Easel Painting

I wanted to collect some footage of easel paintings in progress. Two things...The children did not talk as they paint. They worked in silence. I had to respect that. The other thing, is that I cannot fix the camera on just the easels. There is simply too much going on. We have clay. On this day we also had watercolors at work on another project. Too busy!

Here is what I was able to collect. Each of these painters completed their paintings in one session. They gave them titles the next day.

The Circle Goes Up!

A quote from a parent at our school about the "look twice" -- the purposeful return to projects over time.

One of the coolest aspects of these projects is the layering. For me, this reinforces the VALUE of the work, as it is something that reappears time after time. Art and creation as a process, rather than a product. This concept sticks (big time) for life.

Over the course of the school year, the children may complete as few as two easel paintings. They revisit these paintings many, many times. Each layer adding to the conversation with materials. Once completed, the children name them and then the pieces are labeled and displayed. This places a great, and shared, value on their effort.

Teachers take great care in lining their classroom "nests." They know the message this sends to the children. On Monday, the children will arrive at school to discover the new display. This discovery is shared by all of the age groups. On Monday, the Leaves (3 and 4-year olds) take note and the Tracks (4 and 5-year olds) share in a camaraderie that is shaped by the new display.

If you would like to learn more about the different stages of these particular easels, please see The Circle Goes Round and Oil Pastel on Tempera.

Oil Pastel on Tempera

The children work on easel paintings for a l-o-n-g time. The second set of easel paintings for the school year were started this month (January). The first layer features neutral tones (grays, blacks, and browns). The second layer featured a mandala study. In the end, this bright pop of colors circle painting within a painting tumbled out to look like these very cool floating planets on a misty night sky. Happy accidents, on purpose, but not my purpose...the children's purpose.

Today, some of the children -- it will take a long time for this next layer because limited table space -- added the next layer, oil pastel.

Easel Paintings, Taking it up a Notch

Teachers look around for inspiration every minute of the day. Inspiration can be found in so many places, but more often, we simply find it by exchanging ides with other teachers.

My younger son took an after school art class with the artist, Justin Pyles. The students were working on paintings of flowers and I was amazed at the richness of the color. It wasn't just vibrant, you could see the brush strokes and layers of blended colors. I wondered if it was oil paint. It wasn't. Justin had the children apply a glue wash on top of the dried tempera paintings. I knew that in collage, a glue wash is needed for the top, but this...this opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

A third layer of line, shape, and color is applied to an easel painting

When an easel painting is in process it is a joy to behold. It is an all-senses experience. It is about movement and about rich visuals. The blending of colors and line of the brush is what leads the inspiration for children. You can see it as a child works. We do work on a single easel paintings for several weeks and sometimes months. Applying this glue wash captures the movement, color blends, and brush strokes so that the viewer can better appreciate the evolution of every painting.

Hint: You must have flat surfaces for these to dry on. The glue is white glue mixed in 1 to 3 water to glue measure.

The glue wash process begins.

A set of paintings left to dry. The drying time varies depending on how
much glue is applied and how it pools. I try not to move or stack them for
at least 14 hours.

A finished work. Brush strokes and blending is revealed. Note: the yellow is the color of the construction paper that was used for this set of paintings. It is always interesting to see how the paper color peeks (or doesn't peek) through.

Detail of a larger painting. It would appear that the green is raised above the red, curling to catch arms with the green tendril above.

Detail of the painting below. The brushstrokes float. This artistry is usually only seen in wet paint. As tempera dries it flattens and dulls. By adding the glue wash these subtleties return.

The whole painting. The detail above is taken from the inner ring/frame of purple --
that happy, little jump up of light blue.