8. Week Five: The Studio as a Place for Further Experimentation

The large format paintings finished the previous week were now rolled up, secured with rubber bands, and propped in the corner of the doorway ready to be taken home. Big Paintings Club was originally scheduled to take place over the course of four weeks. However, the students asked that I extend the club. The next two sessions continued in the same way. There was no set agenda or activity. Materials were made available and the students used them as they saw fit.

One student chose to apply paint to a plastic container and then see if she could peel it off once dry. Another student played a videogame on her iPod while the others set about painting tabletops. A few minutes later two of the girls decided to create a series of drip paintings on colored construction paper.

As the session continued the tabletops became great monotone slabs of pale blue, white, and dark red. Two of the girls picked a handful of giant rhubarb leafs from the school garden and began using them to make leaf prints on one of the tables. This activity caught on and soon the dark red tabletop was covered with large pale blue botanical leaf impressions. Others used a wet into wet technique to add butterflies and flowers to the white tabletop. The girl who was playing video games became inspired by all the creative activity and used a three inch wide commercial paint brush to add thick ribbons of white on the blue tabletop which reminded me of de Kooning’s late paintings. Meanwhile, the girl who painted her arm to resemble a zombie added blue butterflies interspersed with lavender polka dots to the white tabletop.