Art Activities You Can Do at Home

Bo the Cat, Purrfect Pals

I've started volunteering again and engaging in 60-90 minute art projects. One such project involves painting small animal portraits that support 45 local animal shelters. Paws with Cause provides 8X10 canvases and (water-based) acrylic paint kits, along with sketches of a cat, dog, or farm animal that is up for adoption. The shelters or rescue organizations supply a photo and bio of potential adoptees. At first, I thought it was going to be paint-by-number but it allows a wide range of creativity for a variety of age groups. PwC hosts painting parties at the Everett Mall, local senior centers, mans booths at local farmers markets and fairs and offers custom paintings of your pet.

by Bill

Many of the artists who paint the shelter animal portraits are seniors who hang out at senior centers or assisted living establishment. One such artist is Bill, whose work is reminiscent of German Expressionist, Max Beckmann. See my post entitled, 'Egyptian Art, Sculpture, and Tombs'.

Avisha by Tracie Olsen

My friend, Tracie Olsen, and PwC volunteer painted a dog portrait as a demonstration during our recent Black Diamond Labor Days event.

Power Plants Collage

Another organization where we do art at Issaquah Senior Center and online at Circle of Love is Heart Art Healing. In my first artwork, I did a collage about resolving to eat right and exercise more. I found this happy picture of an older gentleman celebrating while hula-hooping. I placed a mother bear and her cub in the background encouraging him/me to get moving! I added a dog (not my own) to symbolize walking as another form of exercise. My collage is decorated with plenty of fruits and vegetables. I even used salmon filets for the hands and a healthy fat for the tie. There are asparagus trees and a head of broccoli (another tree or my brain?).

This activity requires a collection of assorted magazines with pictures (or words) that may be torn or cut out, then arranged and stuck down with a glue stick. You may also want to use Washi tape, which is kids' masking tape that has been decorated with fun patterns. Acrylic paints and markers may also be used.

Spice Girl portrait

I'm still getting set up in my He-Shed and have now proved that WiFi works on my laptop outdoors from inside my studio. I attended Heart Art Healing's Circle of Love online Zoom session painting with spices such as cloves, garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper, paprika, and turmeric. The experiment not only worked but it also provided a sort of aromatherapy experience. I admit that I had to supplement my earth tone colors with some more saturated watercolor accents such as black, blue, and red.

When I teach a class online, I will need to log in on my laptop and also join the Zoom meeting as a guest on my cellphone. I purchased a flexible gooseneck phone mount to attach to my table for displaying my own work surface while teaching. Pretty cool!

My instructor chose to paint a simple bowl to teach the concept of shading, which works well for beginners or getting to know new media. A facial portrait also works for shading using earthy tones.

Color Wheel Sky inspired by Kandinsky's
Color Study. Squares with Concentric Circles

Apparently, there are certain spices that some people may be allergic to, so when teaching art to elementary school kids I am going to stick to using salt. While it doesn't add color to a painting it does add texture. The difference is that it reacts with the paint, pushing away some of the color and leaving areas of lighter or darker value behind.

The topic was COLOR and the project was called, "Color Wheel Sky". Some of the results were quite unexpected, though pretty remarkable, especially with non-rainbow color schemes. Two of my students went outside the box and managed to get some really interesting effects. I use laminated placemats to protect the working surface and remind the students of the elements and principles of art right there on the mat. Simply access the link, print out pages #4 & #16, make copies, then arrange side-by-side on a 12"X18" piece of construction paper and laminate. Most schools will have a laminator.

'Tim Burton' Trees

Another variation of the above salt painting project is to create a simple landscape with a moon, inspired by Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Using either warm or cool colors of watercolor paint my seniors created a sky with lots of movement. Then we added trees to create repetition and interest.

You can see the results in my post entitled, Salt Painting with Seniors. You may choose to use black paint, markers, or construction paper strips for the branches.

Circles cut from contact paper work are great for preserving the white space for the moon when painting the sky. It resists the paint and leaves an unpainted shape when the sticker is peeled off. Amazing!

This month has been about giving back to my community. Although I haven't been teaching in a traditional classroom setting I am getting exposed to new ways of sharing and encouraging art. Participating in the farmers market and planning my own community event is making use of my skills in different ways and allowing access to all kinds of artists at all levels.