Lucy Monkman Illustration

I think that spring may finally have sprung!

Happy Mother’s Day.

Every term in Art Club we look at the work of a famous artist. This term it was Grant Wood and his much parodied painting American Gothic. Before I told pupils anything about it they were asked to draw it and to respond to a few questions about what they saw. For example: who are the couple, what do they do, where are they and when was it painted. Pupils were particularly struck by the size of the father’s ears and that he was modelled on the artist’s dentist. This pupil thought that it was painted in 1821 but it was actually painted just after the start of the Great Depression in 1930.

I started the day with coffee with a good friend who is very fond of headbands. Happy International Women’s Day!

For my book I added paper dots to scribbly flowers to create this idea for a postcard. Research has shown that when we look at flowers the so-called happy hormones, such as dopamine, are released. I hoped that the results of this idea might have a similiar effect. With Mother’s Day approaching the idea could also be used to make a handmade card.

In celebration of the first day of meteorological spring!

In my teaching I have noticed that the majority of pupils struggle to work with a softer colour palette. In part this is simply due to lack of practice but they are also children who are growing up in a world of vibrant colours both on and off screen. The ready mixed and acrylic paints they often use in school are also designed in vibrant colours. So this week we looked at the very subtle colour palette of Beatrix Potter. Pupils tried replicating the colours in her illustrations working with coloured pencils and with watercolour paints. Even though they found it difficult they really enjoyed it.

It must be the time of the year as our usually very shy wren is very confident at the moment.

The pink daffodils that I made earlier this week have gone from a glass vase to a paper vase. Happy weekend.

On the news I discovered that although rare daffodils also come in pink.

I visited my son in Copenhagen a few years ago and on a very rainy day we took a train out of the city. We went to the amazing Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. I love the Homage to the Square series of paintings by Josef Albers so I was delighted to see this one. The title is Homage to the Square: Yellow Climate and it was painted in 1961. We returned to the city to see more sights and by the end of the day I was possibly the wettest I have ever been. I wonder why I have been thinking of that day!