Picasso Portraits

Cubism/Portraits and Picasso 

My guide on this was very simple, amost like a dictation (Class 3 ESL students):

Using a black felt-tip/sharpie on A3 white card

Draw a large oval in the middle of the paper.
           a wavy or profile line down the middle.
           3 eyes (1 of which a profile) anywhere within the oval
           2 noses
           3 ears
           2 mouths
           a neck and shoulders going off the paper. 
           In the background straight lines and Picasso 1881-1973 in the top left corner
The rest was pretty much left up to them. They coloured it carefully with Oil Pastels.

I did my example with them but removed it soon after showing them as I like them to feel the freedom of drawing in their own way. Often I find they want to copy exactly like me if  I leave it up.

This is a lesson I found years ago and always find room for it during my unit on Portraits as they learn about Picasso and feel confident with the results of their own work.

In the Art room this week

One of my many hats that I wear is as an art teacher to class 3 & 4 students in a wonderful independent school here in Galicia. I figured it would be nice to share  with you some of what my talented students have been up to throughout the week, so each Friday I shall  post about one or two of the creative projects that have been happening in the art room.

Autumn has arrived and here at school I'm very fortunate to work surrounded by the stunning landscape and the changing weather and seasons.

My classroom looks out across to the Pico Sacro but what I love most is the amount of Sky we see and the moving clouds throughout the day, It is wonderful to just sit and watch the clouds go by or the rain pelt it down, although it can be a little distracting at times!

While that's a view of the outside, inside the art room we have updated our entrance mural to something atmospherically "halloween-like", the idea was taken from my pinterest board art projects which I decided to enlarge and up-cycle what was previously there.

The spring mural started like this:

We created some birds Birds cut out of magazines and wrapping papers sat them on felt tip lines to represent the wires and as part of the theme "Colour" we painted some large colour wheel umbrellas. The students posed and we took photos to create some "photo montages" to (more-or-less) scale.

The flowers were added, as class three were also working on the same theme, making colour wheel flowers, some of which I added to the Mural.

As the seasons change, the mural  also changes. I don't always do a mural based on the seasons or particular celebrations, in fact we are currently working on a large Zentangle mural(soon to be posted here), but as it's taking a little longer than expected I decided to improvise and turned the birds into another scene. A haunting halloweeny spooky full moon!!

Class three students coloured the birds with oil pastels and for the sky the students got an opportunity to get dirty with charcoal, following that they painted the tree with temperas. The make over was done in a day with the collaboration of 3A and my colleague Suqui, who is fantastic, Thank you!

Oh happy hunting we go!

As has become tradition over the last few years for me and S during the middle of October we go and collect pine cones for my mother-in-law, who loves to have the real fire lit during the winter months. This is a wonderful excuse to escape the city, even in the drizzle we wrap up in wellies and raincoats and head to the pine forests.This year M and E were of great help gathering up the cones they found.

The liberation I feel on leaving the city is magical, I live in a beautiful city, relatively small in size and as I work in a large local school it can sometimes feel like I'm living inside a goldfish bowl. The City of Santiago de Compostela is at the heart of Galicia in the north west of Spain, it is a stunning region with the most amazing beaches and lots of green all around. As we are in the centre of the city we have to remind ourselves during the colder months to get out of the town and JUST be in nature, especially now E. doesn't rely on a pushchair. 

M was really excited about the pine trees and the reasons we were collecting the cones - they make amazing fire starters, by the way. We also found  M.'s favourite snack of the season, the humble chestnut. We were able to show her where they came from and how to open them without getting pricked. It took some convincing that they had to be roasted before she could eat them though!

We first found this forest a few years ago as we had gone for lunch to a quirky restaurant/shed right next door called Fogar do Santiso. The restaurant was famous for it's cobwebs more than anything but over the years they have evolved into serving only organic dishes. They have a great children's play area outside when the weather permits and scattered around the "cave" inside they have small log fires burning, which makes it a really fun place to go with kids during all seasons. The food is typically Galician with some added extras my favourite dish was the patatas a la brasa con romero - roast potato wedges with olive oil and rosemary.

Had I been able to save some of the chestnuts from the beggars at my feet I would have given this  recipe a go Chestnut Brownies from my favourite food blogger at Savoring the Spice

As always getting out of the city lifted me and made me connect with the girls in a fun and calming way. We actually managed to sit and enjoy our meal with both girls eating really well. It was one of the first meals we've had as a family where S didn't repeatedly say "this was a bad idea", in fact the whole day was his idea and it was a great one!

Just start!

So I've had this blog open with no posts for over three years!! It's time I got started. I plan to track my personal progress towards becoming the happiest me I can possibly be. I live in a wonderful world that sometimes get a little to cloudy for the person I want to be and therefore I have to remind myself (or have others do so) to just be happy and bright!

It's all about the gratitude of the here and now. This I know but have a tendency to forget very quickly. Lucky for me I have my most wonderful friend Rebecca that through the power of technology sends me a "what's apps" all in perfect timing.

As I was lying in bed last night think about my frustrations and lack of talent and passion, she sent me this:

I plan to wake up each morning and focus on these words for the next year and see whether I am able to get my spark glowing again as I know it should be.

There are many many interests that I have which have been forgotten over the last few years while raising my babies to toddlers but now I see a window of time in my day to get creative!

Ella's back in the game - Let the fun begin!