I worked with the E.W. Coffin School in Fall of 2009.  I taught 170 students from Kindergarden to Grade 6.  We studied the Wispering Woods for one week.

1.  Viewing then drawing from memory

2.  Sketching while viewing the item or space you are drawing

3.  Learning new sketching methods

4.  How to use Oil Pastels

5.  Creating a picture combining memory and viewing techniques

My with the children at E.W. Coffin School

'Urban Park Through the Eyes of Children'

400 Paintings, sketchbooks and photographs on view at Artpoint Gallery

January 16th Opening from 1pm to 9pm

Show runs until January 31st

Artpoint Gallery
located at 1139-11th Street S.E., Calgary, Alberta, T2G 3G1
just west of the 12th Street railway overpass in historic Inglewood/Ramsay
From 11th St. S.E., turn west on 19th Ave., then north on 9th St.,
and finally east on 11th Ave. and follow it to the end.
Plenty of free parking available

This is just one example of the many fascinating paintings created by the children at Langevin School.

The final paintings were created over two visits with each of the 16 classes. Judging by the speed to paint in their sketchbooks, I thought most of the paintings would be completed within 15 minutes. I was wrong, many of the students barely finished after two classes. The children were really engaged in the painting exercise and they cared to create meaningful work.

This student was careful to create textured grass and her tree has a few fall leaves. This careful placement of the leaves at the end of the branches creates an 'iconic' image of a tree. The strong colour of lines in compared to the lighter colour of the background make for a very interesting painting.

This picture was taken in the stage before collage was applied. I can't wait to see where and if, the student decided to take the work any further.

This is a picture of a completed painting. The student has combined the use of paint, conte and collage. The duck is a picture taken when his class went to visit Centenary Park. This student also included a photo of the sign that is in place at the park.

It sounds strange - asking children to 'plan'.  One of the great characteristics of kids is their ability to live in the here and now.  Sometimes they have a birthday every other month, just becuase it is fun. 

For this project, I asked the kids to imagine what their finished paintings might look like hanging together.  I asked them to imagine how they would like to see the work hanging together even before they created the paintings! 

"Tell me children, what was one of your favorite things from your visit to the park?"  I asked them to open their sketchbooks up to their favorite page.  The interesting thing is they all had very unique experiences and visuals to share with the class.  How do we possibly create a unified panel for each class without taking away from the expressions of their individual experiences?

Here is a sample of what the children were sharing:

Feeding the birds - Vivan
Rubbing textures from the wood panels that made up the bridge - Mohit
Bow and Elbow River meeting - Chetan
Changing colour from first visit of park to second visit of park - Nicolas
Pathways to the water, the bushes parted to let people through - Alexandra
Walked through secret pathways - Samantha
Found heart-shaped rock - Connor
Surface on the water would change with the rocks - Denika
Leaf imprint in frost - Emma
Rocks and leaves under the ice

There is a long list of experiences generated from the grade 3&4's visits to the park.  An element that went through every class and almost every student was 'leaves'.  Many of them did rubbings and drawings of the leaves in the park.

In order to honor this focus, I thought it would be great to add a structural element to the project.  Each student can construct and paint three leaves, which will then be placed around the gallery and hung from the gallery ceiling.  As far as the paintings go, each child should have the freedom to create their own favorite memory.

Second phase of the project is practicing with the media and then creating the final paintings.  Sixteen classes and over 375 students will eventually have created their own painting inspired by their visits to Centenary Park.  For this second phase the children were asked to remember or to refer back to their sketchbooks and to focus on one particular image of the park.

First step is to paint a background on the paper with acrylics. Second step is to draw on top of the dried acrylic with conte or pastels.  The third step is to collage colourful scrap paper onto the painting.  The students worked directly into their sketchbooks so they could keep a record of their progress. 

I told the students, "There are many different ways to create a painting and I bet you already have a favorite way to work, but today we are trying something different."  I did a demonstration on how to use acrylic paint to create a background wash.  I talked about finding a balance between the right amount of water and the right amount of paint.  I showed the kids how to mix colours on their paper and to keep the colours in the palette clean.  The were encouraged to notice the effect of colour layering and how layering can create new colours much like creating colours on your palette.  I told them the proper colours of the paints and they all tried to remember the names. 

The kids came up with some really inspiring images and combining the three different methods was a great success for them. 

Next class involves planning.  The children will talk about what they want their message to be as a class and how that message is going to affect their individual paintings.