Rainbow Fish

Springwood Art Class based their fish paintings yesterday on the illustrations in the classic book 'The Rainbow Fish'  by Marcus Pfister. Students coloured their fish drawings in with watercolour pencils, using metallic oil pastel for the shiny scales. The oil pastel resists the water and watercolour paint.                        

Roy Lichtenstein

Today in Springwood Art Class we looked at the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein, especially his newsprint/comic dot artworks. Check out the wonderful art made by students in response to his work: 

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Art and Science of Rainbows

In my 'Art and Science of Rainbows' workshop these school holidays at Katoomba Library, lucky young artist-scientists got to conduct exciting experiments and create colourful art, all in the name of exploring rainbows, prisms and the colour spectrum!

Here are just some of the things we did:

1. Used a torch through a prism, to create a rainbow on a white wall.
2. Discussed the science behind raindrops and light creating rainbows.
3. Played with colourful 'Dragon's Eggs' (Otherwise known as Water Beads or Orbeez). Click here to see an awesome video of a pool FILLED with Orbeez!!
4. Used an eye dropper to put drops of food colouring into oil.
5. Spun a colour wheel around until it turned white. Click here for another take on this activity.
6. Blended chalk pastels on black paper, to create rainbow-inspired artworks.

Ice Skating Watercolour Painting

Above: artwork by Kathe Soave

Inspired by the wintry painting above by artist Kathe Soave, the class today had the task of using watercolour pencils to create an ice skating artwork. We drew the rink and skating characters (including skating animals!), stars in the sky and cosy houses in the distance. 

Salt Painting

Here's a fun art and science activity from today's class! Firstly we drew patterns or simple images/words using squeeze bottles of PVA glue. Then, at our salt station table, we covered our drawings with salt and shook the excess into a plastic tub to reuse. Using thin paintbrushes, drops of watercolour paint were added to the salt-covered PVA. The salt slurps up the watercolour quickly, so you can see it bleeding along the lines of the drawing - very cool. 

To do this at home, you'll need:

Cardboard, watercolour paper or paper plates
Watercolour paint
Table salt
Thin paintbrushes or plastic paint eye-droppers 

Hints and warnings:

*These works are very fun to make but they aren't hardy - unfortunately they won't last a long time. Make sure to take a photo if you like what you've created!
*The colours will change overnight as the work dries out.
*Cover the PVA drawings as thoroughly with salt as possible so the paint will spread well. 

Have a look at these amazing works from today, I hope the students are as thrilled with the results as I am!