I began this lesson by talking about Amate Bark paintings, made by the Otomi Indians of San Pablo, Mexico. Traditionally, the paper is hand-made by boiling natural leaves and bark found in the area, then rolled, flattened and dried for painting. We took a look at traditional Folk Art motifs - lots of which are birds, and scenes of the community, farm scenes, also celebrations like the birth of a child.
Students had a choice what they would like to paint. We started by crumpling brown construction paper. Then we drew the outline of our designs with black oil pastel, and filled the designs in with neon paint. Concepts learned were color mixing, line pattern and shape. Super fun!
