Backyard Art Camp - Charley Harper

Today I have the pleasure of joining in with the backyard art camp series being hosted by Buzzmills and A Happy Stitch
Considering most of the projects I conjure up to do with my kids end up being disastrous, they are very brave to have asked me to contribute, so thanks ladies! 

"When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe." -Charley Harper-

There's just something about Charley Harper's art that instantly grabs my eye. He described his art as minimal realism, a way of distilling a subject to its essence. I love the simplicity, and striking shapes and colors in his work. It seems like a style that kids can appreciate as much as adults, which is part of the reason I chose it as inspiration. (aside from my being a bit obsessed with Charley Harper's art. ha)

Harper's heyday was the 1950's, and I think a midcentury modern style comes through in his work. He mainly observed natural subjects, birds in particular.

Using Charley Harper's Birds and Words book, I chose a couple of inspiration pieces (pictured above) to replicate with my girls. My hope was to keep it very simple, yet with a satisfying end product for my three and four year old to admire. 

Violet, who just turned three, is a project killer. She quickly turns any calm activity into a wild, nude, messy rumpus. To her credit, she really did try to concentrate on this for about 7 minutes or so, which I'm going to label a success. Clover, who is four and a half, tends to get frustrated easily and unleash superbly eloquent tirades of frustration and blame on me during projects. Not this one though! 

Here is our end product:

Because the shapes in the art were so bold, I decided to go with a construction paper project that we could assemble together in a sequence. Making it very ordered helped Clover keep from working herself in to an anxious froth, and helped a nutty three year old follow along. But I also wanted room for them to improv, so I added some pen art to the mix. 

 I pre-cut all of the pieces before we got started by just looking at the pictures and approximating a sketch of the individual shapes. I made stencils with computer paper pieces and used those to cut out construction paper shapes to work with.  For the bird in flight, I cut the pieces for the two halves of the body in each color of construction paper so the girls could mix and match their own colors. There was plenty left over for making lots of birds later too.

With a piece of cardboard, I also made some stencils for the girls to use for tracing the ink bird wings and to make leaf shapes if they wanted (they didn't!)

Save your scraps in case the kids want to add them into their design or make a separate collage after your birds are done. 

Also, make sure your kids are in their legging tentacle hats.  Especially if you're planning on blogging pictures of them. By the time I had all my pieces cut, supplies neatly arranged on the table, and the three week old baby was sleeping, it was all go. 

I went through the sequence of gluing construction paper pieces down with them, taking time to show them the inspiration art in our book between each application of a piece, and explaining where the shape was in the picture. Then they were free to glue their piece the best they could. 

Then we added the ink element. I showed them the part of the picture that we were working on, and then had them interpret the design onto their own paper. Violet was rather loose with her interpretation.....

At one point I looked over and realized that she had taken all of the extra bird parts I'd cut out for them to mix and match colors with later, and glued them into a pile on her paper. 

Clover grabbed a couple of extra bird in flight paper pieces and came up with her own design for a bird. Do you see the big bird head in the shot above, with the extra red scrap as the body. She said it's feeding a worm to her baby. So cute. 

Violet went in her own direction with some extra pieces. The girl has a style all of her own. Hahaha. 

This is how my demo piece turned out. 

Clover's is so cute. Check out that horrified sun up in the sky. It's like "ermagerd! a cloud!"

Clover's bird in flight, complete with long swooping tail. She decided to match colors rather than mix for the body

My bird in flight (hey moms, this was really fun for me too!)

Violet's "molting bird amid a group of pensive onlookers"

Violet's cardinal was surprisingly successful. She really held herself to the task for a little while before taking her clothes off and climbing onto the table.

Part of the fun was using the same tools and pieces of paper and seeing how everyone's art came out different. Clover said she thought that was a "great project", which is high praise from the girl who often describes my choice of activities as "not the best" and "not really great". Violet was covered in ink and glue when we were done, so she was happy. 

Go find your own inspiration for minimal realism art! I want to try my hand at distilling some images and drawing them now. Kids are good at that, I think. Grownups tend to complicate things. Oh, and those of you who sew and enjoy the Charley Harper aesthetic....Birch fabrics is putting out a collection of fabrics with his art on them this fall. Can you see my face? It looks like the sun in Clover's picture.

Honorable mention goes to this little man, who slept through the whole project.  For his efforts, he's getting a Charley Harper baby quilt. 

Check out the backyard art camp pinterest board for more inspiration, and see the other projects from camp linked up on the Buzzmills and Happy Stitch blogs. Thanks for stopping by my blog!