Town of van Snow

This is a project I did with 5th graders as part of an outreach program. Our inspiration was van Gogh. The art kits we handed out included oil pastels and that is what we used to create these post-impressionist renderings.

To get the kids started we talked a bit about van Gogh and his style. We looked at Starry Night and the movement created in the sky. I had each child sketch a horizon line, tree, and path leading to a vanishing point. We sketched movement in the sky and included the crescent moon. From here I encouraged the kids to add whatever winter items they wanted. Some added igloos, snowmen, gingerbread houses and more. I tried to get the kids to use short dashes to fill their pages and to use the white of their paper for snow. They turned out fantastic! I loved the imagination of these incredible kids!







You will need:
-Drawing paper
-Pencil
-Oil Pastels
-van Gogh reference material: Starry Night

Here are some of the great works made!

Winter Villages

I can't believe I have not posted since Thanksgiving. I have been so busy and have quite a few projects to share with you this week.

This little collage project is a lot of fun and I know you will enjoy making it. I had a wonderful opportunity this past week that I really enjoyed. Allied Arts brought me on board for a really fun pay it forward type of project. I got to go into a few OKC schools and hand out art sets, talk about being an artist and teach art projects to 1st, 3rd and 5th graders at a few different schools.

They were so excited to have their very own art set to take home and experiment with. These kids made a big impact on me. I saw so much creativity and talent. It was a lot of fun!

So, back to this little winter scene...

This project was done by 1st graders. Each child was given a 12x12 black piece of cardstock and a 12x9 piece of white cardstock. (The white piece has to be a bit smaller so after the pieces are cut, a gap will be left to make the street.) A pile of scrap paper in different colors was set in the middle of the tables. To start I asked the children to hold up their white paper "the long way." This is important because the wavy line that makes the road needed to be cut "the long way." I told the children to make one long cut across their paper. This cut could be wavy or whatever!

After the road was created by cutting and gluing the white paper, the real magic happened. I gave little instruction. I told them to cut shapes to create a winter village. Houses could be squares, rectangles...roofs could be triangles etc. We discussed the elements on a house; doors, windows, chimneys etc.

At this point I set them free and wow. They created some really amazing things!

You will need:

-Black cardstock
-White cardstock
-Colored cardstock
-Glue sticks
-Scissors
-Foam snowflake stickers optional