This Week In Art...

Kinder and First Grade- Art Can Help Us Remember Special Moments
2nd and 3rd- Art Can Help Us Remember Special People In Our Lives
4th- Connection to Folk Art and using what we already have on hand to create art 

Experimenting with Watercolor Techniques

What Mars Might Look Like In the Future

These landscape paintings were inspired by photographs from magazines.  The students took the photos and thought about how to abstract the images into simple shapes.  

This student wanted to change the color palette to make everything "wrong", as you can see with purple and blue trees, pink land, etc.  She hadn't even heard of Fauvism until I  explained it to her afterwards!

This student was particularly interested in making the viewer's eye travel to the left...notice how she made all of the lines lean in that direction.  

Working With Clay

 These pieces were made with hand building techniques by middle school students.  The rhino started off as a double pinch pot and then clay was added to create the features.

The dinosaur stared off as a cylinder and clay was removed with a clay tool to shape it as well as added to make the features.  

There were a lot more pieces but the kids took them home before I could take a picture!  We had turtles, birds and owls as well all with double pinch pots.  

Layering and Letting Go

You can really tell when a student feels free to create, it shows in every mark. They are able to capture their thoughts and represent them immediately.   As I look at these pieces I find myself mesmerized.  Notice the symmetry in the above piece? Was that intentional or planned?  This is a first grader.  What world is this I ask?  I love thinking about it, what a gift.  Art is so giving; one person creates, the viewer receives.

Central Idea:  Artists are often inspired by nature.
Techniques addressed:

• Layering watercolor
• Crayon resist
• Wash 

 

Experimentation May Lead To New Discoveries

 I gave students time to simply experiment with various media and tools.  The goal was to see if through their experiments a new art technique might be discovered.  You can see in the video how wonderful this type of activity can be.  Was it messy? Yes.  Did it get too loud? Yes, but it was from enthusiasm, excitement and true engagement.  In the end, I'm so glad we did it.  It helped them see how so many things are connected, how creating art is a journey, and how mistakes are opportunities to find hidden answers.

Animals, Art and Artist Habits of Mind

In Kinder and First Grade

Practicing taking our time and looking closely we notice things that may otherwise be missed.  The first day children chose animal figurines to practice 2 drawing techniques, shape and outline.  The second day, we looked at our sketches and selected our favorite one.  Using the original sketch as a reference animals and settings were then painted on a much larger format. Check out the video below to see it all in action!

https://www.wevideo.com/view/589971128

Organic and Free-form Shapes With Kinder and First

An IB Central Idea that we've been working with is Nature Can Inspire Creativity.
We've thought about how nature has inspired artists throughout time.  From the first cave dwellers drawings of animals to African sculptures with depictions of nature, as well as now when we create art.  When we look at nature, we see that it lends itself perfectly to organic and free-form shapes. What shapes can inspire us to create an artwork based on nature?

Vocabulary: free-form shapes, geometric shapes, organic shapes, collage, light pressure, hard pressure
Technique:crayon rubbing and collage
Skills: cutting, gluing, arranging a pleasing composition