Logan
Sofia
Palmer
Ella
Emma
John
Zachery W.
Cooper
Miles
Stefy
Nicky
Amalia
Kirstyn
Zachary Raymond
Elizabeth
John
Jack
Gustav Klimt is one of my favorite artists. I love his sinuous lines, curvy women (which the students didn't get to see!) his use of patterns, and gold gold gold. We looked at the Tree of Life and The Kiss paintings and discussed the similarities in style. Then I gave a quick demo on how to draw a tree with spiral branches and students filled them in with gold tempera paint. Since it was their tree of life, they adorned their tree with people or things that were meaningful in their life, as well as other patterns. I always enjoy seeing a glimpse of students' values and personal life. They loved pretending that the paint was real gold!
Nico
John
mysterious artist who never claimed his piece..hmm..
Since animals were LE's big theme, I did another zoology-based lesson that focused on tropical birds. We briefly discussed basic facts about the rainforest before looking at Henri Rousseau’s paintings and examples of rainforest birds. Students drew colorful birds out of their imagination and filled the entire composition with color and foliage to create a dense atmosphere. Students drew with oil pastels and painted the background.
Kyle
Mason
Amelia
Kaite
Palmer
Jack
and they analyzed them, guessing from the mood and action what the story was about. I showed them several other illustrations by different artists and we discussed how they used visual tools to communicate the story. We talked about colors, gestures, compositions, etc. Then students picked a classic story out of a hat and designed their own illustration, using whichever medium they wanted. During the sketch phase, we had a critique where each student showed their sketch to the class and received constructive criticism. I was really impressed by their positive feedback and loving how the finals are turning out. There are many more to come so stay tuned!
Jack
Elizabeth
Miles
"Sunrise" ~Nathan
"Calm" ~Nick
"Happy and calm" ~Alden
If you see my art work, you'll understand why I didn't feel like I was the best person to teach students about expressive colors and abstract shapes, but why deny that opportunity to my students? I love Mark Rothko's paintings because to me, they don't ask you to analyze the content, rather they invite you to rest your eyes and let the colors wrap around you like a blanket. I wanted my students to think about the emotional qualities of color and choose the appropriate ones that communicated what they felt at that moment.
Jack
Max
Nathan
Nick
Stefy
I was always amazed at Wassily Kandinsky's paintings and how he bridged the connection between art and music. He had the ability to literally hear color, a quality known as synaesthesia. The color red was like a drum beat and green was the sound of a violin. He also believed that shape, line, and color had emotional properties to them. With the help of my husband, a musician, we picked out songs that were distinct either in the instrumentation or the mood they expressed. I first had students fill in a "glossary of sounds", where they listened to samples of different instruments and drew the shapes, colors, or lines that came into mind. Then I played full songs while students cut and glued a final collage of sounds. In retrospect, I think I should have used a different medium that would have been faster to register and eliminate any potential for technical problems! Each song took 3 minutes to upload, which was not expected but did hinder the process. It was really interesting, however, to see students turning sounds into forms.
Nico
Zachery
Cooper
As a short winter themed project, I was inspired by Harry Callahan's photograph Chicago. It was a very simple lesson and the only challenge was to show the range of dark, light, and mid-tone, as Callahan so perfectly captured in his photograph. Students painted the gray sky first and then used straws to blow black paint into branches. I thought they came out beautiful in a creepy way.