Painting the Great Outdoors: Course 2 – Day 2

If you have been following the progress of our summer outdoor painting courses led by painter Matthew Krishanu take a look at the final day of our second course below.

To see course two, day one click here 

To see course one,  day one click here

To see course one, day two click here

We began the morning with some drawing exercises. The children were very focussed and were encouraged to look closely at their surroundings by drawing with one continuous line and with the hand they don’t normally draw with.

We then did some large scale charcoal studies using both edges of a charcoal stick and kneedable putty rubbers to draw into smudged charcoal.

We then foraged for sticks once more and used them to make our own large scale drawing implements.

We then used yesterday’s large collaborative painting to draw into, experimenting with layers and mark making.

The larger implements made us use our bodies more to make drawings.

Different implements made us experiment in new ways.

Matthew then taught us techniques for working on calico with oil pastel and watered down acrylic paint.

Dabbing off the paint where the oil pastel had been, created new effects.

We then made our own painted calico squares with a decorative border.

As we finished we began to work on a larger collaborative calico square.

Oops…that might have been why we got so messy!

After lunch we were each given a canvas board. We were encouraged to use all the techniques learnt to make a final painting using our surroundings and imaginations for inspiration.

You an see how the works built up over the afternoon

Here you can see experimentation with drippy paint and mixing grass into the paint.

The children sat in small groups chatting and painting. They seemed very relaxed and happy.

Experimenting with different brushes and washes.

Great layering

Building up of a background to build layers on top.

Working in with pencil, charcoal or oil pastel.

As a finishing exercise children were encouraged to paint a portrait of a tree, then display it in situ, pinned to the tree they looked at.

They also collected pieces of bark and made little painted sculptures using the shape of the bark as a starting point.

We ended the afternoon in a final discussion with Matthew about the work we produced.

We hope the children had lots of time to experiment, learnt new skills and had fun in a relaxing un-pressured environment. Please let us know what you thought!