Each time a new writing programme begins, I feel it whizzes by. Twelve weeks are nearly over, and here we are, after our last guest session of the programme, an art workshop with art educator and children’s illustrator, Kripa. It was such a treat!
I’ve been looking at Kripa’s art for a while, and I love it. Her tea journal, her little dough babies, her city sketches … each picture she shares on social media is stunning. Art and writing go together, no matter how much I may say that I cannot draw at all, and that is why I invited Kripa to conduct an art workshop for us.
Watching all the children fill their pages with colour warmed me up. It’s a joy to watch them engage in the reflective experience of creating art, and I loved how Kripa guided them through it. The title of the workshop itself is lovely, isn’t it?
Purple sea and pink sky,
Nothing in art is a lie.
Kripa began by showing us her gorgeous artwork featuring the sky and the sea. Often, we restrict ourselves to traditional colours when we draw. The sky is blue, the sea is blue-green, and land is brown. Yesterday’s session was about experimenting with these colours, by using bold, unconventional colours to express ourselves.
I also loved Kripa’s first and most important rule: don’t erase. There are no mistakes! She asked the children to imagine that their eraser had fallen into the sea, or better, that the eraser had not been invented yet.
Beginning with a single horizontal line, Kripa taught them about positive space and negative space. Using non-traditional colours, the children explored mixed media to create seascapes of their own. Even as they worked, Kripa spoke about strokes, both for oil pastels and for poster colours, encouraging the children to create layers.
And voila! In an hour, each of the children had a work of art to show. I’m waiting for them to finish their pieces and send me pictures, but the little we saw was lovely too.
With that, another set of workshops comes to an end. But before I know it, October will be here, and I’ll be planning my next set of guest sessions …
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