An online exhibition of art by Corrales Elementary School students can be seen at the Corrales Arts Center website from January 23 through the end of February. The show includes results of arts education exercises guided by the center’s Elaine Manicke, Heidi Ames and artist-teacher recruits for its Art Up! after school program.
The techniques illustrated are Blind Contour Drawing, Concentric Circles, Patterns and Designs, Big to Small and Directed Drawing. The goal of the first, Blind Contour Drawing, is to teach students hand eye coordination, described as “a drawing exercise where an artist draws the contours of a subject without looking at the paper.â€
The students, in kindergarten through fifth grade, were told to concentrate on looking at the person across from them, and pretend that the drawing pen or marker is touching the outline of that face. They were to draw the contour of the face with one continuous line, without lifting the marker from the paper and without looking at the paper until the drawing was finished.
Then the artist became the subject and the subject of the first drawing became the artist for the next. Results were later colored in. The center’s Art Up! program is meant to “promote creative thinking, risk-taking, problem solving and collaboration. This process builds confidence and strengthens decision-making and observation skills.â€
Since the exercise involved in-person instruction and participation, the program was halted due to the pandemic. But the results achieved can be viewed online at www.CorralesArtsCenter.org/ArtUp.