Inspired By Nature, Art and Poetry

“The worship of convention will never lead to astonishment.” Tama J. Kieves

I Am A Leaf Bridge

I am a leaf bridge

I wonder if more leaves will fall on me?

I hear the water run

I see birds chirping

I am a leaf bridge

I pretend to be solid

I feel the leaves on my back

I worry about tornadoes

I cry when I crack

I am a leaf bridge

I understand that sometimes people will want to use another bridge

I say that’s okay

I dream about walking away

I try to lift myself up

I hope I will always be useful

I am a leaf bridge

2nd Grade Ms. Narsette’s Class

Visual Arts




Transdisciplinary Theme: How We Express Ourselves
Central Idea: Art is a way to explore our ideas and feelings about nature.
An inquiry into:

• nature in art from the past and present
• ways in which artists observe and record their own ideas about nature
• illustrators- nature in storybooks
• details in natural objects
• how artists can use lines and colors to suggest mood and/or movement

2nd grade collaboration

I love the way the kids responded to this project.  Let me back up a bit...last week I introduced our central idea (see above). We looked at and discussed images of nature in art from the past and present. We looked at leaves through loupes (10x magnification) in pairs and discussed discoveries relating to the art elements; colors, lines, shapes, textures, etc. and  of course along with anything else that came to mind!  We then used watercolor paper and either invented a new leaf design or did an observational drawing (their choice).
Now, here's the best part...this week when they arrived we reviewed a bit and then I introduced the work of Andy Goldsworthy.  They were fascinated by his process and work, especially this one...

Screens Series, Lake District England, 1998

     .
I asked the class
" Could we create one class project  to go with our central idea?"
A lot of different ideas came shooting out.  I was just there to facilitate. At this point, I had no idea what the outcome would be, but I was okay with that, because I knew only great things come out of such excitement.  One student had the idea to make a bridge with the leaves, they all loved it, should it be flat or raised, thick or thin, how do we get it to stay up?  They worked everything out together and they were sooo excited.  Just one problem...
who takes it home?!




*side note- Using the same process as Mr. Goldsworthy (he works with existing materials in nature) was not one of the goals of this lesson, nevertheless, his work itself was a wonderful inspiration.

Dreaming

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

  Robert Kennedy 






 

Our color charts were transformed into dreamy landscapes against a night sky.






These are a mix of Kinder, First and Second
They all loved it!

Light, Shadow and Value

Continuing our journey into seeing, I decided to focus on looking at light and shadow. The subtleties of change in light will  take you in if you if you let them.  What  is it about light and shadow that intrigues the artist in us?  It was a mystery and the  kids wanted to find out more.  It was also a perfect opportunity to look at value.  Watercolour lent itself perfectly for this exploration as you can see below.

Some kids painted  in big 'swooshes' while for others  made charts. 

Next week or so we will begin making collages from these color charts. 

Seascapes

A peculiar creative silence overtook us.  A big wave could have taken us out.  Later, I noticed her wading into the surf.  She was glowing.  I squeezed out more Aureolin hue (yellowish paint).


Robert Genn

Sarah, 1st Grade Artist

Jerome, 1st Grade Artist

1st Grade Watercolor Seascapes

These lovely seascapes were painted with liquid watercolors which the students loved using!  I love using them because the colors are so brilliant and a little goes a long way.   There is a book  I wanted to share with the kids called Water by Frank Asch The artwork looks like it's all been done with watercolors and this provided the inspiration for these pieces.
 I have a huge rug for the kids to sit on while we look at artwork or while I demonstrate a particular process. This is when I  demonstrated how to draw a seascape along with a boat and water. Afterwards, the kids went to their tables and started their own.

 

The Art of Ikebana

 First grade ikebana watercolor paintings. 

  I was so pleased to see the students taking in the art form of ikebana so thoughtfully.  Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging but the word literally means  the arrangement of plant materials. The history  goes back about 500 years.   One basic premise of ikebana is the idea that the arrangement symbolizes heaven, mankind, and earth, each of which is represented by different elements in the arrangement.  The heaven element is placed highest, earth towards the center, and mankind at the bottom.

This morning I gathered materials from our playground to make an ikebana to show the kids.
There is a great source for making an ikebana here.

Favorite Tree

Kindergarten Watercolor Trees

I found myself walking around with a smile that couldn't be erased.  Every painting had a story poured into it.

We began by talking about nature and how throughout history artists have been inspired by it.  We looked at various artworks with trees and shared thoughts on how the artists may have felt about them.   We shared  stories of special memories with trees and moved forward with the painting.

Abstract Crowds

This lesson is about abstraction, simplification of shapes and overlapping.  We first made a few sketches in order to get the shapes super basic or simple.  They could choose any situation in which to place a group of people.  We used liquid watercolors to paint everything in except for the black bands, those were painted with black acrylic to get the opaque contrast quality. Wherever one part of an image overlapped another, that is where the color would change. When they were finished with the painting, they could choose whether they wanted to cut it into strips and reassemble it for even more movement.  Only one student  decided to take this risk which is the single image on top.  If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see how she placed her strips.  To sharpen everything up in the end, we used sharpies to go over the lines.



...And here is a video of the creative process at work!

Fanciful Peacocks

This was a great project for all of the kids.  Patterned art is not particularly my thing but every once in a while I do like to incorporate a fun "how to draw" lesson.   At the beginning of the lesson I stress freedom of choice for everyone.  I tell students that I am just giving them the basics and they have the opportunity to make any changes they see fit. This helps a lot because it makes the students feel good about their work being different from their peers or mine.   I think that's why the results vary so much.  I break down the drawing into line types or shapes;  for example, the beak was a triangle. You could also incorporate learning about radial design with the feathers.

I want to thank the Art Projects for Kids blog for the inspiration for this project.