My first month of teaching at the Plein-Air Art Academy has been a lot of fun! For our unit on Australia, I had a blast leading students through the steps of hand modeling koalas, turtles, snakes, lizards, platypuses, dingos, seals, dolphins, and kangaroos. Students did an amazing job painting them, using the Aboriginal dot style.
For the art of Africa students used Papier-mâché to create their own unique tribal inspired masks in the forms of birds, rhinos, cheetahs, panthers, and more! After carefully painting them, students used mix-media including feathers and yarn, complete with hooks on the back to display their dramatic creations.
We continued or journey into African history by using the ancient technique of egg tempera painting used in Ethiopia. After learning how, and making our paints,
students created vast landscapes, using foreground, middle ground and background to create depth, and incorporated their favorite African animals throughout.
At the Plein-Air Art Academy we use wonderful books, short videos, and traditional art objects to give students a deeper insight and appreciation for each art form through examining the history of the cultures who created them. In this way students travel through time and take inspiration from around the globe to help discover their own unique form of artistic expression.
-Susannah Lawrence