Summer Art Camp

Week One

Hawaiian Luau

Summer Art Camp 2012 began with a group of Pre-School children - fresh out of school and ready to begin another summer of fun.  Our theme for this first session was a Hawaiian Luau.  During our time together we created tropical works of art with paint, pottery and collage materials.

Project 1 - Handmade Pottery Surfboards

A slab of clay was cut and formed into the shape of six surfboards then fired to a bisque consistency before the artists arrived for their first day of camp.

 

After a discussion on our 50th State and some of the activities associated with Hawaii such as surfing (of course), the variety of sealife, tropical fruit, flowers and trees, the artists were given directions for their first camp project.  To ceate their own unique design on a bisque fired surfboard.

The artists drew their designs with pencil and painted them with non-toxic potter glazes.  Care was taken not to muddy the colors by carefully rinsing the brush before placing it into another glaze color.

As one can see, painting takes a bit of concentration especially when the hand drawn designs are complicated.

After the artists finished painting and signing their surfboards, they were fired one more time.

Project 2 - Underwater Sea Life

Our next project was an under-the-sea scene painted and collaged onto canvas.  For the first step, the artists applied three different shades of blue acrylic paint - turquoise, light blue and dark blue - onto the canvas in a wavy pattern.  Once complete, each canvas was set aside to dry.  Meanwhile, the artists drew a fish shape onto white paper, outlined their fish with a thick black sharpie and painted it with acrylic paint. The fish was collaged onto the canvas with a layer of Mod Podge and fun, fishy accoutrements were added to the artwork for texture and another element of tropical excitement.  The finishing touches included googly eyes on the fish, seaquin bubbles rising up through the waves and thin strips of green construction paper seaweed along the bottom of the canvas.  Unfortunately I was too busy to stop and take pictures, but trust me, the finished artwork was adorable.

Snack Break

A favorite camp project - making and eating cupcakes on the last day of camp!  All hands on board!

A visitor arrives to check out our projects...

A very tame jungle animal came stalking through the Palm trees to pay us a little visit.

Finished Art Work

A few pieces of tropical art work on display for the art show.  A painted and kiln fired surfboard, Aloha wood block, self portrait of artist picking coconuts and a fishing pole with pottery sea-life.

Kipa hou mai (Come visit again.)