Nature ReCreations Workshop « Janaina Marques

Nature ReCreations Workshop

My Art Workshops for children ages 6-12 are inspired by the beauty of the natural world. Children will learn how things we normally see around us – leaves, stones, animals, seeds – can become beautiful decorative pieces for a home.

In each class the students are taught a basic art concept through hands-on projects, exploring the fundamentals of design, perspective, and art history, and using proven teaching methods for children.

Each class is two hours and all materials are provided.

The workshop will end with an exhibit of students’ work, on July 19th.

A huge thank you to all the sponsors who have made this project possible!

Group A: Children ages 6-9
07/07/08 Hand Painted Animals: Today we got our hands warmed up for art…with finger paint. I discovered how to use different parts of my hand and finger to make shapes. After a little practice, I painted beautiful wild animals with my hands.
Negative/positive shapes; outlines; painting

07/08/09 Introduction to Lines: All the great artists started drawing lines. Today I learned about famous artists and then we made our own line drawings.
Art history (Klee, Picasso); pencil on paper ; lines

07/09/08 Leaf Patterns: In this class we looked at the shapes of leaves from 4 native Montana trees. I picked my favorite one and traced it with a marker. Then I learned how to look at positive and negative shapes and make compositions with patterns.
Pencil and paper; permanent marker; composition and patterns

07/10/08 Sock Puppets: We gave new life to old socks today. I saw how so many things that normally go in the trash can become parts of a sock animal. I used everything I learned about shapes, colors, and lines to make the most fun sock puppets.
Collage; recycling; composition

07/11/08 Eggheads: I made a whole family of eggheads today! I invented 6 characters and drew them on eggshells. Then we learned more about seeds and planted some hair for each egghead. Next week when their hair grows in I’m going to give each of them a different hair cut.
Permanent marker; cartoon; seed planting

07/14/08 Natural Forests: Today I made my own forest! We learned about the importance of forests on the planet and what they give us. Using leaves, twigs, rocks and other natural objects that I see everyday, and modeling clay I created my own forest.
Sculpture

07/16/08 Still life: I brought my favorite animal from home to class today. My teacher showed me how to look at it and then draw it on paper. Then I drew its normal environment and made a great composition around my animal.
Oil pastel; drawing; warm and cold colors; sighting; composition

07/17/08 Family portrait: Today I drew my family portrait. I used pastels to draw my mom, dad, brothers and grandparents, even my parakeet. I’m getting pretty good at pastels now!
Oil pastel, drawing

07/18/08 Flying Discs: I see a lot of my parent’s old CDs in the trash. Today my teacher showed me a way to recycle them. I turned them into animals using construction paper and markers. Now they’re hanging in my room.
Recycling; collage; pencil and paper

Group B: Children ages 10-12
07/07/08 Leaf Patterns: In this class we looked at the shapes of leaves from 4 native Montana trees. I picked my favorite one and traced it with a marker. Then I learned how to look at positive and negative shapes and make compositions with patterns.
Pencil and paper; permanent marker; composition and patterns

07/08/08 Introduction to Lines: All the great artists started drawing lines. Today I learned about famous artists and then we drew our own line drawings. That was pretty easy, but then we turned our line drawings into sculptures using paper. It was really neat to see the same shape in 1 and 3 dimensions.
Art history (Klee, Picasso, Michelangelo); pencil on paper; lines

07/09/08 Straw Sculptures: Today we continued exploring lines in 3 dimensions. Using drinking straws and wire, we created really fun sculptures. I learned how to use triangles to form structures.
Wire; sculpture; recycling

07/10/08 Frames and magazines: Every picture has a frame. Painters, photographers, and film directors all work with frames. So today we explored framing pictures in different ways. It’s amazing how a picture changes when you move the frame, even a little bit. I traced over a bunch of different framed pictures and made my own composition.
Light and shadow; composition with positive/negative shapes; framing

07/11/08 Seed/Grain Mandalas: Today we learned all about seeds and grains and used different colored seeds and grains to make mandalas. First, I drew my own mandala by repeating shapes. Then I chose my colors and painted my mandala with seeds. It took a lot of concentration to make it look good!
Patterns; texture; collage; markers

07/14/08 Flower and apple still life: Looking at something and drawing it is really hard. But today we learned how to break complicated things up into easier shapes. First we made our own bouquets of flowers and then, little by little we drew and colored them in.
Sighting; pencil on paper; oil pastel

07/15/08 Bugs: Today I learned all about the life in rivers. Not just fish, but all the bugs that live on and under rocks under water. We looked at bugs with magnifying lenses to see how they are built and then drew them.
Sighting; colored pencil on paper; mirror drawing

07/16/08 Still life with animals: I brought in my favorite animal from home to class today. My teacher showed me how to look at it and then draw it on paper. Then I drew its normal environment and made a great composition around my class.
Pencil on paper; markers; warm and cold colors; sighting; composition

07/17/08 Bird garland and bird feeder: Trash turned into useful art, today…and the birds are going to love it. We took empty milk and juice containers and turned them into awesome bird feeders. We used all kinds of different materials and everybody’s bird feeder came out really unique.
Collage; recycling

07/18/08 Signature and self portrait: Today was so fun. My teacher asked me to draw myself. But instead of drawing, I covered a paper with oil pastel and then took away color to draw myself. Like a reverse self-portrait.
Oil pastel; self portrait