Reflections and Distortion

In order to provide my grade 9 painting class a different perspective on their world I set them a little task to produce a small self portrait as seen through the viewpoint of a reflection from a spoon. This really became an exercise in observation as they looked deeply into what was effectively a small concave or convex mirror to provide a somewhat distorted image of themselves. To highlight the shininess of the spoon they were also asked to paint directly onto black paper, which most had never done before. While the students tended to provide a stylised version of their portrait, their handling of the overall form and the background was interesting and they were pleased with the results.