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Our first all-school art experience this school year was styrofoam puff sculptures. One of my goals in September is to make sure all our new students feel comfortable coming to work in the art studio and learn where to find the art supplies that they need. For this project we learned about the word sculpture, had fun seeing how tall we could make our puffs stack, and painting them once they were dry.
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I love to see the pride and satisfaction on the students' faces when they take an idea from start to finish in the Art Studio. All these projects - from countdown to Christmas calendar, to portrait of a recycling truck to a painting of a super sandwich - were based on the students' interests and ideas with minimal help from me.
217 prints in four days! Wow! We were busy printmaking in the Art Studio last week. Each student made an edition of prints from a pencil drawing. Once the drawing is carved into the styrofoam sheet, artists roll ink onto the styrofoam. We put a paper on top of the ink and give the paper a good back rub to make sure the ink is transferred. Then, the best part - peel the paper off and admire the print! We love the feeling and sound of rolling the sticky ink back and forth. We started with the primary colors, but ended up creating new colors as the mornings went on. Several students came back to repeat the process more than once. They became the experts who could help the beginners at the table. Now that we have many experienced printmakers, I think there will be more printing fun to come as the school year continues!
We love to watercolor paint at preschool. Many students have experience with painting from watercolor trays either at home or at school. I introduced liquid watercolors in jars with only the primary colors - red, yellow, and blue. These colors can be mixed to create all the colors of the rainbow. The liquid watercolors provide bright, rich colors, and are easy to mix and blend on the watercolor paper. The students don’t need directions about how to mix colors. They are naturally curious to see what happens when colors mix and blend, and it becomes creative play - and that play produces beautiful results!
The October fall colors inspired our marble painting colors. We had such fun moving the boxes to roll the paint-covered marbles across the papers. More October inspiration came in the form of pumpkins and squash to draw and paint from. I decided to display both pieces together because the colors and textures were so lovely and fall-like.
We are lucky to have an awesome long counter in the studio dedicated to open-ended creating. The kids love to have space to spread out and socialize while working side by side with their classmates. Many collaborations and wonderful conversations occur in this area each morning.
At the beginning of the school year, we spent some time learning where to find what we need to create art in the Art Studio. I asked students to tell me what they knew about various art tools, and I compiled their answers to share on the windows looking into the studio. They knew about the basics, but they also had some creative insights on how to use each tool. I’m sharing a few below but take a minute to stop by and read the rest the next time you are at preschool.
Recently, I took a small group of students to Public Space One to visit the current exhibit - "Give and Take". The exhibit is about mothers who create alongside their children, and includes art work by both the mothers and the children. Next spring, Preucil will be having our own art show in a gallery. My purpose for visiting with this committee of students was to gather information about "What is a gallery?" and "How can we display our artwork?". This show was perfect, since we got to see a variety of display techniques, as well as a variety of art media represented - even better, much of it was created by kids! We were fortunate to get a tour from curator and featured artist Heidi Casto. Heidi is also a previous Preucil preschool parent, and preschool alumna Beatrice had pieces on display. Heidi shared her knowledge about the artists, and gave us some valuable information about how to display our work. We had come up with ideas like clips, nails, tape, and frames for our artwork, but she taught us about super strong mini magnets and special shelves for 3D art. Heidi also taught us about how and why an artist must edit their creations before deciding what to put into a gallery exhibit. Our gallery committee was observant and noticed the animal theme in Heidi and her daughters' creations. all (awesome) gallery photos by Rebecca Sanabria Later, the gallery committee shared our experience at PS1 with the rest of our classmates. We discussed what the gallery looked like, what we learned, and that we will be talking more about a Preucil art show as the school year continues. "Give and Take" will be on display at Public Space One through September, and it is worth a stop while you are downtown!
Gallery hours are: Thursdays 1-8pm, Fridays 1-4pm, Saturdays 12-4pm, Sundays 1-4pm, and by appointment: [email protected] Also look forward to the kid-friendly "Spooky House" exhibit coming up in October. I came here to post a few samples of artwork made in the studio today because all three made me feel thankful to be returning to this space to work with this age group. These drawings show the freedom preschoolers feel with materials, as well as the thoughtful intentions behind their marks - discovered by a simple question, "Would you tell me about what you created?". "It's for Riley and me. There's a sun and a pool for ducks and a park." - E. "It's a treehouse. The tape is the ladder." - J. ."There's a little frog on the water on a leaf and it missed its mama because its mama was at home. And there's a little heart because it loves its mama. The snail was alone and crying but then it found a mama." - C
We made initials out of model magic clay for our egg tray collages, and some kids enjoyed it so much that we decided to make the whole alphabet for the Art Studio. First, we made a list of the alphabet letters, then volunteers stopped by the table to make a letter - or two or three. We checked them off our list as they were completed, and had the whole alphabet completed in one morning. The next day, more preschool volunteers stopped in and painted the letters with liquid watercolors. Finally, I mounted and hung them above one of our windows. Stop by and check out our colorful creations!
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Kirsten Williamson
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January 2022
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