This large mouth bass is one of three huge fish outside the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. They are mounted on ball bearings so that the 400 pounders can move freely with the breeze. I'm the F.I.N.E. Artist in Residence for the month of April. As part of my first day I did this painting in the parking lot and then finished it inside. The kids really enjoyed seeing it because it is so familiar to them. I'm giving the kids lessons on seeing nature as shapes. I'm using cut-out cardboard shapes that are painted with solid colors to show the importance of seeing the silhouette. A common mistake for lots of artists is to render detail before painting the large simple masses. The kids got it right away. They just grabbed the biggest brush they could find and went for it.
This fish above is named "Al" for the Allegheny River. It is 9" x 12", oil on panel.
5 comments:
I love reading your posts from Pittsburgh! Have a great month at the Museum Ron.
Start them off right, Ron! I think it was Helen Van Wkye who said, "Start with a broom, finish with a needle". You sound like you are going to have a lot of fun.
There is no greater joy than teaching receptive children, is there? Love this fun painting of Al too!
I admire what you're doing, Ron. It takes a certain knack for working with children and you seem to have found a great way of relating to them. (Oddly enough, though I'm a proud parent and grandparent, I find working with other people's children to be a real challenge -- possibly because my art instruction has been geared to an adult level for over 25 years.) And this is such a fun painting -- who couldn't love Al?
It's always amazing what children will come up with in their art.
The painting is very cool!
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