Welcome Back!

We've completed our first week of the new school year in the art room. No new photos to post yet, but we've gone over our rules and procedures that help use make our time in art most productive, gotten a look at some of our great new art supplies, started a few new projects, and so... new year, here we come! Stop back to see what we create!

Jewelry Fun

In their last few art classes before heading off to high school, our 8th graders had some fun creating these jewelry pieces. The crosses were made by wiring beads onto an aluminum wire armature. Found rocks, sea glass and even seashells were wrapped in wire then hung on string to create one-of-a-kind necklaces.

Click on any image to get to the picture gallery.

  

 

The Scream

Recently, the Edvard Munch oil pastel entitled "The Scream" sold for a record-breaking amount at auction in New York City. Our seventh grade class studied this iconic example of German Expressionism then created their own versions, complete with the source of their own greatest fear lurking somewhere on the page. Click on any image to get to the Scream Gallery then decide, what makes YOU scream?

 

Flag Collages

Our first graders had some fun choosing photos from magazines, ripping small pieces then gluing onto paper to create these American flag collages. The project went along nicely with the study of U.S. History in their regular classroom. Take a look! Click on any image to get to the picture gallery.

CD Etchings

Unwanted CDs were put to good use in this project in which grade 8 students explored etching, with an emphasis on line variation and a balanced composition. Acrylic paint covered the shiny side of the CD, then the dry surface was etched with the pointed end of a nail or a screw. Even within the limited scope of the materials, we see some nice creative work. The addition of silver glitter complimented the shiny surface of two designs. See the gallery by clicking on any image.

Outdoor perspective

Here’s a challenging project our four/five class just completed. They used the rules of one point linear perspective to create the illusion of three dimensions on a two dimensional surface. We looked at examples of landscape paintings to understand the idea of a single vanishing point located in the center of the paper at which all points converge. After drawing a road (or a river) starting at the bottom of the page, they added barns, buildings, trees and the like. Clouds, birds and airplanes filled the skies, and the addition of watercolor paint completed the project. Click on any image to see more.

Castle Landscapes

Our second and third grade students learned the concept of a foreground, middleground and background in landscape art with this project designed around a favorite subject of children – castles!

Together we discussed the basic parts of a castle, which the children drew in white oil pastel on black construction paper. Using small cut sponges dipped in silver tempera paint, they created a stone or brick façade for their structures. After the castles dried they were cut out and mounted on white paper, and environments were created with a foreground, middleground and background. Moats, knights, mountains and princesses were added according to each artist’s desire and cut paper was used for flags, doors and windows. A very engaging project; take a look at the results! Click on any castle to get to the gallery.

Elements of Art Cubes

The seven Elements of Art are line, shape, form, value, color, texture and space. These are the “building blocks” of all art, and whether you realize it of not, you use at least one of them whenever you create a piece of visual art.

To review our knowledge of these elements, our grade 8 class created cubes made from heavyweight paper, with each side depicting a different element. The cube itself represented “shape”. Different media were used for different elements, and you had a choice of depicting or applying texture. The cubes were a nice way to review and reinforce knowledge, and fun to create as well. Take a look and see if you can tell what each side represents. You can click on any image to see more.

Overlapping Circles of Color

Here’s a little project our kindergarteners had fun doing this week. We explored the concept of overlapping circles by printing in black tempera paint with the ends of paper towel rolls. When the paint dried, we colored in the circles. The idea to grasp was that when colors overlap, they combine to make a third color. Sometimes it shows in the artwork and sometimes it doesn’t, but we all had fun naming color combinations and filling circles with lots of different hues! Click on any image to see more circles.

More Beauty in Symmetry

The butterflies and symmetry project for the 2/3 class was so sucessful (see the "Of Butterfies and Mathematics" post) I decided to give the first graders a try at creating their own butterfly art. They did an excellent job and all of them really understood the concept of symmetry, which they are also studying in their regular classroom.

Instead of perching on a tree branch, these butterflies are resting in cut paper grass, accompanied by all sorts of other little insects. The students enjoyed the challenge of cutting grass and removing every other blade. When one student was struggling a little with how to do it, another said to her "Just do a pattern; one, two, cut on two" and the first child immediately got it. It's so great to see how they look out for each other! Click on any image to see more.