Dream Weaver

Weaving can be a bit frustrating at times, but through the years I have found that all students achieve great success with circular weaving.  It's yet another fantastic use for a paper plate!  3rd graders were able to make connections between their weavings and Native American dream catchers.  The art element of color was an important focus for this project.

Dance Fever!

5th graders began this project by posing for each other, and capturing each pose with the gesture drawing technique.  After drawing some impressive dance poses, they were required to develop an idea for a final drawing, based on figures in motion.  The most challenging aspect of this project involved the creation of music, represented by color, line and shape.  I am proud of their efforts!

Color Wonder

Sometimes when I am preparing materials for students, the materials themselves look like artwork!  This paint was prepared for a 1st grade "blob" painting...

I'm Positive - it's Negative Space!

This challenging project required 4th grade students to have an understanding of negative shapes and space.  They were very intrigued with the vases/faces illusion, in which the positive and negative continually flip.  Motivation was high as students brainstormed ideas for interesting shapes to cut - the results are striking!

Beautiful Birch Trees

 Students focused on a number of art concepts to create these watercolor paintings: line, shape, texture, warm/cool colors, and pattern. Increased student awareness of the natural world has been the result of our birch tree discussions. The fact that this is 2nd grade work amazes me!

5th grade Repousse Landscapes

5th graders used foreground, middle ground, and background details to create depth in these beautiful landscapes. They completed a repousse project in 4th grade, so they were able to apply knowledge about embossing and engraving to create wonderful patterns. The color and shine of these pieces really makes them stand out! 

4th Grade Ceramic magic!

Opening up the kiln after a glaze firing in one of those magical moments that never gets old, even after 27 years of teaching art!  4th graders did a wonderful job of constructing their pots with inventive use of coils.  They were REALLY excited when they saw the transformation from chalky looking glaze to fired glaze!

Collage with a Kick!

  

 This 4th grade collage project is based on an owl drawing with human eyes, created by the one and only Pablo Picasso.  Students had a great time dreaming up an object to draw, and giving it human features with magazine pictures they cut and glued on.  The moral of the story: artwork can be funny!

Going for the Gold with Gustav Klimt

 These Klimt inspired trees always turn out beautifully - my 2nd graders are amazing!   After some drawing practice, they created their trees with silver crayon, and had fun using hole punchers to create the gold leaves.  Students also learned about symmetry by printing the background with real leaves and printing ink. Bedazzling the trunks with sequins added that perfect finishing touch!

Fall Color - with salt!

 3rd graders have discovered the wonders of creating texture with watercolors and salt! Warm and cool color schemes were important in making the leaves stand out against the background.  Everyone was excited to see the texture magically appear as the paint/ salt mixture began to dry.  This is one of my all time favorite projects!

Berkshire Museum Visit

Saturday I went to Pittsfield with some art colleagues to see the PaperWorks exhibit at the Berkshire Museum.  It was a fantastic show! It would be appropriate for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders; it is a nice day trip, made even more special because of the beautiful fall color.  The show runs through October 27th.

 This sculpture was created from book pages.

 We had to look very closely to determine that this book was folded, not cut, to create the word dream.

 This small butterfly was hand cut from one piece of paper.  Amazing!!

 Ocean creatures in silhouette - also hand cut.  This piece was about 20 feet long!

 This was my favorite piece from the show - an incredible collage that contains very interesting, roughly cut paper pieces.  From a distance it blends into a beautiful portrait, much in the same way an impressionist painting does.  LOVE!!

 Wow!

We were baffled by how the artist created these elegant, beautiful curves without ripping the paper.  Amazing!!

Welcome to the new art room!

I had hoped to post these photos the first week of school, but ran into many technical difficulties - my camera broke, and a few of our SD cards were mysteriously wiped clean of images.  That was not a happy moment.  September has flown by, and my students have adjusted nicely to the smaller space. We are all excited about the year ahead!  I am also excited that I have a window to decorate!

Summer color

The highlight of my summer was a trip to Turks and Caicos, a beautiful, colorful, tropical paradise!

 

 Mr. Whalen created this sand sculpture - he is artistic too!  I helped with details...