Zilker's 2013 School-wide Student Art Show!

Zilker's annual School-wide Student Art Show is up - making our hallway at Zilker turn into an amazing museum!  It is so hard to photograph the ceiling to floor class banners with all of the art work, so this year I have zoomed in on a few artworks so that our internet viewers could see the beautiful details of a few artists in each class.  If you can, please come up and see the art in person - each student has a piece up, and each is unique and beautiful in its own way.  Great job Zilker artists!

 4th Grade Self Portrait Paintings, Ms. Irvine's Class

 5th Grade Mexican Bark Paintings, Mr. Woodage's Class

 Kinder Owl Paintings, Ms. Caroline's Class

 Kinder Piet Mondrian Animals, Mr. Garland's Class

 3rd Grade Keith Haring Collages, Ms. Rakusin's Class

 4th Grade Self Portrait Paintings, Ms. Thompson's Class

 2nd Grade Henri Matisse Collages, Ms. Dailey's Class

 5th Grade Mexican Bark Paintings, Ms. Thompson's Class

 1st Grade Joan Miro Paintings, Ms. Avant's Class

 4th Grade Self Portrait Paintings, Ms. Brosko and Ms. Hardwick's classes

 3rd Grade Laurel Burch Cats & Dogs, Ms. Buono's Class

 2nd Grade Georgia O'Keeffe Flower Paintings, Ms. Side's Class

1st Grade Pop Art Cupcake Sculptures, Ms. McLendon's Class

 Ms. Russell's 5th Grade Mexican Bark Paintings

 1st Grade Joan Miro Paintings, Ms. Murphy's Class

 Kinder Owl Paintings, Ms. Wolden's Class

 3rd Grade Laurel Burch Cats & Dogs, Ms. Kent's Class

 3rd Grade Keith Haring Collages, Ms. Lugo's Class

Kinder Owl Paintings, Mr. Aziz's Class

2nd Grade Fish Sculptures, Ms. Wynn's Class

2nd Grade Georgia O'Keeffe Flower Paintings, Ms. Saucedo's Class

Kinder Owl Paintings, Ms. Caswell's Class

1st Grade Joan Miro Paintings, Ms. Shapiro's Class

3rd Grade Keith Haring Collages, Ms. Weaver's Class

4th Grade Wayne Thiebaud Dessert Prints

 Fourth Grade students have been studying the Pop Art of artist Wayne Thiebaud and his dessert paintings and prints.  Students practiced drawing many different kinds of desserts, using shading techniques like hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling to show texture and shadows.  Students chose their best drawing to turn into a relief print.  They traced their drawing onto a piece of Styrofoam, engraving the lines into the Styrofoam.  The following photos show most of the steps they had to take to make their prints.

Here a student carefully rolls the brayer loaded with ink across his or her Styrofoam printing plate.

Here a student is loading the brayer with printing ink so he can carefully get his printing plate ready for printing.

These two photos show students placing the printing plate face down onto a paper, and then rubbing the back of the paper carefully to help print the ink evenly on the front of the paper.

Another student rolling ink onto his printing plate to get ready to print.

And here are two students carefully pulling their prints; taking the paper off of the printing plate to reveal their final prints!

 A delicious slice of cake!

 A decadent ice cream sundae!

An amazing triple scoop ice cream cone!

Here are a few of the finished prints!  They make me hungry just looking at them!  All the students did a fantastic job at all of the many steps it took to create their prints!

3rd Grade Picasso Faces Paintings

Third Grade Zilker artists have just finished their Picasso Double Face paintings!  We looked at several of Pablo Picasso's portraits of people and discussed how he used Cubism to create them.  The style of Cubism allowed him to show more than one view of a single person in one painting.  We learned how to show both a side view and a front view of a person in the same drawing, and then we divided the face into different shapes to further abstract it. We painted the shapes different bright colors, and finally added black lines for contrast.  At the end, students wrote an "exit Ticket" to describe what they learned during this project. They all did a fantastic job!

2nd Grade Kandinsky Weavings

Second Grade artists are learning about the artist Wassily Kandinsky  We looked at many of his abstract paintings and talked about his use of different kinds of lines.  We then "took a line for a walk" around our paper, making it change from straight, curved, looping, spiral and wavy.  We added crayon textures to our line drawings and then added either warm or cool color watercolors on top of that.  Next we turned that watercolor into a paper loom to weave on.  We talked about weaving the tabby weave: over and under, over and under.  These photos show students demonstrating that step.  Students had to pick the opposite color scheme of their watercolor to weave with.  Look for the finished project coming home soon!

3rd Grade Clay Fish Sculptures

 Zilker third grade artists are sculpting fish out of clay!  Here students are adding the final touches: texture and lines as well as details like eyes and gills.  Students will glaze the fish after they are bisque-fired in the kiln, and then I will glaze fire them.  Students worked very hard on their designs; I hope you enjoy them when they come home!

2nd Grade Clay Akuaba Dolls

Second graders are learning about Akuaba Dolls.  These dolls are made by artists in Ghana, and they are members of the Akan tribe. The Akan tribe gives the dolls as wedding presents because they represent the wish for the couple to have healthy babies.  Students created these dolls out of clay, and here they are painting the traditional African colors of red, yellow, green and black onto the dolls with glaze.  Look for these to come home soon!

1st Grade Self Portrait Collages

First Grade Zilker artists are making their self portraits using paper and glue.  We have discussed symmetry, and are folding our papers in half so that we get two shapes exactly alike when we cut to achieve perfect symmetry.  Students are having a fun time adding small details to their clothing, like pockets, buttons, patterns, zippers, and belts.  These are always a favorite project for parents! Each portrait has a distinct personality, just like its creator!

4th Grade Self Portrait Paintings

Zilker fourth grade artists have been busy creating wonderful self portrait paintings based on Henri Matisse's style with bold patterns and simple facial features.  These are amazing, and will be on display for this year's school-wide art show in April.  I cannot wait for everyone to enjoy them!  Here  are some photos of students painting the pattern backgrounds.

Kinder Patterns

Kinder art students have been busy creating beautiful patterns in the Zilker art room recently.  We used crayons first, pushing hard with our muscles to put down a nice layer of waxy color.  In these photos you can see students adding a color tempera wash over the crayon patterns, creating a wax-resist painting.  Be sure to come see our musical on March 7, and you will discover what the kinder students created out of their patterned papers!