Let it Snow!

 It is officially winter now, and it finally feels like winter in Austin, Texas!  We have been sweating through most of December with temperatures in the high 80's...yes, 80's! After these few cold fronts have passed through we now have all of our hats, jackets and scarves out of  storage.  It is also a brand new year, and what better way to welcome students back to the beginning of 2013 than with a snow-themed bulletin board display!  The beautiful cardinals were painted by fourth grade artists, and I found that amazing lesson over at Deep Space Sparkle, so thank you Patty!!  My fourth graders loved this simple, bold painting with the red cardinals against the turquoise sky, and the brown branches and few white snowflakes complete the beautiful compositions.  My kinder artists also worked very hard on their torn paper snowman collages...decking them out with branch arms, scarves, and hats.  Kinder students really practiced controlled tearing, utilizing their fine motor and manipulative skills.  Maybe, just maybe, this display will inspire some real snow in Austin this winter!

1st Grade Starry Night Over Austin

 First Grade art students are studying the art of Vincent Van Gogh.  We looked at many of his paintings and discussed his unique brush strokes that create such vivid textures in his colorful paintings.  We then read a great book called "Vincent's Colors" from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that shows many of Van Gogh's artworks accompanied by his own words describing them, from letters to his brother Theo. Then we studied one of his most famous works of art "Starry Night."  Students recreated their own versions of starry night and made it closer to home, over the city of Austin.  Students also recreated the textured strokes using oil pastels.  This project is so wonderful because in spite of everyone doing the same subject matter, each child's art comes out so unique with their style of applying the oil pastels. Enjoy!

Kinder Students explore Mondrian and Primary Colors!

Kinder students learned about the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian.  We looked at several of his artworks and discussed his use of primary colors: red, yellow and blue, plus black and white.  We also talked about how he used squares and rectangles in his simple artworks.  Students then created their own versions of a Mondrian.  A fun day learning about color theory!

Second Grade Cityscape Paintings

Second Grade artists finished their outstanding Austin cityscapes!  We used basic shapes and lines to draw the unique city skyline of Austin with black crayon.  We included the Colorado River, otherwise known as Lady Bird Lake, in the foreground.  Then we looked at different Fauvist artists - artists that used bright imaginary colors during the art period of 1904- 1910.  Students took this inspiration to paint their cityscapes with imaginary colors.  Here is their display on our big art bulletin board.

Fourth Grade House Sculptures

Fourth Grade artists are continuing their architecture unit of study, but this time we are working on form.  Form is the element of design that describes three-dimensional objects, or things that have height, width and depth.  Students are building two-story houses out of cardboard, and trying to give their houses a sense of character.  Students LOVE working in three-dimensions!  Check out their finished sculptures soon in the Zilker hallway!

First Graders Study Color

 First Grade students are studying color theory in art class.  We are mixing primary colors to make secondary colors, studying the different families of colors like warm and cool colors, and much more.  When students are finished, we will put all of our paintings together to create a book about color!

Second Graders Study Flowers

Second Graders are studying the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe.  We have learned about her life and how her large and close-up flower paintings made her famous in the 1930's.  We started drawing a technical drawing of a flower, labeling the different parts of the flower.  O'Keeffe looked very closely at flowers in able to draw them better, so second grade artists are following her lead. We also discussed how drawing illustrations like these are a career in art, and we looked at some other technical drawings in encyclopedias. Next we will be looking closely at flowers and draw an expressive flower, and turn that into a painting.

5th Grade Perspective Drawings

Fifth graders are studying one point perspective and creating an interior space for an art gallery.  We used converging lines, overlapping, and size to help create the illusion of depth in our two dimensional drawings.

 We are also using color and detail to help with perspective.  The paintings that are closer appear to have darker, richer colors and more sharp detail, while the artworks on the back wall have fewer details and appear to be lighter and duller in color.  Students are having a great time creating the different artworks for their walls!

4th Grade Russian Architecture

 Fourth Grade Art students are studying the art of architecture.  We looked closely at the St. Basil's Cathedral located in Moscow, Russia.  Looking at this whimsical structure gave us plenty of inspiration to design our own versions.

 We practiced creating value with black markers using cross-hatching and hatching shading techniques for the different gray values.  Students are also using a variety of different textures and patterns to decorate their own versions of the cathedral towers.

 These are truly amazing drawings!  A big thanks to the art blog Deep Space Sparkle for this amazing lesson idea!