Fauvist Portraits

Third Grade students explored the work of Henri Matisse.  We focused on the contour line portraits he created and made our own using his art as our guide.  In the following class we discussed the art movement Matisse helped to start known as Fauvism.  Artists in this style are known for the wild crazy colors they use in their art.  Students added their own wild colors to their portraits by coloring with marker on tin foil, spraying with water, and printing on top of their drawing!

Gaston Chaissac Portraits

Kindergarteners discussed the different ways to make a portrait--how some artist try to make them look real and others like to explore lines shapes and colors to make them more abstract.  One such artist is Gaston Chaissac.  Students looked at various examples of his work, drew their own portraits and collaged around them with shapes and color!

(example of the artists work)

Dot Day Mural

It's amazing what we can create when we all work together!!  I'm so proud of all of us!! Inspired by the wings of artist Kelsey Montague we put our feathers together to create our own set of wings at the Garfield school.  Students will pose with their art during our Dot Day celebration this year!!

Happy Dreamer

For Dot Day we are inspired by the author Peter Reynolds and his story The Dot.  We start every school year by reading this book.  After creating their beautiful paintings using values. tints and shades I shared another Reynolds story with students called Happy Dreamer.  The boy in the story is shown flying around as he is embracing his dreams.  We took inspiration from this and cut our paintings into various feather shapes. 
 Next we took inspiration from artist Kelsey Montague, who is known for her large angel wing murals.  Each mural also includes #whatliftsyou.  People photograph themselves with her work and are asked to share a positive message about what lifts them up and brings them joy on their social media.  Students discussed lines and patterns and using white colored pencils added a variety of these to their feather shapes!

(Purple feathers are 1st grade, blue is 5th)

Look what I learned today!

K, 1, 2 and 3 listened to this song to review some of the basics about color

Grades 4 and 5 listened to this more advanced version of the song

This is one of my favorite post its from the end of class! :)

Overheard in the Art room...

I was so excited today when I heard a student say to herself- I'm going to think with a growth mindset instead of a fixed, as she started her art!

Color, Value, tints and shades!

Students are starting work on their Dot Day project.  This year our focus is on collaboration!  All grades are creating a one color (monochromatic) painting.  We discussed how artists are similar to chefs...a chef needs to mix up all the ingredients to make their delicious creations.  Instead of butter and flour -an artists ingredients are the elements of art!  We started with color and then sprinkled in a little value (lights and darks) to spice up our paintings and make our art more interesting.  We listened to songs about color and value and learned how to blend our colors to create a gradient!  Stay tuned for the next step!

Look what we learned today!

We are kicking off our school year with color!  Classes are reviewing the basics like primaries and secondaries, warms and cools.  Older students are taking it one step further by learning about tertiary colors, analogous colors and monochromatic color schemes.  We are also discussing another element of art called value (lights and darks) Students discussed tints and shades and are learning how to mix and blend their own as well as create a gradient.

 It's hard to squeeze in all that information, demonstration, and still have time to paint.  So instead of painting during this meeting we practiced our new routine of writing down something we learned.  Students then posted their responses by grade level.

Welcome back Garfield!!

I was so excited to hang up the large banners students painted at the end of last year!  They really brighten up our wall at the start of the school year. There's one on floors 1, 2, and 3 and one in each cafeteria.

Excited for a great year in the art room!

I'm super excited about kicking off this school year.  I've been busy rainbowtizing our classroom! Our tables have brand new rainbow colored caddies, I picked up some beautiful rainbow erasers at my favorite spot (the dollar store!)  and my rules wall got a primary color makeover!

Even my free draw area got a little face lift!  These mini rainbow caddies match the larger ones at their tables- so it's easier for everyone to find and take care of their supplies.

My free draw bookcase was in pretty sad shape, but a little spray paint really brought it back to life!  Want to add to our free draw stash?  I'm always looking for more how to draw books, art games (pictionary jr would be great), stencils or dry erase boards to add to our collection!

Roll a monster

I like to end our school year with silly fun drawing projects.  Kindergarten did these roll a monster drawings.  Using the dice and a handout they created their own creatures!

Popscicles

I needed some help testing out markers at the end of the year, so these 1st graders helped me by tracing and overlapping Popsicle sticks on their paper and filling in the resulting shapes.

Wild Things

First Graders read the story Where The Wild Things Are.  We were then inspired to design our own wild things.  Students also drew visual textures on their creatures and added even more texture with texture plates under their work while coloring!

Line Sculptures

Kinders have talked a lot about lines this year.  Students reviewed the different lines we learned about and then created them in three dimensions!