Finding Inspiration in Elementary Art

Most schools in our area, and I think this is common in other states as well, do not have a dedicated art teacher or curriculum set in place.  At schools my son has attended, they have parent volunteers as docents.  At the first school they had lessons planned and sorted in tubs with supplies and lesson plans.  I liked this because not every docent is skilled or even knowledgeable regarding the subject as a volunteer. It also meant that each year the children would be exposed to a variety of different artists and they would not have duplicated projects year to year. I do like progression so if you teach the same lesson year after year you can see how the child's art evolves.

Enough about organized art. At the second school that I am currently involved with, the art docent program is really open-ended. Meaning, you come up with your own projects, lessons, tools, literature, and examples. So you can use the items in the storage room of an elementary school such as paint, watercolors, sharpies, and construction paper. Anything out of the ordinary or creative is out of your own pocket. Knowing art and having years of prepared materials this is not a big deal for me. I can tweak a lesson so many directions and ability levels it's not even funny.

I used pieces of Happy Mail from artist friends, such as the Oz stamp, Alice, Altered tickets, small vintage woman picture and the stamped arrow image. 

One of the projects at the school this year was classroom wide for a leadership symposium for the Leader in Me Program.  One of the parents (an artistic lady and very good friend of mine) presented a project that would tie into the ideas and dreams of each individual child in the school.  Each child was photographed. One project used the kids body outlines to make constellations of themselves.  Another project was the side profile picture in 8x10 size cut out and tape masking lines this way and that, painted over and removed for the kids to write positive leadership things about themselves.  The favorite of mine and where my inspiration for the page came from is such a stunning and beautiful project.

Here's the basic steps:

1. Paint shades of blues in different values with watercolors on watercolor paper.
2. Drop salt to soak up some paint and create a "starry" effect.
3. Add glitter on top for a little bit of sparkle while the watercolor is still wet.
4. Add a side profile picture of the child/or myself as in my project in the bottom left corner.
5. Choose ephemera and pictures or items of things that represent you, or that you dream about
6. Lay out the elements on the page above the picture for a composition that you like. Some things overlap each other and create texture.
7. Glue down all the items and adhere to a black background paper.

I just used the same techniques with different colors and items that were special to me. This is the journal page the elementary project inspired.  This was made for a watercolor prompt. I usually don't use watercolor but need to expand that area of my artist toolbox.