Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Paper weaving 1st Grade


 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.

1st Grade VanGogh Sunflowers


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. 

6th Grade Chalk Self Portraits.


 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.




Monday, October 26, 2015

Kinders at work


 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.)



Spooky SpiderWebs

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.




4th Grade animal texture Projects


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.   








3rd Grade Birds


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.




Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Fall Trees

Today in 2nd Grade we focused on our brush technique and we attempted a quick one day painting in an impressionist style.  Overall I think these fall trees turned out very fun.

Mondrian Fall Trees

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.



Giraffes Can't Dance

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.





Tuesday, October 6, 2015

2nd Grade Pumpkins

 Today in 2nd Grade we drew pumpkins and worked on shading and value with chalk pastel






Friday, October 2, 2015

5th Grade Notans


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.