Kindergarten: Cardinals

Way to go kindergarten! For this project, we had a nice time creating a winter scene with birch trees and cardinals.

As you may know from years past, I love both. Actually, I have to keep track of when we do birch landscapes so as not to repeat the theme. Traditionally we do cardinals in grade 2 and I've done birch landscapes in 1st and 4th grades. 

This lesson was relatively simple and I owe thanks to Pinterest for the idea of these simple shape cardinals. 

After creating the backgrounds, we identified circles, semi-circles and triangles. My little artists cut and combined shapes to create their birds and then glued them down. 

Snowflakes were added with Q-tips and white paint with mixing medium. Hopefully you stop by the school to see these beauties in the hallway!

Kindergarten: Trout Paintings

One of the coolest new things about our school year is the addition of an aquarium that has trout! The school received the trout eggs earlier this fall and we've been watching them grow. In the spring, the trout will be released into a river. Everyday, the kids go down and check the pH balance of the tank and make sure the trout are doing well. There have been some bumps on the road but I find it really interesting. 

Kindergarten created a new breed of trout...a more colorful version in art last month. They began by drawing a simple outline of a fish and added the fins. Oil pastels created the habitat for a nice underwater environment. Then they used my fav liquid water colors for the background and tempera cakes for the fish. White tempera bubbles were tapped into the composition. I'm quite proud of the kindergarteners and the hallway display is fun to look at.

Here are a few close-ups of our colorful trout.

Kindergarten just finished their first winter inspired project- I'll post it soon. 

OXOX,

Mrs Johnson

Our Art Enrichment Journey Begins with Maps and Trees

 I am really excited that a new year of fifth grade art enrichment began this week. It is through this after-school class that I get to know each student differently and explore ideas and art in general together as a class.

Our journey began this week with a drawing of a tree that we are watercolor washing. My students really seem to be enjoying the free nature of drawing a tree and adding character to the tree with texture using lines created with permanent marker. Watching the kids pull from techniques for drawing branches last year with the van Gogh 'Almond Blossoms" lesson was awesome to see. The delicate nature in which many students added branches that stretched and twisted and grew in all directions was personally fulfilling. 

I have been slowly collecting maps and atlases for a couple of years.. Tucked away in a tupperware container I have maps that were in some glove compartments well over a decade ago. As a child, I enjoyed reading maps as we took family trips. I wonder if maps are even for sale on the racks at pit stops anymore now that technology has diminished the paper versions.

Using watercolor, I painted a map of the Greater New York area. Next week, my students will alter the maps by not only adding color to their own but by cutting them in a way that can create a beautiful, mixed-media background. 

 

My main interest in maps has been the collage potential while using them and the pride that I took as a child in having a good sense of direction and being able to read maps well. A longtime colleague of mine from Grounds for Sculpture, Aylin Green, has used dress pattens in her gorgeous mixed media contemporary art that I have always admired the quality of.

Aylin Green

When I saw the work of Australian artist, Loretta Grayson, I felt the same interest in the quality of her work and the use of beautiful, collaged papers to communicate to the viewer. The colors of the maps coupled with the arrangement of the assembled portions is simply beautiful.

Loretta Grayson 

Loretta Grayson

Stay tuned....

Grade 1 and Grade 5: Mixed Media Sunflowers

This was a fun one. When I was a child, I was OBSESSED with drawing sunflowers... and I wore a t-shirt with a huge sunflower on it and I doodled sunflowers on my Converses. Nature was a huge part of my formative years which made these two projects based on my favorite painter Vincent van Gogh a pleasure to make. 

The first is this slightly mixed media project in which the 5th graders used a dictionary page to draw a sunflower. Outlined in Sharpie and painted with a wash of color, the kids did a nice job capturing 'Sunflowers"

The second project was a ton of fun to make. We read a book about van Gogh's sunflowers and discussed the content in the story which talked about van Gogh's passion for painting and the struggles he encountered along the way.

We examined sunflowers..the center, the petals and referred to "Sunflowers" to see how van Gogh painted these top heavy flowers in different stages. 

We began by mixing colors for the background and added texture. The kids created their vases with a simple line drawing followed up with an oil pastel outline. Next up was painting the vases. Finally, we had a fun time creating the sunflowers and adding details to them after they were glued down.

Grade 4: Almond Blossoms

Almond Blossoms is one of my very favorite paintings. Vincent van Gogh painted it to hang in his nephews nursery. The flowering branches were a favorite of van Gogh's as they represented "awakening and hope". I love the color palette of this painting as well as the strength and delicacy of it. This painting, along with numerous others, were on display a few year back in Philadelphia at the museum there. Almond Blossoms is a large painting that is mesmerizing.

This month, in the art room we are learning about Vincent van Gogh. Each grade level is capturing his post-impressionistic style and imagery in a project of their own. My 4th graders have done a beautiful job of creating their interpretation of 'Almond Blossoms'.
Not to go into a weird art teacher mode here but I felt somewhat emotional watching my students progress in these paintings. We began by mixing colors for the backgrounds. The joy that these 9 and 10 year olds had in mixing paint reminded me of how beautiful the simple joys of life/art can be.

Once the branches were drawn, students blended colors to fill the branches in followed by adding the delicate flowers. I could have cried seeing how beautifully executed the branches were. I felt such a wave of emotions seeing my 4th graders, who I love so dearly, re-create one of my favorite paintings so well. Their talent beamed through in each stage of this project. Here are a few completed painting from Mrs. Miller's class.

Grade 3: Ships

I LOVE the wonderfully executed water and the focus on the subject.

Last month, my third graders and I discussed the paintings of American landscape painter Winslow Homer and the significance of clipper ships (the greyhounds of the sea) in American history.
After drawing the ships and deciding how they wanted their sails to look and what accessories to add in, my students enjoyed blending chalk pastels in the backgrounds to create a sky and the water.
We used watercolor primarily to create "faux" wood.. The idea for this project came from a piece of art that I saw in the TCNJ k-12 Art, Innovation and Ideas exhibit that Bear Tavern was selected for last spring.
More student work to come!

"Breezing Up" 1873-1876 oil on canvas

All Grades: I Am Collages

Such rock stars! Here are my 4th graders working on their first project of the year in early September. All grades created mixed media self-portraits that were completed for their parents to admire on Back-to-School night. This project was a collaboration between the media specialist and me. We modified a project that I saw on a photographer's web page about a project that she did for her sons class. She took photographs of the children and had them write personal statements to incorporate into a painting that they made. I enjoyed watching my students work and enjoy scavenging for supplies, using materials as they chose to and ultimately telling the school some special things about themselves. In addition to black and white photos and text, my students created beautiful backgrounds and then got into the spirit of collage adding all sorts of materials to their final product.

I will see what I can do about posting the finished self-portraits considering photo permissions and all.

Grade 1: Cats, Birds and Sketchbooks

I just adore my 1st graders. On Friday, with Mrs. Weidman's class,  we had such a nice conversation about a new project we started. The kids really liked looking at Swiss painter Paul Klee's "Cat with Bird". We talked about how silly it is that the cat has a bird on it's forehead, among other things relating to the painting and life as a cat.

 The kids asked if they could draw a bird on their cats forehead or on top of it's head. My answer: OF COURSE YOU CAN...but draw it in pencil first to make sure you're happy with it :-)

I had some really nice scraps of paper left over and decided to make each of the kids a sketchbook to take home. 

Mariella's sketchbook and Aaron's day 1 cat w/ bird

Paul Klee "Cat and Bird"

Logged 20 pages of reading in for March Reading Challenge

Grade 3: Pastel Vases

I try not to repeat lessons with much frequency from year to year as there is no need. There are a million and one ways to teach the same concepts and explore materials.
This pastel vase with painted flowers lesson is one that I will never tire of. This is the 2nd spring that we have created these vases and I believe they will be a 3rd grade spring staple. The kids love 'em, I love 'em and families love them as well. I wish I could take credit for designing this lesson but the honor goes to Linda Bradshaw who retired last year from HES.

Chalk pastel blending techniques

We will finish these up next week and I will send them home for kids to give to someone special around Mother's Day.

A finished vase

Finished vase

We took a look at vases sitting on a table by Van Gogh to understand where to begin drawing so that the vase actually sits on the table.