ACORN ART STUDIO: NESTING at Acorn Art Studio

Bird projects are a bit of an obsession here at Acorn Studio.

This NEST art project was inspired by stained glass Valentine activity on the ever-awesome blog The Artful Parent. I really loved the strong black line the black glue made, and the 'stained glass' effect of the watercolours.

Check out the be-autiful nests we made at Art After School this session and see how we did it!

Nest by Jennie

ACTIVITY ELEMENTS : Movement and rhythm. Making spirals and lines. 'Nesting'. Colour and colour mixing. Painting.

THE MATERIALS

White glue and black acrylic paint combined in squeeze bottles (approx half glue half paint?)

Big pieces of white multi-media paper

Precut Paper Eggs / Ovals

Gouache paints and lots of clean water

Brushes

WARM UP - Around and Around

First we had fun exploring the spiral movement and form with crayons on manilla paper.

While going around and around, kids experimented with different colours, pressures, directions and speeds. They tried holding crayons with both hands and with eyes closed. We did this for a while.

We looked at pictures of nests and how birds make them. We talked about eggs and parent birds. We talked about feeling cozy and safe.

Going around and around was relaxing and rythmic.

STEP 1 - Black Glue Spiral & Eggs
Going around and around with the squeeze bottles, artists create their spiral 'nests'.
Artists outlined or added details to their paper eggs and placed them inside and gently pressed them down to stick them.

This 5 year old artist is interested in making his nest look 'real'.
He was careful with his spiral. This is an albatross nest.

I love the wildness of this nest.
This is a tactile artist who likes to let loose.

These nests could have stayed black and white because they were indeed awesome. But now we had created a great line for painting inside.

I would recommend giving the black glue a couple of days to fully dry...There can be puddles!

STEP 2 : The Painting

We used gouache paints as our 'waterpaints'. We have a nice set in the studio with a wide range of colours. Only a bit of paint is needed and more water and artists were reminded to keep water and brushes as clean as possible between colours. I was circulating and refreshing water throughout.

Initially artists were offered browns and golds in the palettes with some greens. After a time other paint colours are offered and integrated if asked for. Artists were encouraged to try painting inside the little spaces.

Some of the kids went for a more natural palette. Other artists' nests became super colourful.

Painting the little spaces.

The browns mix a bit with other colours creating a lovely palette.

This artist's composition is 'portrait' style.

I suggested that artists choose a contrasting colour for around nests.
We tried big brushes here with lots of water.

THE FINISHED NESTS are very beautiful. Some kids finished in 2 sessions and others took longer. This project can take time. If artists became tired with the process I supported them in leaving the work and returning to it later/another day to avoid rushing/ wrecking. Each one is completely unique- which is something I really loved about this project. These artworks are gorgeous and expressive and the children were proud.