Glitter Goodness!

In the spirit of the season.  We drew and decorated some seasonal cookies.  YUM. 
Enjoy your winter break everyone!

Kindergarten Landscapes

These simplistic horizons, I just love! Prior to this project we made imaginary creatures that highlighted the idea of texture.  Sorry I meant to post them around Halloween - they were awesome and still are.  It seems I am very backed up with featuring amazing art and artists on here.  Bare with me.  This time of year gets crazy busy.  It is the best time of year even so, and just because I haven't posted much, it doesn't mean we haven't be making wonderful things.  Back to the topic of texture.  Kindergartners were so smart. They noticed that Monet showed texture in his painting while O'Keeffe has a simple and smooth style of painting.  After all, people can make the same exact thing and it can be completely different.  In this case, both artists make Landscapes in very different ways.  Take a look at my slide show.  Kindergartner's enjoyed it and had great conversations about it too! 
Notice to the ways that they decided to show daytime versus nighttime - very creative.


Monet Inspired


Monet Inspired
Monet Inspired

O'Keeffe Inspired

O'Keeffe Inspired


O'Keeffe Inspired


Car Collages

Check out our Animoto video to see what 1st Graders invented.  These were inspred by a great book - If I Built a Car by Chris van Dusen.

Matisse's Moving Compositions

By 3rd grade we know the name Matisse.  We have seen many of his artworks from his paintings to his collages.  This time around, Matisse showed us about arranging an interesting composition. 
 
Henri Matisse La NĂ©gresse, 1952, paper collage
 
We also talked about, considered and applied what we know about the color schemes ... we even created our own colors while painting papers to use in this artwork. We used geometric shapes in the background and organic shapes for our figure. We strived to lead the viewer's eyes around the composition and communicate an action and possibly even a feeling.







What did you say? That was AWESOME!

Lately, I have been noticing some amazing things being said, so I decided to celebrate these wonderful incites.  Now, we have an evolving quote book and a quote is added to the board weekly... well, almost weekly.
This is the quote that started it ALL (the "YOU said something AWESOME" board).


Paul Klee's Colors

Is he hunting for food?  Is he being attacked?  Where is he?  Who is he?  What are those creatures?  Is he American Indian?  Why did Paul Klee use such ugly colors? 
 
These are some of the questions that 4th graders asked and it was GREAT! 
Sinbad the Sailor, Paul Klee
 Paul Klee loved color and we mixed and stirred different combinations of paint together to see what happened.  Notice how we painted with monochromatic, complimentary, and analogous colors.
 

I want to ride MY bicycle....

It is believed by some that one of Leonardo Da Vinci's students in the 1490's made rough drafts of a bicycle. They were found among Da Vinci's writings for the Italian government in 1966 by a group of monks. What is realized with these findings is that in the 1490's all the parts of a bicycle were available to inventors and the public. Inventors were thinking about how to use the parts as well, but didn't think about putting them together.

I am really having trouble narrowing down my images of these.  I could post ALL of them.
Questions we are able to answer:
- How can I find and interesting composition?
- Can I talk about contour lines and show how to draw with them?
- How can I make an object look more 3-D?
- How can we learn from art?
 






 
 

Kandinsky Colors

It is that time of year again. A time to experiment with mixing colors and creating color schemes.
I can't wait to coat the halls with these.  I love the subtle differences in how 2nd graders applied their paint.

Art Critic

Which art do you like best?  Why? How does it make you feel?
Mondrian
 



Pollack
In 2nd grade, we made a reproduction of a Mondrian and a Pollack. We compared and contrasted them discovering that lines share different feelings.
After viewing this famous artwork and others painted by Norman Rockwell, we decided to judge our reproductions. 
We drew a museum space and added our photograph.

Some added a cast shadow.



 
 
 

Romero Britto spreads positive feelings

3rd grade went to town with these.  After watching a slideshow, we brainstormed things that make us happy ... positive things, in the spirit of Britto.  I included a link that will take you to my Prezi (I hope?) slideshow about Romero Britto.   
 








Figurative Sculpture

After drawing gestures sketches of our classmates, we picked our favorite to turn into a sculpture.  The artist Alberto Giacometti influenced us. 

We added shadows to give them more dimension
 

Line Landscapes and More

I always love to start the year focusing on lines because they are AMAZING.  When I see what 5th graders come up with, I am reminded that something so simple can be stretched to create something wonderful. 

At one of my schools we looked at current artist by the name of Virginia Kraljevic, an artist that started her career as a visual designer for the popular store Anthropologie.  She then went out on her own and began trying life as an independent freelance artist. 


Oval Forest

We also looked at the current artist Serge Seidlitz.  He is an artist to claims his art was fueled by growing up watching MTV and flipping through MAD magazine.  He inspires us to doodle away.
 
Take a look at 5th grade's creations.
I love the sense of humor here - referencing the well known nursery rhyme

 
I like how the space is filled so that it looks almost subterranean
I can almost feel how tired this wolf must be.


What can I say?  I smile every time I see this one.
Great contrast

 
At my other school (fyi - I teach at 2 awesome schools), we looked at how different artists and cultures use lines. Again, 5th grade used lines in some incredible ways.
 
Love the use of negative space and complimentary colors
I think these hands look like they are glowwing .... so cool.
This one took the idea of creating texture "there and beyond" - not only does it look like
 texture but run your fingers over the left hand and you will feel it too - bravo.