October 28 2012
Art Making
This morning we unpacked my trolley and started by looking at excerpts from a documentary about Gerhard Richter the contemporary German artist whose artistic career has been likened to Pablo Picasso’s. His work goes from super realism to a more abstract expressionism. He works with many mediums and materials. Cannon and I looked at his abstract compositions. In the documentary we watched him using giant - large (1-5 foot long) palette “knives” or squeegees to move paint on large canvasses. We decided to experiment with Richter’s method of layering colors and moving paint on a surface with large flat edged tools. We used approx 12”x24”– 130lb watercolor paper.
The Process
1. Cannon helped spray the paper with water before
adding a base color. Cannon chose two colors from the four that were offered –
red, yellow, blue and purple – plus white. By using just two colors Cannon got
a feel for color mixing and for making tints by adding white to colors.
2. The acrylic paints come in large tubes so Cannon put
his hand over mine and directed my hand to the area he wanted the paint on and
then helped squeeze the paint onto the paper.
3. Then he selected one of the painting tools available
for this experiment. (We soon discovered which tools were most effective and
easiest to grip and manipulate.)
4. He got a good
grip on the handle and then pulled the tool across the surface of the paper –
pulling water and color across.
5. Cannon pulled
the tools across from right to left and down from top to bottom. He changed
tools and we added paint at his direction.
6. We took 10-15
min breaks between layers to allow the paint to dry so the under layers would
show through and not just be mixed in with the new layer.
Reflection
Cannon was very engaged in
our painting activity. Like Richter his “intention”
grew as the painting developed. He was
very clear on his color choices and placement; guiding the paint tube to the
place he wanted it and helping to squeeze paint out onto the paper. The acrylic
tube paints worked well. He really stretched his arm out to move the
paint and made choices of painting tools.
He found the best way to grip the tool.
He needed my assistance to put pressure on the tool as he dragged it
across the paper. The pressure I put on
the tool was close to where the tool and the paper made contact. This created
some resistance which made him use his muscles more and assured the paint made
contact with the paper. He also knew
when the painting was finished. I am trying to be a facilitator, information source – idea
stimulator. I am conscious of offering minimal manual guidance so as to keep his work
authentically his. I was so pleased that Cannon
used so many of his spoken words to tell me what he wanted while we were
working. I am understanding more of Cannon's gestures, signs and vocal communications.
Cleaning up – I sprayed Cannon's hands with water and he very
effectively used the cloth rag to clean his hands of almost all of the dried
acrylic. The vinyl table covering worked
well and let us both relax even more in our processes. The kitchen/dining spaces
are working very well. Thanks for making
the space user friendly, I feel comfortable and am not overly concerned about
“splashing”.
Dolce Sight Words
During our paint drying
breaks Cannon located and marked the sight words I called out and used in a
sentence. We worked the first 50 words on cards 1and 2. There were some inconsistencies in his
responses so we will review this again next time.
Decoding and word
building – I demonstrated how
letters are “sound pictures” using the example of how a simple picture of a
house and mountains could have become the letters that symbolize/stand for the
letter sounds of h and m. We started word building with the letters p-m-a-t-f-s-o-c
Frog and Toad – I read The Story from Frog and Toad Are Friends.
I stopped several times and asked Cannon to find one of the sight words. Writing our own story – we had fun building sentences on the magnetic board about A Fat Cat using some of the Dolce sight words and our decoded words.
A Fat Cat
by Cannon Hoops
The fat cat sat on a mat.
Pat the fat cat.
Prrr!
Tea Time – A friend gave me some fresh mint from her herb
garden. The leaves had dried. Cannon
looked closely at the dried leaves with his super large magnifying glass. Then he used his pinching fingers to pull the
dried leaves off of the stem. Mom helped us press the dried
leaves into a tea ball. We put the tea
ball in a cup and poured hot water over it. We let it steep until it became mint tea. We noticed that the dried leaves had "re-hydrated" soaked up the water and looked like fresh wet leaves. We had a tea tasting during one of the
painting breaks. Cannon decided it was okay but not a favorite and one taste
was enough.
It was a full Sunday morning.
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