Art in the Studio

Today was our day to return to Sam’s art studio for our second art class. When we arrived we were happy to find Sam waiting for us with painting smocks and large black paper set up on the two long tables. As everyone settled in on their stools Sam brought out several different sizes of paint brushes and held them up for us to see. Each different brush, she explained, could be used for a different project. Using our problem solving skills we thought of scenarios where each size of brush might be used from painting walls to painting on our papers. Sam introduced us to the parts of the brush such as the bristles and even showed us a brush used for ink painting and let us feel how soft the bristles were on that particular tool against our cheeks which resulted in many happy giggles.

Then everyone was given their own brand new brush and we introduced ourselves to this new art tool. We felt the bristles, swept the brush across our pages to listen to the sounds it made, and a few of us smelled our brushes and compared the new brush scent to things we had smelled before. Then we took out our jars of white paint and began our project. 

 

 

 

 The contrast of white on black was an exciting combination and everyone had something different to make with it from painting our own robots to seeing how circles might look with other circles inside, to writing our names.

 Having been working a lot on our writing technique, we found that we could hold the paintbrush as if it were a pencil and gain even more control over our artistic expressions.

 

 

 

Sam then added black paint to our options and we explored how the colors mixed, building on our last class and thinking about what happens when two new colors come together, or even how the black paint on the black paper created interesting textures. 

When our paintings were complete, Sam gave us the option of switching to white paper and seeing if the black and white paint seemed different mixed on a white background. When we had finished, we watched as our projects were carefully placed on the drying rack and we thanked Sam for the exciting art she helped us create before leaving her studio.