September in Zilker Art Room!

 Kinder artists are learning all about free form shapes and the season of Autumn. Students used texture plates with images of leaves and rubbed crayons to get an impression of each leaf's free form shape. They covered their papers with many leaves of different colors.  The next art class we learned how to paint and use our brushes gently. We added different colors inside our leaf shapes.  Look for these on our online museum, Artsonia, soon!

 5th grade artists are learning all about Mexican Folk Art and have drawn an animal surrounded by rain forest with a pattern border.  Right now students are adding vivid colors to their drawings.  The paper is brown to mimic the bark paper that Mexican folk artists use in their own paintings.

 First grade artists learned about artist Paul Klee and looked closely at his artworks where he used geometric shapes to create villages or cities. Students then used paper geometric shapes to create their own villages, and are adding details like textures, windows, doors, and other shapes to their collages with construction paper crayons.

 Fourth grade artists are studying the artwork of Beverly Buchanan, and looking closely at her sculptures.  Students are creating their own house sculptures out of cardboard.  Texture and variety of shapes and details are part of the criteria for this project.  This is a favorite project of many students, and my fourth graders are finally working on their own this year after seeing past students house sculptures!

 Second grade artists are studying the shapes of their city: Austin.  Students drew a downtown view of Austin with the State Capital building as the centerpiece, and are now adding imaginary bright colors to their cityscapes, just like the Fauvist artists of the early 20th century.


 Third grade artists are studying the very beginning of human-created art....Prehistoric Cave art!  We looked carefully at 20,000 year old images painted in the Lascaux Cave in France, and then practiced drawing some of the same animals: bison, ibex, jaguars, cows, horses and bears. Students will pick their best idea to use in their final art piece!

Art and Writing: Evaluating Peer Artwork

5th Graders always do a Peer Evaluation at the end of the year.  We go out into the hallway and look at all of the art in our school-wide art show.  Students have to pick a different grade level to write and evaluate; they cannot pick their own fifth grade art. Students answer six questions about the artwork they chose. 

One of the questions asks why they chose the artwork out of all the others on display, and another asks if they could change anything, what would they change in the artwork.  This gets at higher level thinking skills and makes students look very carefully at other students' artworks. This is an excellent way to get students to look at the school-wide art show and also evaluate, write and use art vocabulary, all at once!

5th Grade Legacy Project

5th Grade artists are studying the art of the Totem Pole, which are created by Native American tribes who live in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. Each student is creating a design that includes their name, the years 2015 - 2016, and an animal or human face that is in relief. Two students are sharing one cylinder piece, and the pieces will be assembled into class totem poles once they have been fired into ceramic form. My plan is to have the three different totem poles installed by the end of May, before our 5th graders graduate from Zilker. The totem poles will be in the fifth grade courtyard, and will be  permanent art sculptures for future Zilker students to enjoy. For now, enjoy the process through these photos!

2016 School-wide Student Art Show

The hallway at Zilker has been transformed into a museum again...and oh what an amazing museum it is!!  Students have worked so hard to create their works of art, and the show is making our school so much brighter and more colorful.  This is a quick synopsis of the art show; if you can, you should see it in person in all of its glory!   

5th Grade painted beautiful Mexican Bark Paintings, including an animal in action surrounded by tropical plants and flowers.

 4th Grade painted a stylized self portrait using Henri Matisse as inspiration.

Ms. Devore's 4th grade classes created optical illusions with art teacher  Ms. Wilson.

 Ms. Davis and Ms. Munroe's classes have their Matisse inspired goldfish paintings on display.

Ms. Cooper's class has their clay fish sculptures on display.

 Ms. Kent and Ms. Yates' classes have optical illusions and weavings on display.

 Ms. Morales, Mr. Garland, and Ms. Avant's classes have their Eric Carle inspired collages on display.

Ms. Saucedo and Ms. Dailey's classes have their torn paper collage landscapes on display.

1st grade studied Spanish artist Joan Miro and created their own surrealist paintings.

Ms. McLendon's class created collages based on Henri Matisse's work.

Kinder students studied artist Pablo Picasso and created a mixed media guitar artwork.

Mr. McNitt's class created Chinese dragons.

The art show will be up until May 20th - please try to see it in person!