Making Art with Nature : )

Post Contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director

From Monday through Friday of this week, all of our art work was made from sticks, twigs, leaves, blossoms and bark (please see our previous post "Collecting From Nature..." for photos of the students at work on Monday). On Tuesday, we pressed leaves and blossoms that we collected from the native garden and school grounds to create framed art displays. We must be patient however, as it will take the plant material 7 to 10 days to dry, before we can frame the work.

For Wednesday, we took a more sculptural approach and painted sticks and bark in vibrant shades of yellow, turquoise blue, orange and yellow-green.  With multiple sticks, free-standing sculptures may be constructed or mini environments imagined. A group of painted sticks could also make a fabulous indoor or outdoor display, simply grouped in a pot (with soil) or in a vase. Students learned that nature can provide us with numerous opportunities for art making, if we are willing to do a little exploring and collecting : )

Anika

Front: Lucy and Anika; Back: Joey and Carson

Jessica

Lucy

Elijah

A clever drying frame created by the students to hold their painted sticks!

Leila

Heidi

Heidi's completed sculpture, photographed from above

On Thursday, we collected leaves on the corner of Cuyler and Erie and made leaf prints on small wooden blocks. Each block shows both a positive and a negative image of the leaf, one on each side of the block:

Joey

Jordan

Jadon

Joseph

For Friday, we painted dried leaves with patterns and designs and created characters that took center stage on a colorful cardstock background, further embellished with colored pencils to create scenery. 

Jessica

Jessica, close-up

 

Anika ~ Tree Design

Cassie ~ Butterflies

Joey ~ Bird and Worm

Emory ~ Swimming Fish

Isaac ~ Trees with Architecture

Leila

Leila ~ Fish House Bedroom

With a little paint and the great outdoors, there is ample opportunity to spark the imagination and to create some fantastic and inexpensive artwork for your home. This can also be an eco-friendly activity too, if you use natural, re-purposed or recycled materials  : )