Multimedia Still Life

Eighth graders were given the opportunity to learn about and practice using several different artistic mediums in this one project. First, students did a line drawing of one of three still lifes set up in the art room. After completing their line drawings, students cut their piece into four sections. One section was shaded with pencil, like a traditional still life drawing. The other sections were completed using collage materials, oil pastel and watercolor. In all of the mediums, students were sure to consider value and shadow to create a realistic rendering of the still life.

Expressionist Animal Paintings After Franz Marc

Expressionist artists working in the early 1900’s experimented with revolutionary techniques. Instead of drawing realistically, they simplified forms. Instead of using naturalistic colors that would be seen in nature, they used the power of color to express ideas and emotions. Franz Marc was an Expressionist artist who saw animals as the perfect subject, as they seemed to live in the moment and have a direct connection with nature.
In this painting, The Large Blue Horses (1911), Marc chose the colors he felt would express his ideas about his subject. He saw blue as a soulful color, yellow as a joyful color, and red as a color that symbolizes the earth and the material world. Based on Marc’s use of color symbolism, how would you interpret the painting?
Like Franz Marc, seventh graders used animals as the subject for their Expressionist style paintings. Students chose an animal and painted it in their environment using arbitrary and symbolic color that expressed a chosen feeling or emotion instead of using realistic colors (feel free to ask the students why they chose the colors they did!).

Michelangelo Lives!

Last week in Art History we did a few art activities that related to our study of Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti. First, students got to see how heavy and bulky real marble carving tools are (Ms. Marlowe has a set) and then attempted to create a small carving of their own with fettling knives and a polystyrene foam sculpture block. My art supply catalog described the material as "easy to carve dense foam (that is) quick and convenient to use for the whole class." Well, all the kids really made was a BIG mess (it looked like it had snowed in my room!), but they got an idea of how challenging a subtractive sculpture can be to make (imagine carving the "David"!)...

Another day, students laid on their backs under their tables while they painted to understand the challenges Michelangelo faced while he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (bending, reaching, aching neck, strained eyes, paint splattering down on him)... I think they really appreciate how TALENTED (and patient!) Michelangelo was!:

Fantastic Fossils- Printmaking by 5th Grade

In their first project of the quarter, fifth grade boys looked at examples of real fossils in class before drawing their own fossilized plant matter, animal bones and skeletons and shells. They transferred their designs to rubber-like carving material and used a special tool called a gouge to carve out their designs. They then used traditional printmaking techniques to make a series of colored prints using natural earth tones for their ink and paper. Lastly, they pressed their designs into clay to make "real" fossil rocks. The prints are displayed in a series of three like the ones just below, but I took a close-up of each one so you can see them better:

Handbuilt Japanese Tea Bowls

The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called chanoyu (茶の湯) or chadō (茶道). The manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called temae (点前).

Tea bowls (茶碗) used for the ceremony are available in a wide range of sizes and styles, and different styles are used for thick and thin tea. Shallow bowls, which allow the tea to cool rapidly, are used in summer; deep bowls are used in winter. Bowls are frequently named by their creators or owners, or by a tea master. Bowls over four hundred years old are in use today, but only on unusually special occasions. The best bowls are thrown by hand, and some bowls are extremely valuable. Irregularities and imperfections are prized: they are often featured prominently as the "front" of the bowl.

Here is a selection of the tea bowls that Ceramics Club members created before winter break. I couldn't photograph a lot of them, since students wanted to take them home as Christmas gifts!

Tints, Shades & Frost

In their final project this semester, LS Art Club members painted winter scenes with acrylic paint on canvas panels using the concepts of foreground, middleground and background, overlapping, tints and shades. Their paintings were inspired by the famous poem by Robert Frost...

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.