BUSH FAIRIES - May Gibbs - Australian Author and Illustrator

  

 

Detail of the artwork

 

"Snugglepot and Cuddlepie" turn 100 years old this year, so to celebrate this event, I decided it would be patriotic to create an artwork. Images of them are being projected onto the fronts of buildings as part of the VIVID festival. You should check out this Sydney festival on Google. Its fantastic!!!!!
   May Gibbs began her life in Australia after immigrating from England with her parents in 1881. Her first published book, "The Gumnut Babies", was published in 1916. Her most famous book,  "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie", was published in 1918 as part of the end-of-World-War-1 celebrations. Like all of her books, she illustrated this books with bush fairies, bush creatures and, of course, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.
  May Gibbs had a strong understanding of the Australian bush and a great love of nature. She imparted this through her books and illustrations. She wanted all children, not just Australian, to have a love, appreciation and understanding of nature.

 

   PROCEDURE:

Art Appreciation: I printed off some brief information about May Gibbs with two images of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.
1. I found two photographs of flowering gumnuts on Pinterest and turned them monochromatic.

2. I then printed them onto watercolour paper. As this artwork is intended for students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2, I realised they would need an image to work ON rather than draw it.
3. Students will then colour the image with watercolour pencils. The Resource Image provided is in black and white so they can decided on the colours they want to use. They do not have to rely on realistic colours.
4. When the artwork is dry (I use a hairdryer to speed up this process), students draw in details using the Resource Image to help them establish parts of the gumnuts, flowers, leaves, etc. They use a fine line Artline pen 0.8 and a black marker. This creates a variety of line thickness.
5. Students then select one or two bush baby images that they will place and then glue onto their artwork. I will precut/trim all images as they are fiddly to cut around with any degree of accuracy and neatness. I did not include Snugglepot or Cuddlepie in these images as I wanted to focus on "Bush fairies" as Australian mythology and as iconic images. On the back of their artwork they will write an acknowledgement in regards to the images being the creations of May Gibb.

 

6. Once glued into position, students can apply some light shading into the artwork. The shading process would probably only apply to students in Years 1 and 2 but you could always give it a go with your Kindy kids.
7. I decided to add some glitter as the artwork seemed to be missing something, lacking in visual appeal. I think the kids will really enjoy doing this artwork as it involves using their imaginations to create a whimsical image. Glitter always gets approval!!!