grade plywood has lots of glue between the plies to keep water out. It is more expensive than high grade exterior plywood, but a local building supplier might be willing to donate it or at least give you a discount. A cheaper alternative is high density overlay (HDO) plywood that is used for exterior signs. Both marine grade and HDO plywood are specialty items so not all building suppliers carry them.
• The top edges of the plywood should be protected from the weather with three-sided metal or vinyl strips (shelf edging) that snap onto the edges.
• Use a good primer to cover all sides and edges of the panels. Apply paintable caulking to the edges after you have primed the panels, and then apply a coat of primer to the caulking to protect it.
• Use high quality exterior matte latex acrylic paint to cover the primer with a background colour. Whatever colour you use for the background, make sure it will work well with the colours used to paint the mural. You can expect little spots of the background colour to remain unpainted where children are at work, so the background colour will show through in places. If you use white for the undercoat, it will have a flattening effect on the final colours. Impressionist painters often used ultramarine or another primary colour for the undercoat on their canvasses as a device to make topcoat colours even more vibrant in places where it the undercoat is not completely covered. Brilliant undercoat colours add intensity by “shining” through the top layers of paint.
Tip: You can use different undercoat colours for different parts of the mural depending on the colours you plan to use for your design. For example, if you were to paint an area of fallen dried leaves, you could use a reddish chestnut colour for the undercoat and blue-black paint for the sketch. The blue of the lines and the tiny reddish patches that remain unpainted will help to create an effect similar to the device used by the Impressionists. Teachers might like to use this opportunity to teach
children about the colour wheel and look at what happens at the margins of primary colours when they are placed next to each other. They could also have classes examine Poin- tillist paintings by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac to see how a colour that looks purple from a distance is actually composed of tiny red and blue dots or small isolated brush strokes, as an example of colour theory. NOTE: You may wish to invite artists in the school com-
A preliminary sketch allows young students to add important details within a proper frame.”
munity to help out, particularly with the more detailed work on the last two days of the project.
Painting with kids What group size is best?
Generally speaking, having groups of five to seven JK-4 kids (ages 5-10) work on the mural in turns works well. A kindergarten teacher will sometimes want to bring the entire class at once, which is fine as long as there are no more than about 12 children painting at once, due to space limitations. You might have to ask other teachers to bring some of their own aprons or smocks. Children in grades 5 and 6 (ages 11-12) often muck about and try to paint each other and put smiley faces on the mural, so, as with the younger grades, four or five older students at a time is best depending on the class. It’s good to get the low down on this first from the teachers, and have them choose the combinations of children where behaviour problems are least likely.
The Cost of a Directed Mural
Creating a mural requires funding for materials, installation, and an artist to oversee the project. Grants are available through national, regional (state/provincial) and local organizations such as community foundations, arts councils and boards, artists in schools programmes, etc., and (in Canada) Multicultural Arts for Schools and Communities (MASC) <
http://www.masconline. ca> and ArtsSmarts <
http://www.artssmarts.ca>. If you can find an artist who is partially funded by an organization, the school’s monetary contribution to the project is generally around $1,500. Hiring an artist privately will generally cost $20-30 per square foot depending upon the intricacy of the design, materials and installation extra. Finding a local artist willing to volunteer would obviously save money. Whichever option you choose, it is essential to find someone with good organizational skills who works well with children.
GREEN TEACHER 93 Page 17
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