Thinking Outside the Canvas Spring '12 Day 4

On the fourth and final day of the Thinking Outside the Canvas workshop, the students dove right into their canvases, pulling together all of the studies and other painted, printed and drawn pieces they had done during the first 3 sessions, and using fragments from these to build a mixed-media collage on their large prepared surfaces.  

This series of photos shows the progression of Launi's piece from Day 1 to its final incarnation... 

Lots of cutting and ripping and gluing ensued, and then some more cutting as the pieces were turned and analyzed to create  better compositions.  The final pieces were each completely different from each other, but all quite spectacular...see for yourself!

Thinking Outside the Canvas Spring '12 Day3

Here are the collograph prints made during the last class...

On Day3, "Mapping the Mind," the students did a warmup exercise using words, but in a visual way.  They created a stream-of-consciousness mind-map, beginning with one word inspired by the image they brought with them, and branching out into a network of words, thoughts and feelings.  

Then Sarah demonstrated how an idea for a piece of art can arise from looking at everyday objects in a slightly different way.  We zoomed in on a map, looking for a piece of cartography that when enlarged, becomes an abstract series of lines and symbols.  The students drew these lines on paper, and then painted with acrylic paint... 

The last exercise involved listening to a series of instructions on drawing a series of lines and shapes in a particular order, and then painting these in.  The "image" the students were drawing was an aerial view of (loosely) the Capilano watershed.

Despite the fact that the students were all following the same sequence, it is amazing how different their final products were...

And last, before leaving for the evening, the students added another layer to their ongoing piece of canvas, in this case torn or cut pieces of old maps.  These were adhered to the canvas with gel medium.

Thinking Outside the Canvas Spring '12 Day 2

The second class of the Thinking Outside the Canvas adult art class began with pushing paint around on gessoed paper to create a colour field upon which the students will build additional layers over the next two classes.  The final piece will be a mixed media collage loosely based on an image/photo that each student brought to the class to serve as inspiration and reference for many of the exercises.

This class was all about print-making, starting with basic inkblots using india ink and acrylic paint, and then working into these with oil pastels.  We also did direct transfers by drawing into thin sheets of styrofoam and then painting these with acrylics...the results were amazing, and the process simple, but addictive!

The last printing we did was using a collograph as a plate, inking up the plates with Speedball ink,  and running them through the press...always a bit of a mystery when pulling the print off the plate!  There will be more images of these prints in next week's blog post.

Thinking Outside the Canvas Spring 2012

This Spring, Artists for Kids is hosting two more 4-session art workshops for Adults, both of them happening in the evening on Mondays (Colouring Outside Your Mind -- see next post) and Wednesdays (Thinking Outside the Canvas).

In Thinking Outside the Canvas, students will be developing and exploring ways of expressing themselves through drawing, painting, printmaking and playful experimentation.  Utilizing a photograph to inspire and inform their creative process, they will deconstruct, collect, build and express a visual narrative, while exploring various methods of idea generation, composition and art making techniques.  

 Check back weekly for updates on what the students are doing through the month of May...

Thinking Outside the Canvas Session One

Christy and Andrea having fun with gesso...

Normand, Julie and Ann studying their photos...

Geri, Launi and Dorli hard at "work"...

Julia and Ann breaking it down...