Our Holton Rower Tall Paintings aka Pour Paintings
It’s been a long time since I last posted! To say I have been busy is an understatement! Less than two months ago, several members of our local unschooling group met at a local coffee shop to talk about starting an unschoolers co-op and today we held our first day of classes with about 25 families and 60 kids! We have 4 sessions in which we offer several different classes. Some classes are taught by outside teachers and many led by parents. Several of us have really worked hard to get this up and running so quickly…it is sort of unbelievable that we made it happen…and happen so well I might add!
I am teaching 2 sessions of art. My head is so full of possible ideas it might just pop off and my kids are so glad I have a new audience to share all these ideas with! (Although both of them chose to take my class!)
Today we talked about artist, Holton Rower. You may have seen his YouTube video of his TALL PAINTINGS that has been all over the internet lately. I loved it so much and thought it was a perfect project for a first class discussion about process vs product. My husband I built a smaller version of Rower’s pedestals using a piece of 4 inch 2×2 on its end screwed on to a 4inch 2×4 on it’s side and finally screwing those to a 12 x 12 piece of plywood.
Rower uses acrylic paint and there was no way I could afford to buy that much acrylic paint. Then I realized that latex house paint is acrylic paint! Perfect!! We visited a few Habitat for Humanity re-stores and Home Depot’s for some cheap paint before remembering we have a friend with a painting business and TONS of extra paint. Perfect again!!
We looked at a few prints of Rower’s Pour Paintings and I let the kids try to guess how he put the paint down.
Then we watched the video and talked about product vs process.
Luckily I had tons of helpers today! This project was A LOT of set up! First I covered everything with tarps and cardboard. We poured small amounts of paint into dixie cups and let the kids pick their colors.
And the pouring began!
Each of my students made 2 pour paintings and luckily we were able to leave them undisturbed until next week. Hopefully they will dry by then!
I am so happy with the way this project turned out! The kids loved making them too! I would love to try this on a larger scale someday. I certainly have enough left over paint!!
Tags: acrylic paint, art, Artist, cheap paint, class, co-op, color, colors, holton, kid, Kids, latex, latex house paint, Paint, Painting, paintings, perfect project, photo, photos, Pour, prints, process, project, Rower, TALL, teaching, unschool, unschooler, Unschoolers, unschooling, work
Donna
This idea I have to explore and put up on the Can Do Kids Craft Site for everyone to enjoy.
I know what project I’m going to try out these school holidays.
I have a clever son inlaw who can make up the bases for me…yeah!
Thanks for sharing this great idea.
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing!!
Lisa
I do have a silly question though – does the bottom piece of plywood stay attached? I was just thinking, that if you were going to use it as an art piece, the plywood looks a little ruff, especially with the writing on it. Or was there another decision not to paint it white or black before the pouring started? Unless the pedestal and the paint just come off the plywood…
I was also thinking, if you build your pedestals, then covered the plywood with plastic wrap, set your pedestal on them, then poured, you could pull them off the plastic after they dried and use them as a table sculpture, it would look like your poured it on the table itself. Just wondering if you had tried something like that?
Anyway, thanks for the information!
John
I stumbled on your Blog when I was researching for our Spring Workshop on Tall Paintings. I was amazed at this discovery and very excited to find people who are also trying to inspire their community through art. I love all your projects. I would also like to share our blog http://bicycleartist.com and http://www.facebook.com/BicycleArtist with you. I think you will enjoy the similarities.
Best,
Katya
I love the fact that it is accessable and interesting to everyone, hope to see great projects like this in the future!
Thanks for doing the artist, and his assistants justice.
-Rita