Artist Study: Claude Monet

We started this lesson by reading the book The Magical Garden of Claude Monet. Another good one is Linnea in Monet's Garden.

In the story a young girl visits Monet's famous gardens in Giverny. We looked at pictures of the garden and also examples of Monet's art. We talked about what makes his art unique and the stylistic elements of the Impressionists. I then handed out cardstock with pre-made bridges made of tape on them. The learners then painted on top, making sure to use the Impressionistic style. Once they were dry, we peeled off the tape, and voila, Impressionist masterpieces!

Spring: Chinese Blossoms

I can't help but do this project every spring. The first step is to take a blob of watered down paint and have the kids blow the paint around the paper using a straw to create the trunks and branches of a tree. Then they glue tissue paper flowers to their tree. If possible it's nice for the kids to be able to examine real cherry or plum blossoms beforehand. We also looked at Japanese prints of cherry blossoms.

Artist Study: Paul Klee

First we looked at the art of Paul Klee and how he used shapes to create simple compositions. We then used circles, squares and triangles to make our own Klee-like architectural compositions. (A nice touch is adding some tinfoil shapes.)

Sculpture: Dr. Seuss 3D Art

To Celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday in the beginning of March we made construction paper sculptures in the style of Dr. Seuss's drawings. First we looked at Oh, The Places You'll Go and the Lorax go get a feel for the stylistic shapes. Then armed with strips of construction paper, cardboard and glue, the kids went to town, making zany landscapes. Note: Yes Paste works best for this type of project. Not

only does it stick real well, but it also allows kids to make changes as they go.

Winter: Perspective Snowmen

Last year we made snowmen from the close-up 3/4 perspective. This year we expanded upon that by painting snowmen from another perspective altogether. This time, looking up at the snowmen. Anything that can switch the kids' mindset from a snowman being made up of three perfect circles is a good thing!

Scarves were made of construction paper squares laid down in patterns.

Some kids even drew the buttons going back in space, with the closest buttons being the largest, the furthest away being the smallest. 

We polished off the creations with everyone's favorite material (except perhaps the custodian's)...glitter!

Unit Study: Texture Hearts

We were studying the Five Senses and decided to create a art lesson that combined the sense of touch with upcoming Valentine's Day. Here are our heart collages; made with packing peanuts, cellophane, various fabrics, feathers, glitter, fruit bag netting, pompoms, yarn, foam and more!

Artist Study: Wassily Kandinksy

More color theory. This time....Kandinsky! In this lesson we first looked at Kandinsky's famous concentric circles painting Farbstudie Quadrate circa 1913.

I started the lesson by projecting the image on the board. I asked the students who they thought made this painting. They responded "Gina's class," "my mom," and "you!" They were excited to learn that this was a famous painting that -- like the work Josef Albers that we had just looked at the week before -- studied how color looks different when placed next to other colors. Learners then started their own creations.

We started with a small circle in the center and then adding circles around that in pastel.

Learners painted in the circles with any color they chose, making sure to think about warm and cool colors.

Materials: watercolor paper cut in squares, watercolor paints, crayon or pastel

Artist Study: Josef Albers

As we continued our study of color we looked at the art work of Josef Albers. There is a wonderful children's book called An Eye for Color about Albers. It not only gives a short bio of Albers life but also nicely explains color theory in a clear and concise fashion.

After reading the book we looked at how colors can appear different when juxtaposed against different colors. A good example of this is putting a red square on top of a white piece of paper and on top of an purple piece of paper.

After reading the book and playing around with layering different squares on top of each other, we made our own Josef Albers artwork by gluing squares together.

Materials: pre-cut construction paper squares of various colors, glue sticks, An Eye for Color book

Artist Study: Rothko

As part of our study of color, we spent a session learning about Mark Rothko. First we read Dr. Seuss's book My Many Colored Days in which we talked about how certain colors can make you feel certain ways. We brainstormed a list of emotions for the major colors. (Yellow =  sunny, warm, bright, happy, glad; Blue = cold, sad, cool, icy) Then we looked at some reproductions of Rothko's work in Jacob Bael-Teshuva's book Rothko. Then it was on to creating our own color studies in the artist's style. We really focused on how we were feeling today and how different colors looked when juxtaposed against each other. 

Materials: pastels, black construction paper cut in rectangles, a few reproductions of Rothko's work

Artist Study: Claude Monet

For this artist study we looked at the waterlilies of Claude Monet. Few artists have more children's books written about them, to name a few:

A Picnic With Monet
Linnea in Monet's Garden
The Magical Garden of Claude Monet
Monet's Impressions
Monet Paints A Day
And even a pop-up book: A Walk in Monet's Garden

But perhaps my favorite is the lyrical The Blue Butterfly by Bijoux Le Tord which really captures the vision of the popular Impressionist.

After looking at examples of his paintings we made watercolor and tissue paper waterlily compositions.

I liked them so much I used one as the background for this blog :)

Materials: pre-cut tissue paper squares in pastel colors, thick paper (doesn't have to be watercolor paper but thick enough that it won't rip when painted on), glue sticks, pastels or crayons in blues, greens, whites, and grays. 

Family Portraits

We recently started a unit on family. We started the lesson by reading the book How Artists See Families. We compared how artists such as Cassatt, Sargent, Van Gogh and Homer interpreted families.  

Then learners created drawings of their families in thin sharpie. Next we used liquid watercolor to paint on top of the portraits. 

Materials: sharpies, watercolor paper, watercolor (I used liquid watercolor to give it a more abstract feel)

Multimedia Self Portraits

 At the beginning of the year we made these multimedia self portraits. We started by making an abstract watercolor. Then I photographed each child as if they were shouting something out. Next class session they filled out interview forms asking them their favorite activities, something they dislike, what they'd like to be when they grow up, etc... I think the final results really captured who each child is.

 

Materials: a photo of each child yelling, watercolors, watercolor paper