Water Soluble Oil Painting

The students put on gloves for this. It is Messy!!!! But Fun:)

Painting is what I love to do and what a joy to share this process with my students! We applied the mixture of Water Soluble Oil Paint over the Acrylic base (it was dry) and they we used spatulas and toothpicks to scratch in trees and rivers.

Water, Water Everywhere - painting in a background

For this project the students are going to use Water Soluble Oil Paints and Dorlands cold wax on top of an acrylic background. The first day we painted the Acrylic background and the students chose their own color.

The Art of Conserving Water

In Art we discussed the many ways of conserving water. The chart shows some of the ways we discussed. We made posters to put around the school reminding others to conserve water.

Congratulations to Drakes Creek Middle School!

Hi all. This is a post from Kristina Arnold, visiting artist. I posted some pictures (below) of our final touches we put on our group installation today. Congratulations to all those involved, this was a fun project and you all should be proud of yourselves, it looks great! (I'm proud of ourselves!) Everyone was so creative and really contributed to the overall project. You have totally transformed your school, and everyone will be feeling like they are swimming through the rest of the school year!

What an awesome project!

Here is an overview of the cloud and ocean.










Here are some details. If you look closely, you can see the 2D painted panels, the 3D seaweed and coral made from recycled plastic bottles and the 3D fish, starfish and other sea critters made from stuffed painted vinyl.











This shot gives you an idea of the depth and scale of the installation.

















Art collaborators / mad scientist experiment-ers. Assisting with hanging the installation pieces.


















This is a good close-up view of some of the sea critters.















Installing the final few fish!

Delaire Rowe, Executive Director of VSA Kentucky, visits DCMS

Yesterday, April 21st, I visited Drakes Creek Middle School to observe the Artistry of Water project. The program was made possible through a national program called the VSA Arts Integrated Demonstration Project. Kim Soule is the art teacher at Drakes Creek and she is hosting the events, teaching classes, and coordinating the program.

Kristina Arnold was the guest artist that day. She is an installation artist, as well as, the Gallery Director and Professor in the Department of Art at Western Kentucky University. Kristina collaborated with Kim and the students in creating an installation at the entrance of the school.

They painted on long sheets of vinyl and made 3-D pieces out of recycled water bottles.

The entrance to the school has many windows and is filled with light. The transparency of the painted vinyl and plastic creates a very colorful and visually interesting environment. Anyone visiting the school will be welcomed into a curious floating world. Wonder, excitement, and creativity greeting all who enter.

I can't wait to see the finished installation during the upcoming open house.

Time to hang OUR Installation!

Kristina Arnold, visiting artist was in our classroom again today and then she worked with each class to hang the installation that we have been working so hard to create. Our vinyl banners were hung first to represent the ecosystem of the sea. Next we hung the undersea creations that we made using recycled bottles. You will notice all sorts of fish, sea creatures, anemones, and seaweed. The Installation of our very own art is awesome! Thanks Kristina!

Recycle Your Water Bottle into Art!