The theme for this term’s classes is text. Artists have used text in a wide variety of ways, and not always legibly. Think of Picasso’s use of newspapers in his collages, or Michaux’s development of asemic writing (week 2). Of course then there is illustration which uses text as the inspiration and comic books which marry words and images to create something else. We will look at all these are more during this term. For our first session we focused on inventing our…
This week we used glue instead of hot wax to form a resist against the acrylic paint. Originating in Indonesia, in batik hot wax would be poured on using a tjanting (a kind of tiny pot on a stick with a hole in the bottom). Then when the wax is dry and hard paint is applied onto the material and it won’t go wherever the wax is. You can build up layers this way, and whatever colour is beneath the wax will be…
So it was the last week of term this week and the kids finished their paper clay sculptures, using either paint or torn paper (decoupage). I particularly loved the decoupaged ones which added a lovely texture, in keeping with the paper clay, as well as incorporating interesting patterns. But of course, the paint gave more control over the colours and texture. And some used both – see the goose and the perfume bottle! And one child even made a whole habitat for her…