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.