PRIMARY WORKSHOPS
SKETCh & CREATE WITh CLAY!
Primary (Grades 1, 2 & 3)
Let’s sketch our favourite animals on paper and then bring them to life with paint and clay! Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night provides the inspiration for this enjoyable, multimedia workshop.
Your students will delve into clay, learning how to slab, roll, score and slip this soft material to create the main geometric shape for their animal character. Just as Van Gogh used texture to create visual interest in his paintings, your students will use conventional and non-conventional art materials to create texture for their imagined character. They will also use the element of contrast in their piece to reflect either light/dark, large/small, or pure/mixed.
At the conclusion of the workshop, your students
will share their creations with their classmates, providing the opportunity for constructive criticism and allowing them to showcase how they transformed simple, geometric shapes into dynamic animal characters!
Elements of Art: colour, line, shape and texture
Principles of Art: contrast
Workshop Variation: Create a Flower Bowl for Mother’s Day, using the same elements, techniques and inspiration.
O CANADA!
DYNAMIC LANDSCAPES
Primary (Grades 1, 2 & 3)
Let’s go outside and be inspired by nature! Drawing upon the works of the Group of Seven as well as the natural world around them, your students will choose a Canadian landscape and represent it using acrylic paint.
They will explore the concepts of depth of field and perspective drawing and will learn how to create a landscape composed of a clear foreground, middle ground and background.Your students will examine how the use of colour, contrast, positioning and variety can create emphasis and also change the mood of their landscape. Would the impact be different if the position of the rocky mountain changes on the page? How can I use shape and form to create a focal point? What mood do I evoke if I use dark colours versus light colours?
Your students will explore these questions and more. In addition, a unique, bold, colourful landscape will be theirs to take home!
Elements of Art: colour, value and space
Principles of Art: balance, unity, proportion, contrast and variety
This workshop can be extended into a full-day session, allowing for further exploration and in-depth analysis.
OVER, uNDER, OVER, uNDER
THE ART OF WEAVING
Primary (Grades 1, 2 & 3)
Let’s get creative with yarn in this dynamic and fun workshop where your students will learn the art of weaving and will produce a colourful, original yarn painting!
Weaving is simplified to its most basic elements and technique so that your students will find satisfaction in the tactile, repetitive nature of “over, under, over, under”. The artist will teach them how to create projects on a portable loom and they will also explore the use of colour combinations and colour repetition to produce a captivating piece of art. They will draw inspiration from the Huicholes, an Indigenous group from western Mexico, known for their dazzling and symbolic yarn paintings all created using traditional techniques.
By the end of the workshop, your budding artists and weavers will have gained appreciation for and learned interesting facts about Huicholes art and culture, and they will have completed a colourful woven art piece that they can proudly display at home.
Elements of Art: colour, texture
Principles of Art: repetition, variety
GEOMETRY, & VIBRANT COLOuRS
ALL AROUND US!
Primary (Grades 1, 2 & 3)
Let’s spark our creativity, finding inspiration from the groundbreaking, contemporary artist Matt W. Moore! Using mixed media, your students will create a 3D effect of a geometric shape with watercolour paints.They will then use Sharpie markers on acetate overlay to produce a human figure to hold the geometric shape.
In this modern and innovative workshop, your students will investigate the difference between geometric and organic shapes, and will explore the repetition of colour and shapes in patterns.While examining the fresh and cutting-edge design works of Moore, they will discover how geometric shapes and patterns can be incorporated into a variety of everyday objects and settings.
Your students will leave the workshop recognizing and appreciating that art and design are flourishing in the world around them; and they will have created a compelling, progressive piece to take home!
Full-Day Workshop Variation: The completed figures will be combined to form a dynamic, collaborative mural, allowing your students to see how each progressive piece created forms part of a larger whole.
Elements of Art: line, shape, colour and space
Principles of Art: repetition and rhythm (in value)