Beginning of Posting Art Lessons for Students of All Ages, Teachers and Parents for One Year

I plan to post art lessons/projects on this blog for one year.  I already have 80+ lessons in the works.  It takes some time to put each lesson together.  I hope to post at least three lessons each month.  

In addition to being a professional artist I have taught art for 40 years to a variety of ages, 5 year olds to adults in their 90's.  I have learned a lot from my students and had a lot of fun teaching.  I want to share some of the lessons that I have taught and lessons that I would like to teach with parents who want to learn more about art and want to teach their children about art, teachers looking for new lesson plans to inspire them, older students who are ready to learn on their own and adults of all ages looking for some art lessons that will introduce them to new artists and maybe to new materials and techniques. 

My lessons almost always include Art History but are sometimes simply about materials and techniques.  I love Art History and how it is linked to culture, literature, music, history and even food.  I will sometimes include links to some of those things.  I will always list some vocabulary words at the end of each lesson.

When I was a classroom teacher I read to my students from books that related to what we were learning and started each class with a 5-10 min journal period.  I read or played music while the students had free time to write, draw or just listen and get ready to create.  I found this to be very helpful for the students, allowing them to be centered and prepared to create art.  The journals were their private domain unless there was an assigned drawing or writing that I told them we would share, such as a sketch for an artwork that we were making.  The students valued having that private space which they took home at the end of each semester and chose to share or not share with their parents. 

This short period of focus can also work well for adults and many professional artists do something like this when they start working in their studio each day.

The above painted collage was created by a very talented 6 year old who I taught this summer at Lafayette Arts and Crafts Center in Tallahassee, Florida.  This artwork was created after looking at some paintings by artist Olaf Hajek.  The bottom part was collaged.  The assignment was to create a portrait bust with a flora and fauna background.  The students had to include at least one mammal, one reptile, one insect, one bird and one amphibian.  They were to add at least one collage element in addition to the collar and hand that everyone started with.  This student did an excellent job following directions and paying a lot of attention to detail.  She created a fabulous art piece. 

Lisa Qualls

lisa@lisaqualls.com