, and then they will resist the colour wash and stand out. Another option, if you do not have dye or paint, is to use crayons or pencil crayons and do rubbings on textured objects. The last step is to add lines with a fine permanent marker following the pencil lines that were made when tracing the shadows. The idea is to help an area pop out and be more noticeable, or to highlight the patterns that were created by the shadows. The consensus from the group was that less is more. Try highlighting one area, with some lines but not necessarily all the lines. Make sure to stand back and check every so often as you go along and see if you have enough lines or need more.

I was impressed with the willingness of this group to experiment and step out of their comfort zone as we did these two projects. Every kid has their own strengths, and it was interesting to see how the different kids approached each task in the activities. Problem solving was required several times, for example in the fade shading with colour placement and especially with working with the dye. Getting the colour that they wanted could be problematic, since we were working with food colouring. The desired purple was hard to make. Occasionally the dye would do its own thing and you cannot undo dye. The kids found they had to work with what happened and make it part of the creation. Problem solving led to creativity. A couple of the kids have a more perfectionistic streak and the ‘painting’ with dye stretched them. In the end they bought into it and were pleasantly surprised by the results. One kid, who figured that the painting just wasn’t going to work out well, was the finished product that we all agreed we liked the best. The kids all had a project that they preferred for one reason or another but could appreciate all the steps and the final products. It was also neat listening to them encourage and comment on each other’s work. Learning to look at things differently, creatively, problem solve and work with how things are going are some particularly good life lessons that a couple summer art projects can cultivate, along with a good deal of fun.

Maria Friesen is a teacher in rural Manitoba . in her almost 30 year teaching career she has had the opportunity to teach a variety of ages and subjects from Math to Art . She has a passion for learning and creativity . Maria grew up on Vancouver island, BC, and spent many summers visiting family in Kelowna and Lake Country . it is still a regular stop on summer travels . Maria currently lives in the small community of Grunthal, Manitoba with her husband and three sons .