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.
Creativity First! ...here's to connecting children to art and art to their lives.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Friday, February 19, 2016
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!
Monday, January 25, 2016
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
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
Friday, December 11, 2015
Give Them Two
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| PK student |
This week I realized that if you give a student (especially 3rd and below) 2 sheets of paper instead of one big one a couple of things happen. First, they don't end up covering up their original work/idea. You see, kids just follow their urge to keep painting, it's natural. But if you have the 2nd paper there ready for them they seem to follow their instinct of knowing when to stop and they start their next painting...awesome! The other thing that happens is that you see the story of the first painting grow, almost like the next chapter. Here are a few examples of "giving them two".
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| Kindergarten student |
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| Kindergarten student |
In this lesson, the idea was to experiment with watercolor. I also had dry media available at the table in case they wanted to incorporate the two.
If Only We Could Bottle It
Sometimes, I have the opportunity of seeing a creative color genius at work. I guess Picasso was right when he said "We are all born artists, the problem is how to remain an artist as we grow up". The painting below is by a PK student, the one below that is by the renowned Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann painted in 1959.
Hans Hofmann, The Conjuror 1959
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