The weather is so bad just now that I have had a chance to sit at the computer and create and try out experiments using digital art software. On my new computer was a package called Paint and I quickly gave it a try. I wanted to reproduce a doodle which was done on a very sad day. Our puppy was very ill and we knew that she would probably die. We all felt very sad and I turned to a piece of paper and doodled silently while my husband took the puppy to the vet.It was strangely comforting to be able to get the feelings in the form of symbols out of my system and onto paper.

 The squiggles were symbolic of the relationship between earth and heaven- it was a very spiritual expression of how if something is dying - that their spirit gradually leaves this world to join with the other. Here it is. It was almost as if I was doing some artistic research here as I imagined what was happening to the little dog's soul as it was returning home. Her soul was like the flowers on the earth in the above picture which were blowing away and changing into another form.

http://www.underwatersculpture.com/pages/gallery/latest-works.html

Well today after looking through a task given by our tutor about defining Art and after looking through  the definitions of the different types of art-- I found these three headings. - Objective Formative and Generative.

 An Objective way of looking at the world which is based on the what the artist perceives.This can be done using images of photography or any other type of media and is usually a true likeness of the object.

The Formative uses -montage - film and photos to create images or Collage which disrupts commercial images and text or  Bricolage which takes everyday images and enables their meanings to be expanded in some way.

Finally Generative - explores the visual arts using media of any types in any space.

Objective and Formative objectives  are clear to me however I have doubted the worth of the Formative objectives.

 However after looking at the work of John De Caries Taylor - I learned that  his work is objective and uses a different sense of space and his work has installations which is typical of the Formative view.

It is good to see an artist using his skills to help to repopulate the seas around Mexico while creating beautiful art at the same time.

I call this pomegranate sunrise. The painting was done on Art Rage a computer software art programme. I did this one on the IPAD.

In my last post I told you how lovely it was to see the sun come up in the morning because we have little sun in Scotland -especially in the Winter. At home depicting the scene in my head from the morning - was difficult however the colour of the red sky was almost captured here.

 Using the oil paint tube on the palette from ArtRage -  I painted using the roller after blobbing  dark blue and grey paint onto the canvas which was red to start with. In my mind's eye were the outline of trees - you can see them along the bottom of the canvas. The paint fill in of the software filled in everything too dark and it looks like night instead of day.

 ArtRage does have advantages and disadvantages. This image is only a rough rendering or glimpse of what I wanted. Maybe using a canvas and oil would be easier to create the image however I hope that more practice in how to use ArtRage may bring better results in the future. 

I am still getting to grips with what type of artist I am becoming. It was something never considered when I was an art student.However now I am trying to formalize in my head a label for myself - this helps me to justify and expand my own art work. 

 There are so many reasons why people become artists. For me it was the enduring influence of my grandfather artist/cartoonist.I remember sitting  beside one of my grandfather's colleagues who was drawing a large cartoon of a skyscraper to entertain me - I was about five at the time. The images he drew were very strong and comical. He had people moving from one side of the building to another a giraffe's neck and head going from one floor to the other and a woman putting a saucepan on fire out of the window. This was all done in half an hour and he used only black ink.

 My papa was always drawing cartoons he also wrote funny captions to go with these cartoons. He illustrated Molly Weirs Recipes printed by Collins printed in 1960 with wonderful funny cartoons. The book became a best seller but he had little recognition for his wonderful cartoons. Every week in the Ayrshire Post he would produce a funny cartoon and I always looked forward to seeing his work in print.

His art work was funny and well drawn many people said if he had moved to London he would have made it big

.At school when bored I really enjoyed drawing on my jotters. Art made me feel happy and confident and so I think maybe there is a mixture of reasons why I like to create my own art. Mainly it is to record the beauty around me and sometimes I like to use art to make a social comment using photography.Sometimes it is when I am bored or even depressed this helps to get any negativity or pain out of my system.

Well it is time to go and wrap presents as tomorrow is Christmas Day.. So may I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and  an Arty New Year !

Its dark at four o'clock and today is the shortest day.I prefer to have sun for most of the day - in Scotland that is not always possible. However the up side of the dark mornings is that I am more able to see the sun rising around 8 as I drive to work. One day this week I saw the most beautiful colours of red and purple mixed in the sky to herald the sun rising. The backdrop was grey and smudgy and contrasted well with the sun rising. I was determined to keep that lovely sight in my mind all day and go home and depict the image in ArtRage. It fascinates me how one minute the sky is amazing and then it changes into a grey dullness. It reminds me of how we can find beautiful images on the most unexpected items such as rubbish. 

After thinking about the different ways an artist can view the world I began to wonder about the objective of my own art.Is my art a therapy to me or is it an investigation or could I use it to make political statements.  My art tutors at Art College in the eighties were doing their art for different reasons. Mr Cadenhead   was a landscape artist who loved to depict the colours of the sun he found in the snow he painted.He used to go up mountains just to paint his pictures and they were fantastic - he seemed to be an investigative artist showing us what colours he found.Grant Clifford on the other hand was the abstract artist who impressed me with his huge canvases which depicted the family falling apart. He seemed to be questioning the family as a unit which I could relate to at the time and now see the great importance of a well run family. Mr Clifford tended to make political statements and told me how art was used to influence the the masses in some countries.Both these tutors fascinated me and so my art has been influenced by these tutors..

So both tutors helped me to think about nature and life in general - thought provoking indeed. My own opinion  is that an artist work should be useful and uplifting.The artist may produce great work and the art may be therapy for the artist and viewers.The work of Van Gogh seems to me to be therapy as I heard he may have suffered from the lack of sunshine in his life and this drove him to paint so much. Whatever drives an artist - who really knows?

On Monday morning I was all prepared for P1 only to be told that - I would cover the rest of the school as they had another teacher to teach P1 for the week which I could not do. I was able to use the cut outs in the special school today and we stuck the heart or circles into the centre of a paper plate and decorated with ribbon and glitter with thumb prints around the edge for good measure. The children engaged well with the activity and the end result was very bright and cheery.Yet another decoration to take home. It is good to know that one can take an idea such as the string of hearts and circles seen in a window and then adapt these ideas to suit the class and materials available. 

While working at the upper end of the mainstream school - this week   - I was impressed with this good practice:

 During the month of December the class tables are covered in sheets of white paper which the children are allowed to draw on throughout the month. Some lovely Christmas scenes are drawn.Battles and funny cartoons were seen at the table of boys who were really interested in computer games such as Halo. The children drew whenever they had a spare moment and this was great to see the class so happy and creative.  

In another class they were making a Christmas story to read to the P1 and were being encouraged to make their illustrations big ,bold and colourful. Some children made some amazing pictures - almost too good to be true. I was glad to see so much art being done in this school.

Christmas is nearly here so let me wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy Creative New Year. x x x

Here is one I made earlier..I used to love watching Blue Peter and especially liked this time of the year when Val and John would make the Advent Crown from two metal coat hangers some tinsel and  four candles..That was when I began to feel really Christmassy.Sometimes they would even show us how to make Christmas presents out of sticky back plastic and lots of cardboard..

 And my point is - what could I make for Christmas with the P1 class on Monday? - we had made Christmas cards and calenders - used the artificial snow and even made paper snowflakes. Maybe stained glass windows would be a good idea. I was so impressed by the other teaching I had seen recently that I wanted to do something really different after all - I do the Art- but my mind was blank...
Well Picasso said something about the best artists are those who use other artist ideas and make them their own.I agree and remember at Art College how we were encouraged to view each others work and this had a positive effect on our creativity.
Tonight while sitting waiting to pick up our son from the Boys Brigade - inspiration struck!! The car was parked outside a small but  fancy house furnishing shop. I stared at the Christmas display  and suddenly noticed  a large silver horse head was part of the display. As I looked closer I began to question why was I subconsciously looking in that window - - then an idea emerged thankfully about what to make on Monday. The window had long strings of silver hearts -snowflakes and  stars .These were strung from ceiling to floor like a beaded curtain. These decorations were what pulled my eye into the window. Aha - these could be duplicated -all I need are some used cardboard boxes tinfoil and the spray on glitter and some ribbon and some .. sticky back plastic?

This weekend will be spent drawing shapes on cardboard of various thicknesses and looking for old bits of string and wool. The cut out shapes of hearts and snowflakes will vary in size and thickness and could have a bell added. The thick cut circles could have wool wrapped around them or have glitter sprayed onto them.The finished products will be hung from a window just like the ones I saw in that shop today. I feel  my art is justified if the children and I can create something which is useful and lovely to look at. Its more fun than painting yet another snowman on black paper  - although that does have its place..

Over the last few weeks, I have taken the images and ideas from my walks on a Saturday and tried to turn them into art forms. The ArtRage package is great and has many benefits. An artist can create paintings using oils and acrylics and even use a digital pallet knife to create art. My problem as a budding artist was the cost of materials and if I wanted a certain type of green - eg leaf green it would inevitably cost more than just a basic green and I learned to make my own paints out of ground up chalk mixed with P.V.A. glue - this was quite effective.Small match pots from D.I.Y.shops gave lovely ready mixed  colours and were cheaper and easier to use than the traditional oils.

 The big problem with oil painting was the preparation -making of the frame first of all then purchasing the canvas then boiling up the smelly bone glue and then applying  to the canvas. Usually one would add a primer which could be bought in a tin or one could buy gesso as the old masters used at a price-higher than a student could afford.
Then one would have to buy the thinners and find a pallet ,brushes and  colours required. Then one would paint an image and when finished clean all brushes and pallet then hands- using that lovely red carbolic soap and turps.
Lost in translation springs to mind! However using ArtRage one can manipulate an image without the mess and lengthy preparation.One can still use virtual oil paint without the clearing up  There is a facility which allows a primer colour to be put onto the canvas first of all and the canvas can have a change of textures. What I love is the wide range of colours which one can create using the palette.
This packaging fascinated me with its colours and the last picture here is the result of me taking inspiration from the colours used.

That is why ArtRage is my chosen medium and I am taking my images and just playing around with colour and line it is great fun.The second  last picture - is by my son who also enjoys using ArtRage.My images are based on the text and colours found in discarded wrappers which are found scattered around.

The above was inspired by the text and bright colours used in advertising. I also know that grey and yellow go well together.

I was just messing around with colour and form as usual - above and below.

Our six year year old loves using ArtRage and this is his work today.

This one here is my image based on the initial interest in the colours of marshmallows and their packaging. I used my knowledge of colour to put in a bright green background - because that makes the colours opposite on the colour wheel brighter. i.e red and green should never be seen . In the butchers shop a piece of parsley is placed beside the red meat to bring out the colour of red..

An inspector calls

On Wednesday - The Inspectors called - in the form of three smartly suited people. It was very interesting to be part of the school at that time as everyone changed and became extra productive and most had sleepless nights. But it went well as far as we know and then today the schools were closed due to the bad weather.

Yesterday they followed our class all day - I was  in after lunch and the other teacher got the brunt of it.For today I had busily prepared a music and art lesson which I was sure they would walk in on - but never mind it is prepared for another day..

What I have learned from all of this angst - is  to be prepared. One has to be able to devote a few hours a week to preparation. Pack a bag the night before to ensure you have every thing for the lesson you have planned.Ensure you know what the outcomes for the lessons are because a suited person my ask you!! Be happy and enthusiastic and one will do well. Think before you speak - Be prepared and you will not be worried -too much!

 Here is my work in progress :based on ordinary objects using the great colours available on ArtRage. Art should cheer you up !

This one here is based on my love of marshmallows and their colours and packaging.

Artifical Snow

At last - found artificial snow in Poundland.It increases in size when watered - by one hundred fold- so keep away from mouths in case of choking etc.
.Last year was the first time I was lucky enough to learn about this wonderful resource. There it was- a  dry pile of it - sitting innocently in a water tray in a P1 class just waiting to be examined and activated!!! The rest of the room was full of other activites to do with Wintertime.
Memories flooded back of the awful experience of my Primary one when the only creative activity was playing with  green Plasticine or a lacing card.
Well anyway back to the point - as a supply  teacher going round the classes one day doing McCrone cover. It became to me obvious that the further up the school a pupil went - the less creative activities were planned by the class teacher - and I wondered why that happened.
 The P7 class were very bored and could have been  looking at interactive snowflakes - see www.zefrank.com- using the whiteboard as one of their activities for the afternoon.Another group could have made Christmas cards and one must be sure they would have preferred to experiment with the artificial snow instead of finding how many words could be made out of Winter-wonderland!!

The next few weeks will be fun because of my responsibility to do the Art at the special school while the H.M.I. are visiting. Am not worried much but spent the last few hours making a puppet called Frosty the Snowman - who will be very good at getting the attention of the children who have hearing or visual impairment. - The puppet has jingly bells on it too for good measure. That's all very well having a puppet - I can hear HMI say - but what will you do with it - well it is to engage the children in the lesson initially and to keep their attention during it.
Another activity which seemed important  to do before an HMI inspection is to print out the learning outcomes for Expressive Arts and Science   -  and to learn them off by heart. As it turns out the artifical snow ties in with the science outcomes and so maybe one should download the whole curriculum outcomes. After all - it is part of  a teacher's responsibility to promote health and well being and encourage literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. Wish me luck.

The photography bug

I always liked photography and was taught by the best - in fact one of my peers was Calum Colvil the well known  photographer. We had the same teacher who was like a father figure to us all - Mr Fraser. He was so laid back about the subject. I used to escape to the photography studios when the smell of oil paint and turps was too much in search of his kindly advice.

We developed the free films ourselves. Of course the film was always black and white and I learned how important it was to get the image right first time. Now we are spoiled for choice what with all the settings which can be added instantly to the camera and the fact we can see the image instantly.
 My first camera was a Zenith - Russian made but as good as a Nikon and half the price. We were encouraged to take the camera everywhere and to include people in our pictures.
That is maybe why  digital photography is a great medium to use - it is instant and can be changed with post production without having to develop the film. It is a lot cheaper in the long run.

Now I have a camera which can upload pictures onto a computer along with my written words - it is amazing and am glad to have this technology now.

Today - I drew using only yellow to focus on the lines and shapes found in the rubbish. A cartoon sort of image began to emerge which was quite stunning to look at considering the simple technique used. So I have taken the theme of rubbish in my environment and looked at the colours and lettering and am bringing it to images which are pleasing to the eye.

This has been quite a leap of faith for me to keep doing as barriers which had stopped me creating kept on coming to the fore for example - at one point my creative drive was driven by praise and what others thought and by marks etc. which would overwhelm me completely. Instead my  new attitude is now more laid back and am glad to have the chance to create anything now and grateful for the technologies which enables one to share art globally!!! Someone somewhere has got to like it !

Art is in the eye of the beholder after all.
Okay now to download again.

Thanks again to Gordon for the tutorial

Space- the final frontier before Christmas.

Well only one more week to go until the school starts to do Christmas as a whole school topic.  Meanwhile my lessons are - making aliens using a paint blob on a piece of folded up paper  and making play dough with the class - to make aliens also.This last activity is a sensory activity - but how does one split art and sensory activities??

For example - I looked at the timetable under sensory activities for the next two weeks - the activites are - making craters in the sand , playdough aliens orange pomanders decorating Christmas logs. These activities might also be classified as Art activities - maybe in a nursery class.. This is a special school timetable and sensory activites are  very much part of the children's development. 

 I am looking for the hidden art activities in the curriculum because if we can identify the use and importance of art and its benefits to the development of children - then maybe art will begin to be seen as a very important skill throughout a child's school life.When I chose art as a subject at school my peers would say art is a useless subject. However over the years I realise that my love of art has been a vehicle for plenty of cross culture learning for me.This has helped me to become a more confident person.Although I still fight against the silly voices in my head telling me negative thoughts about my art - I move forward happier and more at peace with myself as I look for beauty in life..and try to capture this in my art.

Last week we managed to produce plenty of space ships. I had a feeling to buy extra strong tin foil - which was to be used to cover the top of the flying saucer. The children really enjoyed  crunching up the tinfoil and we made space rocks from it as well as using it to cover the flying saucer.I stapled two paper plates together and left the base plain to be decorated with glitter glue. The children were encouraged to squeeze the glue out of the tube - thus encouraging muscle strength. Some of the children are visually impaired and so it is important to have bright art materials to use. Others are hearing impaired and so the act of scrunching up or squeezing out or finger painting is an important part of their sensory/creative development.

I had rocket templates which were also decorated with glitter glue. The children also painted sun and stars using a mixture of medium. The result was a great display wall covered in space ships, flying saucers moons stars and space rocks. We also put up the learning outcome on the wall. I will ask if I can photograph this display.

That reminds me - I wanted a small compact camera to take with me on my walks in the environment. We have two big cameras which are difficult and awkward to carry. Thank goodness the other Sony Cybershot with 10.1 megapix turned up and is now charged up. It fits into my pocket and is very good. As I was walking about at the weekend - inspiration struck me again.. The skies are so beautiful and so is the vegetation the idea of me making images of the earth and sky could be the next project. The work in progress just now is exciting and today I did some more on the theme of rubbish found in my environment. Well now is a good time to take a picture and post it on this blog. Wish me luck...

Success!Thanks to my computer literate husband I now have them downloaded and am pleased with the results of the small camera. In fact the camera's viewfinder has actually helped me to frame the parts I like best.I am just using all the media I have to hand just now am mixing oil paint with acrylic paint and charcoal and using blank spaces too. Its all good fun!

Photo shoot and aliens

You  may wonder at the connection -  For a few days now I was racking my brain trying to come up with how to make a giant flying saucer which would be shiny and easy to manage. The theme at the school just now is - Space and the song- three little men in their flying saucer would be great to start with . This is found on You Tube and can be played on the interactive whiteboard.

Today we were making a video for a client's website using the large light reflector with its gold and silver coat on to reflect light onto the subject Then it clicked in my head - this reflector would make a great flying saucer and it is easy to carry - it just folds away. The children would be able to touch see and hear in this lesson. We could also throw the reflector and pass it round as a prelude to the art  lesson - objective of making a flying saucer for each child.

Another idea discovered was that the computer package called -Art Rage - can be used on an ipad. This new version enables a person to use their fingers to manipulate and create a design instead of the hassle of a mouse or pen. This would also be very good for these children to use. All I have to do now is to learn how to use it properly myself. It is possible to install this programme and use it with the interactive whiteboard. That would be such a great resource for a school to have ..Pictures on Art Rage can be stored in a Gallery form which would also be a great resource to show on parent's night...

Hope this works out all right!

This week has gone very well work wise as I finished in one school then was asked to work in a special school doing 2and a half days a week till Christmas.The level which the children are at is not defined as being within mainstream levels and so I have to go and research this area.

Having worked at this school before - I know how to plan lessons and follow routines.  However in light of my focus on the importance of Art in the Curriculum my mind is more open to the possibilities for creating art here. The school were also given the Black Box which means that the school will be having an Inspection in a couple of weeks.
At a special school where children are profoundly disabled the programmes are very sensory based. For example - A story would be told using a large picture book with appropriate props and puppets to enable the children who maybe visually or hearing impaired to understand the context better. Points of reference or pictures of activities are used to help the children understand where they are going to e.g. soft play or lunch.

At the moment I feel daunted by the prospect of the next few weeks and will have to look up LTS website for ideas.
Meanwhile my continuing art project is well under way. On a Saturday while walking the dogs I am looking for inpspiring things to put in my gathering bag - in my environment are many things and I am concentrating on litter just now.
After seeing the Street Art Seminar my mind has really opened up to the possibilities which occur around us by chance. Art is in the eye of the beholder.My collection of litter began with a marshmallow bag and moved into any bright wrapping I could find!
Today there was a lot of oranges yellows and browns funnily enough which I gathered along with a huge oak leaf. I think I will try these items together and hope you can see that permutation in  my photos from today. My interest in line has increased and I saw wiggly lines on sweet wrappers and elegant lines on chocolate bar wrappers along with some jagged lines in contrast.
Graphic designers need to know about the basic colour wheel before creating their work. I could see this know how in many of the wrappers found all had good colour contrasts in them.

The different lettering and how it is made to look appealing reminded me of Street Art. I think that a good collection of sweet wrappers etc would be a good starting point for a class to see examples of  different graphics which could lead to pupils creating their own writing which could in turn become a Street Art activity.Pupils could invent their own graffiti name etc..

Well now I shall download my recent photos of the above project and so please comment if you wish..
The first photo is inspired by the warm feelings one has when indoors on a cold night drinking hot chocolate. It reminds me of my family cafe and how as a teenager we were given all the cakes at the end of the day to take home and so fancy food was something which always tempted me. How much better off I am to just look at a picture of a cake than eat a real cake.
The colours of the marshmallows and cream on the hot chocolate are colours which I really like and so the idea progressed into the purple cup of chocolate - I used metallic acrylic and glass paint to experiment with colour and texture.

 The next two are the collections of litter from the last two Saturdays.I especially like todays see below as there are great colours there and I really liked the contrast of the curved lines of the natural oak leaf and the straight lines of the manufactured wrappers. I will develop this as a line and colour study.

This was my original pile of litter . The bright colours and interesting writing appealed to me. I picked out the marshmallows and chocolate bar to copy because I liked the elegant and jaggy lines in the bar wrapper and the shades of pink and yellow in the mallow wrapper.

This was an experiment and interst in both line and colour. The choc bar had a rawness of colour which contrasted with the soft pastel pinks of the mallows. The wavy lines were part of the decoration on a clear sweet wrapper.I used acrylic paint for the mallow and acrylic ink for the choc bar and glass paint for the wavy lines.

Marshmallows

Going out for walks in the sunlight is great for me and the dogs. I went out looking at the environment and had a bee in my bonnet about my latest project. In my mind's eyes was an empty bag of  marshmallows which I found aesthetically pleasing, but my mind was telling me I was being silly and what would people think etc.and the creative process halted.

The images and mind set of street art images came  my mind as if to say - well if you like marshmallow wrappers then fair enough. Just because the image you like is not a formal image or one that people would think was an arty image then that is o.k. There were plenty of  discarded sweet wrappers lying around the place  and I began to pick them up and see them as interesting visual images despite them being also rubbish.

The words win and x factor were on one wrapper and I began to see how advertising draws so much on art. The bright lime green  wrapper and purple can were my favourite finds along with the stripey gold and red biscuit wrapper scrunched up like a heart.

My mind felt creative and I was all enthusiastic and tried to take pictures with my phone but it would not download them. So I will take pictures with another camera and put them in this blog..The next stage would be to use the images to create new images based on the colours and designs found today.
So instead of shutting down the creative process I must  remember to take risks and think outside of the box creatively.

The nights are fair drawing in.

It is dark at six o'clock now. I prefer the lighter evenings,because I can go for walks after work and look for inspiration in my local environment. See above from a few weeks ago.This week I got back from working and it was as dark as when I left early in the morning.

The only thing which cheers up these dark nights is  hot chocolate - with marshmallows and squirty cream .Inspiration - a screenprint of a lovely mug of hot chocolate could be added to my to do list  then if I print a few maybe the craft and art shops in the town could sell them..

I really enjoyed working with the primary 3/4 this week and yesterday we were looking at you tube videos about Autumn. I had to overide Glow - and log into Google and type in- Autumnal Scenes. The pupils then used the images as examples to draw their own scene.
It was amazing to see such high quality videos showing some  lovely scenes. You tube is one of the best resources a teacher has now for visual images.

 It is so important to change as technology does. A good example of what children watch was glimpsed today as I drove home. In a house I saw mounted on the wall a huge T.V. screen showing very fast moving cartoon.
 This is the norm for most children now and images are very fast paced. We used to have Andy Pandy in black and white on T.V. We had the choice of three channels and no computers or IPADs.

Educators are bringing in new technology into the class. As an artist teacher I would like to have the resources available to enable pupils to use the computer or Ipads to produce art work . I think this would help many pupils to focus on a task and learn important technology skills.

Inspiration is an individual experience.

It was funny to suddenly feel creative again after all these years. When at Art College I was always looking for a good image to record and enhance. So I would go for walks to the beach with my camera or go to the shopping centre and would also go to museums where many artifacts would inspire me. I especially liked the art work of the religious artists who created paintings which adorned many churches of the 15 th C. I can see this influence in my work now as I like the bright colours and use of gold paint. 

At one point my interest was in making some kind of statement in a decorative way and for a while my work focused on the importance of eating healthy food. I remember making a mock chocolate box in plaster along with some paintings which had bright jewel like sweets stuck onto them..

I was encouraged to use ice cream colours in my art work. This has all come back to me now after eating a "nobbly bobbly " ice lolly (by nestle) feeling all inspired to create bright pictures based on fun food like - ice lollies and cup cakes - which can be depicted with bright cheery colours.

Well maybe it is just a passing whim but I thought I should write it down anyway because otherwise my day would be without art !!

More fireworks

Well today at another nursery the paintings on the wall were- firework pictures made by applying orange red and yellow paint using a marble. Just like a ballpoint pen disperses ink the marble mixes the colours and gives big long paint lines like rockets. So I now know of at  least four ways of making firework pictures!!!
My next job is working with primary four and fives for a few days so I am looking forward to see what art will  plannned and what art I can fit in.
An art teacher at Craigie campus used to tell her student teachers - art is the centre of the curriculum - she explained that most subjects use art somewhere. It is my aim to identify the great and important role art plays by observing lessons in the new curriculum.

Fireworks

Well that is us well into winter now what with hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes night over with. I was really pleased to have had work at a nursery over the last few days because there was so much art making going on to celebrate these yearly events.
The nursery was full of art and the walls were covered in  Autumn leaves and pictures- with a real tree branch as part of the focus. Words such as Autumn - branch - windy, golden and brown were all part of the display. What a good way of combining language and art.
The children made crepe paper chains from orange and black crepe paper and we made pumpkin lantern and ghost decorations which was good fun.The decorations were made using folded paper - some children found cutting difficult.There were pre- cut lanterns which could be decorated with hallowe'en confetti !!
Another wall was covered with firework pictures which were made using blobs of paint and glitter glue with a sprinkling (or handful) of glitter. The paint was teased out with a straw to give the effect of a firework. This was a very effective way of making a firework picture and even the bonfire could be made using glue glitter and paint. The result was amazing and better than the usual wax resist pictures of fireworks.
In an other school in P1/2  - we watched some firework displays on you tube- and the children wrote  poems and drew  pictures using the sounds of fireworks in the poem. With such a visual focus for the lesson it did not surprise me to see how well the class did.

Wow what a lot of learning.

Over the last few weeks of observing children and their art making activities - my own experience as a child has reminded me that  children's art is sometimes  something a parent washes of the walls or the sofa. I remember a wonderful experiment of melting wax crayons on a white radiator which got me into a lot of bother.

.So it was interesting to see what might happen when one was creating art as an adult  in a home with children around..My youngest child likes to make art and drew and painted some wonderful pictures which had real meaning in them.He used the art materials which were on the table - without me telling him to and  just created art. The other siblings were not interested and were more involved in computer games.If a board with watercolour paper is prepared - there has to be one prepared for him .He enjoys the interaction and also loves to bake - which is another creative activity..

 Over the last few weeks I started my visual arts project for the UWS course. At first the fear of failure loomed - that fear of - well if you don't get an A plus then you are not good enough. Thankfully there is no grade just a pass or not. Then the task to find some material which would become a stimulus for creative interaction was  next. How does one record images - a camera -did some recording. Then it was important to use the art skills which had been honed thus proving to all that I really am an artist.I really do enjoy using pencil and ink and have a strong love of vibrant colours.
However through all this enjoyment  -  feelings of guilt tried to wash over me  and  voices of parents saying  things like -why are you wasting time doing art - etc - did not stop me - my art became my therapy...

So it was very liberating to start creating work and to actually like what was being done. My mood of despondency and guilt began to go and after about two days - the real me began to feel happy doing art again..
Memories of parental figures returned haunting me with words like -" get a job first to fall back on then do your art" - kind of made sense. Now it would be  great to combine a job i.e. teaching with doing art..

My studio is in the house which is convenient. During my initial art practice my art inclinations have moved towards printmaking and producing pattern  This means that I would have to go to a print-makers workshop and moving out of my comfort zone of producing art in the house.That is an exciting prospect which I have still to explore...

Here are some of the progressions I did for my Visual Arts Project. I started off with a pile of vegetation and looked for the beauty in it and focused on one area of interest. I used a small viewfinder to help me find a good image.
The first one was from an bunch of oak leaves. As luck would have it there was a collection of Acrylic Ink in the shed which I found at the right time to use. They had belonged to my mother in law who is a good artist.
I really liked the pure clear colours and the gold! So put them to good use. See below.

Here are some images taken from the sketch of poppies.

Today was very interesting because I was able to see how structured activities in a special purpose built playroom. That is how the curriculum for excellence works at the early level -with a mixture of the home corner and other learning activities throughout the day. I was reminded again about the importance of planning carefully. If you plan well - everything goes smoothly because: you can prepare your learning materials before hand and also avoid  problems if every child is engrossed in an interesting and worthwhile activity.

At the writing table was a huge pile of workcards which were laminated pictures of ice cream cones ,snails,

frogs etc for the children to trace over with a pencil or pen.This was my example of art in the curriculum today.

Today waS very exciting going up to G.O.M.A the glasgow museum of modern art. I was looking forward to this all week thinking that I would learn new things and I did. In Art teaching there is so much perspective!

My focus on the use of art in the Primary School has helped me to be very aware of how art is sneaked in through different subjects and then classed as part of language and not a subject in its own right.For example children are assessed for language skills if they can illustrate a story in detail.

This week had some very hot weather. The children at the special school I worked at for one day - were out to play as usual in their purpose built playground. The playground is a green open space with climbing frames and secret hideouts and is well supervised. At one point a group had become involved in mark making using sticks that they had found in the open space. The children were writing their names and making patterns quite happily on a patch of bare ground where the grass had worn away.This basic need to express who there are and  to identify themselves I likened  to cave painting and  street art.This is the curriculum for excellence in operation said one member of staff.

Last week there was a sheltered area in the Nursery School in which  I worked  which shouted '' PAINT ME ''  It seemed sad that such an area which was used to play nursery games in- should have bare walls instead of children's art illustrations and text of nursery rhymes. Who would facilitate that and encourage the covering of that area??

After watching the Street Art slideshow from the American expert James Daichendt  and listening to his talk. I was impressed that A FREE WALL space is set up in L.A. - to encourage street artists to use their talents by improving and enhancing bare walls  in the city with their art. This initiative serves as a constantly changing art gallery which could be adapted to include for example a whole school. I like the idea of using free spaces to involve the community of the school.

At another special school they bought in a willow artist who made shapes of familiar objects from a metal frame and the whole group worked on weaving willow to make the sculpture complete. It was a great experience to see the pupils try to do art and maybe the only chance they would have to do this.I liked to see the sketch book of the artist as they showed his intense observational skills and his different ways of viewing objects.

So there was plenty of interesting art thinking going on in my mind along with a hope that one day all the schools in this area would be encouraged to use their empty wall space to create art on.

Today I was working at an nursery and was aware of how important art activities are at every stage.Well there is playdough , paper pens , paint and junk construction and collage. Every day the children are given the opportunity to use these materials. While they are engaged in the above activities they are learning how to manipulate their environment. They are building confidence and making things which are a record of their lives.They are using pictures to tell stories. They are also inmproving their fine motor skills an essential part of pre - writing skills.

When I was at teaching training college the art specialist told us that art is the centre of the curriculum and I have always believed that to be very true.

Maybe it is just me- but maths seems more interesting when you can draw pictures to represent sharing etc. or cut a circle decorated like a pizza in halves or quarters etc. Well I know I am a visual learner and so that is my preferred teaching and learning style.

The point I am trying to make though- is that the art seemed to stop at some stage in Primary school and left gaps in my life..sob- however I was blessed with having a granpa who was a cartoonist and who encouraged and inspired me.

Art can increase children's confidence and can even act as a therapy.
In the bigger picture Art is everywhere advertising , music and media furniture and fashion.

We need creative people to enhance and inspire us and art teaching should provide the relevant structure to do so.

Hello  well today I was interested in seeing David Hockneys work in the Telegraph. When he first emerged as an artist the media made a huge thing of the fact he was gay. Now he was hailed as a chain smoking Yorkshire man who changed the Art world.

He likes photography and the way it captured pictures he did not want to be trapped he said by doing photorealism. His work always inspired me because of the visual busy ness  in his pictures and his use of bright colours and pattern.

He captures the beautiful as a camera would do then puts his own spin on things.

His work is well worth looking at and I admire him and put him on my top ten favourite artist list - Picasso..well he is no 1.

Beginning to think like an art teacher is very exciting and gives me an excuse to think creatively again.

As a student I was always on the look out for material to inspire and that lay stagnant for a while as nappies and babygros took over my world. Now the babies are grown up and inside me is a desire to create order out of chaos even outside of the house!!
When I started on the artist teacher course at uws my mind opened up and then one day zing it was back - inspiration- last week - a whole cross curricular plan was made in my head based on the different way that plant seeds are dispersed. Thisplan covers language biology music geography art p.e. drama - and even rme c .I have written this to remind myself that I can do this..

My first blog post!This is the theme I am focussing on just now -the vegetation in my local environment. This is my first drawing of the vegetation. Using charcoal I just drew what I saw. Here also is a statement of intent which has to go into my blog.