Presentation from Local Artist Olivia Givens!

We had the very talented local artist Olivia Givens talk about her art, inspirations, and technique at Art Lounge. She brought some beautiful examples of her art, which can be viewed here oliviagivens

 Olivia creates beautiful, brightly hued, and well blended paintings. Her inspirations are nature and the universe. She showed how it is very important to work while the paint is still wet to blend colors, and which brushed work for different effects. She has worked in a wide range of painting sizes, including tiny little 3inx3in canvases. We thought it would be fun to make a tiny canvas with what we learned, and we think Olivia's demo was very helpful!

This is Caleb's 1st painting! He did an awesome job. Plus how cute is the size of it?!

String Art

Our 1st project from the fall session of Art Lounge was string art. This is a retro art project that was popular in the 60s and 70s and is now in again. We up dated our project with modern designs and colors.

 After drawing your design on paper, you tape your drawing to a wood board. Then you start to hammer in nails spaced apart to make a connect the dots out of your design.

 Too few nails can make there not be enough detail. Too many nails can make it really difficult to wrap the thread. It's a balance!

 Chevron design in progress...

 Paint was incorporated into this design to add more color and interest.

Needle Felted!

Yet another sesh of Art Lounge is done, and we made so much cool art! Our last project was a miniature needle felted tree landscape. We worked on tiny little circles of white felt and used different colored wool to "paint" on our design. To get the wool to felt, you stab it a bunch with a special needle. It's a good stress reliever!

 
After we were finished we adhered our mini landscape to a slice of tree limb. We added an eye screw and strung cord or ribbon so we could hang up our new nature based art piece. Since most of us finished the project in one day and loved the needle felting process, we did a needle felted stuffed animal project for our last class.

 

 

OMG! How freaking adorable are these!

 

 

We got to have a preview of Spiva's "Art Workers In America" exhibit. How perfect is Brody's shirt for this pic with the flag shelf?! Looking forward to our summer session which starts June 3rd! Hurry up and join us!     

Finished Phoenix Fired Ceramics!

We got back our glazed animal pinch pot vessels, and holy moly! They look awesome!

 

 

Ruth and Cory put their iced lattes in their bowl. We decided these would be perfect for a cereal and cartoons kinda morning.

Graffiti Stencils and Green Graffiti

Graffiti isn't always a crime. Sometimes it's taken to a higher level, and considered public art. We learned about graffiti artist Banksy who is now super famous, and making a ton from his stenciled and spray painted images. We did a project that used a stencil and spray technique. First we had to draw out our design onto poster board.

You have to consider breaking words and shaped up by little lines that keep your text our image readable after you cut it out. Otherwise you end up with a shapeless hole. After we finalized our designs, we carefully cut out the design with an exacto knife.

Rather than use a regular old canvas (or wall, we didn't want to get in trouble), we used old vinyl records. Then we taped on our design and sprayed it onto our records with a plastic adhesive spray paint.

The results were edgy and rocking.

The second half of our graffiti project was making moss paint to make a moss graffiti mural on the side of Spiva. We first drew on landscapes and "ART, IT GROWS ON YOU" with chalk. Then we went over our designs with the paint. They texture was kinda off and it came out more like moss jello. We didn't have much success with it growing but it was fun and something we might try again. Here is a link to a different moss paint recipe. This one might work better. how-to-make-moss-graffiti

Mono Cosmos

Monoprinting is a form of printmaking that has images or lines that can only be made once, unlike most printmaking, where there are multiple originals. There are many techniques of monoprinting.

We used washable markers on plexiglass to create a drawing. The subject was space. It was really cool to see all the different ideas people had. After we finished drawing on the plexiglass, we took damp watercolor paper and carefully pressed it onto the side of the plexiglass we drew on.

We were careful to not move the paper while we pressed it over the plexiglass, making sure it all got direct contact with the drawing. Then we peeled it off to reveal our image and let it dry. Spacey!

Phoenix Fired by Evelyn!

When we went to Pheonix Fired, it was AWESOME. It opened us up to some new art styles and techniques, and we got to make cute little animal bowls in the process!

When we first went half our class was gone, so the next time we went to glaze people who weren't there last time made mini sculptures. The elephant is so cute!

Brody loves mermaids, but he ran out of time to make the rest of her body. She looks like she got attacked by a shark.

Mama owl and baby owl.

 

We had some extra time, so some of us made pendants for jewelry. Cory made a Day of the Dead skull.

Jake's sea turtle's texture looks legit!

Brent from Phoenix Fired gave us a demo on how to throw on the wheel and build a very large vase. He's got mad skills!