Two weeks ago 1st graders created an abstract painting in the style of American Artist Jasper Johns using shapes and colors to create a grid compostition. Then using strips off of other painting this week we were able to add a woven element to our Johns Paintings. I love the bright crazy colors of these paintings.
These fun little watercolors were done by 1st graders a few weeks ago. We began by looking at Vincent VanGogh's sunflowers and students were asked to look at several paintings and explain which was their favorite and why. We also spent some time thinking about questions like why would VanGogh paint sunflowers over and over again? Why do some people like different pictures then others? And What makes a 'good' painting? Then using oil pastel students looked at real sunflowers and drew their picture. The next day we were able to paint these using watercolor. 
The 6th grades have been working on self portraits for a long time now. We first spent a week dicussing the facial grade and the proportions that go into creating a face. Then they were asked to draw themselves from a photograph. Finally we colored them with chalk pastel. Now they are hung all over school. I love that each is unique and they really do look like the students.
Kindergatners at work. This week we talked about Squares in Art. We discussed how squares have 4 equal sides and 4 equal corners. I then asked students to paint a huge piece of paper with squares. Kiddos could use any colors they wanted and paint as many squares as they wanted as long as each one was a square and they held their brush properly. (These really cool square paintings will be used as a part of weaving project comming up next.)
As 3rd Graders were finishing up their beautiful watercolor birds my fast finishers needed something extra to do. This fun little watercolor resist begins by having students draw a web with white crayon and then paint the backgound. Finally if they wanted they added a spider with black sharpie to thier web. These fun little extra projects went home with students the day they were made so they could have them for Halloween.
The 4th graders have been hard at work looking at textures and patterns found in nature. They mimiced an animal texture and pattern using oil pastel and water color and then added a silhouette of thier animal on top. 
The 3rd graders looked at the work of John James Autobon and created their own bird watercolor paintings. If you want to see more of their beautiful artwork it is hung in the office right now.
Today in first grade we looked this set of Paintings by Peit Mondrian. I love his tree studies and so I wanted to share them with students. I think his progression into abstraction is very interesting to look at. Once we had discussed his work we then created our own fall trees trying to find a balance between realism and De Stijl Styles.
In Kindergaten we read Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae illustrated by Guy Parker-Reese.
We talked about Gerald the Giraffes and then we drew out our own Dancing Giraffes on yellow paper. The next day we looked at Vincent VanGogh's Starry Night and then on blue paper we drew out night back drop. Today in class we put our cutting skills to the test and cut and pasted our Giraffes onto our night skys. Overall I love how these look hanging in the hall.
Nōtan (濃淡) is a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark as they are placed next to the other in works of art. The 5th grade created their Nōtans by cutting a colored square and using the positive and negative space to create a leaf design. 
