"colour"

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Abstract Painting with Kids

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While many of my American friends are seeing the end of summer, and the return to school for their kids, we've still got 3 more weeks of summer vacation. I've been trying to make the most of it. For both myself and the kids. Field trips, swimming, lazy days, and new creative activities.

Last week we started abstract painting. To be fair, I think the kids have been doing this for a while! But this time we did a bit of research on abstract painting, discussed emotions and their expression, and I used real, ADULT acrylic paints on canvas. Having fancy supplies goes a long way.

To start with, the girls picked colours to express an emotion. Our first emotion was happy. Yellows, oranges, red, pink, turquoise, and silver. Bright, shiny colours. My only bit of control over the project was that I doled out the colours on the canvas. So I dotted it where they told me. Then they went to town.

They ground the paint into the canvas, they gingerly spread the paint, they used broad strokes. They played. And I resisted - badly - all attempts to direct their activities. That was very, very difficult. In part I wanted to participate. I also wanted to interrupt and give directions constantly. But I held off and only spoke when adding more paint or to emphasize the emotion they were conveying.

They filled the canvas, making sure no white spots remained. They touched it up with silver. And then, because they didn't quite get the notion of abstract, they added some lettering.

You know what? They were happy doing it. And I was happy watching them. It was a new form of creativity in this house. I think my oldest, especially, loved the idea of expressing something without having to be literal in her art. Because when you are 8 you are usually literal. This gave her an unexpected freedom.

The whole idea for the project came through Pinterest.

Yes, I've finally joined Pinterest

. And lo and behold, I saw this idea on a random pin one of the first days I was on there. No instructions, just the image of the paint dots, painting, and the canvas. Because Pinterest is still new for me I actually acted  on the inspiration!

To start with we looked up some abstract painters, classic and current. Like

Kandisky

,

Lisa Congdon

, and

Marissa Anne from Creative Thursday

. We talked about what one can do with just paint and about expressing feelings or ideas. It all felt rather liberating.

We've since done more canvases. (A friend of mine gave me the tip that we could buy small canvases at the dollar store. That certainly cuts down on the cost once we invested in the paints.) I still police the paint use as a certain Evil Genius has a tendency to want to use ALL the paint. I do not, however, paint myself with them. I find my kids compare my work with theirs and I don't think that is fair to them at all. They skip the adult versus kid part of that and get deflated because they perceive mine as better. So I let them be and wander around their own creativity.

If you are on Pinterest,

you can follow me

. I am trying to fill my boards with all sorts of inspiration. More pins daily. And let me know if you are on there too.

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Playground

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Playground
78'' by 62.5''

Finally, I can share this quilt with you. A year ago one of our awesome preschool teachers retired. She is a quilter and I offered to make a quilt for her. Alas, the Preschool Board had other plans. But a few months later they took me up on my offer after the other preschool teacher announced her retirement. She was presented with the quilt at the end of year party last week.

This quilt contains 120 signature blocks from present and former students. A simple layout, reminiscent of Plain Spoken by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, is rounded out with Modern Solids II from Alissa Haight Carlton. The quilting is a very simple grid, 1/4'' from each seam line. I went with a white Aurifil thread so as not to take away from all the colourful signatures.



To get all the signatures we held two open houses at the preschool. Mailouts went to the local elementary, junior high, and high schools. Notices sent to the current preschool students. I spent some time cutting down Kona white into two sizes of rectangles. My girls helped me gather the fabric markers. Kids showed up, teenagers arrived, parents exclaimed.

To be honest, I'd seen previous teacher's gifts and wondered why people went to all that effort of making them a quilt. Sure, I've given many, many quilts as gifts and I know the value of the gift - to give and receive. But I couldn't fathom getting that excited by a signature quilt.

Was I ever wrong!

Let me tell you, it was actually pretty fun to do this! Seeing all the kids so excited to contribute, talking to the parents thrilled at being able to say thank-you for a good start to their kid's education, and getting pretty jazzed when putting the final quilt together. Not once did it feel like drudgery or did I ask myself what I got myself into. And I'm thrilled at the final result. I think our teacher is as well.


(And who could resist a buggy backing fabric? It was the perfect choice to remind us all of the mosquitoes keeping us company at the park after school everyday. Except these ones don't bite!)






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Klee's Trees by Malka Dubrawsky

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Only about half the time do I like to do such precision piecing. I have to be in the mood for it. But every time I do it I get pretty excited by the results. Templates or paper piecing or just really good cutting, they all work. So when Malka Dubrawsky asked me to check out her her latest pattern and share it here I couldn't resist. 

 In her words:
A while back I traveled to Switzerland and saw so many amazing things, but not the Bern Bears. Rather, I opted to visit the Klee Museum and view an extensive array of work by the artist, Paul Klee. I was especially struck by his drawings of trees. They were simple, stylized and abstracted. 

I came home knowing I wanted to translate those drawings into a quilt pattern and, after several attempts, came upon a block design that I feel captures the essence of Klee’s trees. 

This simple-to-piece block is graphic and clean and has a decidedly modern feel. Craft it in solids against a dark or light background or play with warm and cool colored prints to differentiate the “trees” from the “forest”.


It is a graphic pattern, that gives finishes to a rather cool quilt. Malka provides layout for a pillow and a quilt in the pattern. But you could easily change the size of the quilt but adding or removing blocks.

I made my block in about 30 minutes, but that was 30 minutes of supervising and providing snacks for 2 kindergarteners. And sewing upstairs to watch them play, but still cutting and pressing in my basement studio. Not very efficient!


It is wonderful for me to support quilting friends like this. Malka and I have only had a couple of brief conversations in real life. We live in totally different worlds - oh her heat of Texas. But we bond over swimming and colour. And I really credit her with my low-volume obsession. She was the first person to use the term and share examples, as far as I can tell. Make sure you check out her blog too, always full of her glorious colour and pattern.

The pattern is available in Malka's store, pick it up here.

Malka has very generously offered to give away two copies of the pattern to readers here. 

If you'd like a chance to win a pattern, leave a comment - make sure I can respond to you. Tell me your favourite colour, your favourite artist, whether you've ever been to Switzerland, or even what you had for breakfast! 

Giveaway open until May 14,  6:00 pm MST.