Water and Sky, Step 1

Blue Pond, Hakkaido

National Geographic brings us a photo a day. November 10, 2011. Stunning.

The bare trees, with snow covered branches, rise up out of the bluest water. The trees and drifting snow flakes are reflected in the water. The trees stand stark agains the white sky.

It is the time of year when our 4- and 5-year olds explore medium, materials, and composition during a bridge between the Sense of Place and Sense of Self units. We play with possibilities and learn about constraints. To do this, we look at illustrations in books, in artwork we have seen around town or at home, or in this particular case, a photograph of the Blue Pond in Hakkaido.

I looked at the photo and thought symmetry. Squirting/trailing paint onto a piece of paper and folding it to discover the halves of a whole is always fun. Now imagine joining two pieces of paper, each painted using different kinds of paint, and THEN applying the lines of paint to find the mirrored lines. Imagine that each half of paper represented sky or water and that the lines, mirrored, are trees standing against one and reflected in the other. Symmetry!

We used white and blue tempera for the sky and shades of blue and green liquid watercolor for the pond.

The tempera paint is applied for sky. It was interesting to watch how the children
changed their painting technique between the two. Sky was grand gestures
with swirling paint. Water flowed in waves and ripples.