Inspired by Nature

We begin the year by thinking about the different ways that nature influences and inspires art and artists.  As our older students explore the Land Art Movement, the younger artists are busy making autumn leaf prints.  These projects are still in progress, and I'll post more photos as the work evolves.  Below you can see primary students collaborating on a large leaf print rubbing.  We made the rubbing by arranging leaves, vein side up, under a large sheet of paper.  We taped the edges and used homemade chunk crayons to make this rubbing.  The kids really loved the rainbow-colored chunk crayons which are, of course, made by melting the bits and pieces of old crayons in a muffin tin.  (350 degrees, 10 minutes). We added a watercolor resist to our leaf print rubbing and then set it aside to dry.
When we return to the art room, we'll explore two more ways of leaf printing on these large papers.  Then we'll cut them up to make something special.