Leaf Print Paintings

     Last fall, my good friend Mrs. Custer did some leaf print paintings with her elementary students in Baltimore that I absolutely loved.  I waited all year long for back to school time and for fall to come again to do this lesson!  We started out by looking at some of Andy Goldsworthy's works in second grade and discussed his use of elements of nature as art materials.  We didn't use our leaves in the same way as Goldsworthy, but we combined them with printmaking to be the "stars" of our painitngs.

     The second graders created washes with Biggie Cakes on their papers to act as a base for the paintings.  They then placed leaves (from my mom's house...thanks mom!) on top of the washes with the veins up.  To make the prints, the students painted on top of the leaves and around them with LOTS of watery paint.       

     After the paintings were dry and the leaves were peeled off, we learned about the metallic color family and used metallic tempera to add details and emphasis to make the paintings look complete.