Garden Mural Update

Third,  Fourth, and Fifth grade artists are working hard to complete the fence mural we started last spring.  Students are painting the active figures inspired by Pop artist Keith haring with bright, vivid colors.  They are also working on adding color to the fruits, veggies, and garden insects that are depicted on the fence posts.  I can't wait to see this mural installed!  We are hoping to have it finished and up by the end of this semester; stay tuned for pictures of the finished fence!

4th Grade Still Life Bulletin Board

 I am so proud of my fourth grade artists!  They created outstanding still life paintings using shades and tints of one color.  These are on display right now in Zilker's hallway.  It was very difficult to pick which ones to hang...I managed to squeeze 32 paintings on the bulletin board, and that of course is only about half of my fourth graders.  All of them are on our online museum here at Artsonia:
http://www.artsonia.com/teachers/members/exhibits/artwork.asp?id=834601
If you do not see your student's work online, you may need to give permission for it to be seen.  Contact me at jamie.pettit@austinisd.org, and I can send you the link for approving the art to be seen. 

Quick shout-out to the blog  http://kaknoblach.edublogs.org/ for this great lesson idea!  

1st & 2nd Grade Eric Carle Collages

We are learning about the phenomenal artist and author Eric Carle in second and first grade art class! We read some of his books, including "Mister Seahorse," "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," and "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" We discussed how Eric Carle created his own papers by painting them and scratching textures into the wet paint.  After the papers dried, he would then cut them out to create the beautiful animals in his books.

Students painted their papers first.  This was a FUN day!  Students rotated around the table and painted six or seven different colors onto their construction paper.  Before the paint dried, students used tools to scratch lines into the wet paint, just like Eric Carle.

The papers were dry for the next class, and students traced shapes on the back to create their animals, as well as added fun things such as sequins, pompoms, glitter, and oil pastel details.  Some classes made butterflies:

Other classes created tropical birds:

 And still other classes made seahorses.  They are all so lovely!  Look for first grade classes' artwork to be displayed in April for the School-wide Art Show!

Kinder Jasper Johns Paintings

Kinder Art students are learning about the Pop artist Jasper Johns.  We looked at several of his paintings and especially focused on his number and letter paintings.  After brain-storming about where we can find letter and numbers all around our world ( license plates, clocks, signs, watches, phones, computers, etc.), we practice drawing numbers or letters with crayons.  Then we drew our numbers or letters on the white paper with oil pastels.  Next, we added paint just like Jasper Johns: putting a small amount of each color inside each number or letter box.  Here are some photos of students adding one color at a time with paint.

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!

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!