Here We Go!

So, I'm fairly certain that this will be our best year yet!  The artroom has been cleaned, organized, painted, and restocked and is now ready to serve as a studio space to our budding artists!  I am eager and excited to get new, as well as familiar, art supplies into the hands of the kiddos and get creative.  Our motto for this year is "creativity takes courage" and I'll be asking students to be bold, brave, and willing to explore the depths of our creativity and be willing to make mistakes in the process.

The Finished Fourth Grade Frieze

Meet Me at the Museum

Don't forget to "meet me at the museum" next week!  I'll be going to the 

New Britain Museum of American Art on Saturday, June 14th at 10 o'clock
to see the current exhibitions.  Join me!!!  

***Hint, hint... The museum is free on Saturday mornings between 10 and noon.***

http://www.nbmaa.org/

Texture: Actual

The third graders spent a good, long time exploring emotions through expressive self-portraits.  We are finally shifting gears and instead of talking about how someone feels on the inside, we are talking about how something feels on the outside.  Smooth, rough, bumpy, slippery and hard are just examples of textures the third graders identified while studying Maria Martinez' Jar and a 19th century Cameroon Leopard Throne. We also looked at Vincent Van Gogh's Irises and Georgia O'Keeffe's From the Lake No.1 and generated a list of various textures.  The third graders are creating numerous actual textures by embossing onto aluminum with stylus tools after drawing five intersecting lines.

Popsicles with Pastels

This beautiful, warm weather is leaving us with a hankering for a cool, sweet treat!  So, we've resorted to drawing popsicles!  After talking about form, value, tints and shades, the second graders started sketching some very appetizing ices!

Pattern Monsters

After studying line and shape in their abstract landscapes, the first graders are now using those elements to create patterns.  Each student is developing their own monster which will be magically (I mean, artistically) transformed into a pattern monster.

The Kindergartners(') Rock!

This week the kindergartners finished painting a pattern on their rocks by repeating lines, shapes and colors.  One class even got so far as painting a thin black line across their rock.  The inspiration for this project is Andy Goldsworthy's artwork made with broken pebbles.  Each student's rock will be assembled together so that the black line links them into a larger, communal work of art.