Author: Johanna Bilak

Art+Movement+Live Music workshop 3

This time we added a new element to our Art+Movement event: live music. Saskia Lankhoorn, an amazing pianist, was the connecting thread throughout the workshop. 1. The kids started with a warm-up, visually expressing their emotions on a sheet of paper, while reacting to the live piano music. 2. On a long paper roll hanging on the wall, they interpreted different ‘moods’ of music that Saskia had prepared for them, expressing notions of horizon/landscape, bright light, water drops, angry and sad, etc. 3. Our next exercise was performed on two very large sheets of paper on the floor. Using circular movements, the kids created floral and mandala-inspired compositions. 4. We finished off by drawing outlines of our bodies on another paper roll hung on the wall. It was interesting to see the individual characters and creativity of the children. Through the drawing or movement, they expressed their emotions and sometimes they were simply captivated by Saskia’s hands playing the piano.

Art 9: Book illustration

For this art class I asked the children to bring their favourite books and to select a short piece of text. The assignment was to imagine our own fantasy illustration for the existing book, but some children chose to illustrate their own stories. Before the process started we looked at various children’s books with distinctive illustration styles and techniques. I proposed working with black marker (or ink) and enriching it with a colourful collage technique.

Dance 6: Head and Senses

We explored the concept of the head, our magic box, with the skull protecting the brain as if it’s a treasure, and explored the senses connected to our head, which help us perceive the outside world. The kids tried to feel with careful and gentle hands the head and neck of their friends and seemed to really enjoy the process. We started by looking at each other in the eyes, then moving from the eyes, to the nose, ears, back of the head, tongue and, of course, skin as well … lots of funny faces and poses. As usual, the kids finished by drawing some impressions of the class.

Art 5: Clay facial masks

For inspiration we looked at the tribal art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, especially at their facial masks. We mentioned also Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin, who were seduced by the beauty and originality of exotic art: sculptures and facial masks. Using our fantasy, we first sketched the masks on paper with black markers and colourful pastels. While we listened to soft drum music, the emphasis was put on spontaneity, expressiveness and depicting one’s emotions. In the second part of our class we worked with clay to transform our sketches freely into 3D objects.
The masks will go through a firing process and in the next class we will be painting them to bring them to life even more.

Dance 4: Hands and Feet

Hands and feet are our extremities, they connect us with the outside world, with the ground and the air around us and with other people. We give and we receive with them all the time and we use them constantly every day, when eating, walking, writing, running, drawing, jumping, etc.
There was a little anatomy work, a warm-up and a dance based on this theme. Simple interactions became more complex, experimental and playful.
There were lots of nice moments during this class. At the end, the kids were free to choose how to  draw the impressions of the class.

Art 3: Expressive flowers

We worked together with the artist and painter Barbara Rink. She set a couple of goals for the children to focus on:
— Painting directly without sketching lines.
— Observing the background of a still-life and how to translate that onto the paper. The kids were encouraged to work in a different order than they would normally do: starting with the background and only painting the flowers at the end. They looked at shapes around the vase, negative shapes, colours and patterns.
— Using all colours except for black. Every artist has his or her unique style 🙂