Art

This week Foundation, Grade 1 and 2’s have been learning about Eric Carle. All the students were familiar with his most famous picture books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar but they did not know that he is also an artist and creates all the artwork found in his delightful stories.  Eric Carle creates beautiful patterned paper and then turns them into collages that are printed in his books. He writes: “My pictures are collages. I didn’t invent the collage. Artists like Picasso and Matisse and Leo Lionni and Ezra Jack Keats made collages. Many children have done collages at home or in their classrooms. In fact, some children have said to me, “Oh, I can do that.” I consider that the highest compliment.

I begin with plain tissue paper and paint it with different colours, using acrylic paint. Sometimes I paint with a wide brush, sometimes with a narrow brush. Sometimes my strokes are straight, and sometimes they’re wavy. Sometimes I paint with my fingers. Or I put paint on a piece of carpet, sponge, or burlap and then use that like a stamp on my tissue papers to create different textures.”

Inspired by some of his techniques the students painted their paper in lots of different colours and then used tools such as scrapers, stampers and patterned rollers to add texture and pattern on top. Here are some photos of the students having big messy fun making their patterned papers: 

This is a small sample of some of the papers they have created, keep an eye out in the newsletter in the coming weeks for the beautiful collages they make with them!

Thanks, 

Cendrine Rodriguez

Art Teacher