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!

1st Grade Paul Klee Geometric Cities

First Grade artists are studying artist Paul Klee and creating their own architecture with geometric shapes. Students experimented with triangles, creating different shapes like rhombi, squares, trapezoids, and rectangles.  Students then arranged their shapes to create buildings, and added architectural details like windows, bridges, doors, columns, as well as different types of textures with construction paper crayons.

 Check out the finished works of art on Artsonia, our online student art museum:
https://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=994524

Fifth Grade Positive Negative Collages

Fifth Grade Artists are studying positive shape and negative space with these collages.  First, we connected to mathematics, and talked about types of transformations, such as rotation, reflection, and translation.  I demonstrated cutting out a shape, and students agreed that it was  an example of reflection.  We then discussed the criteria: using some geometric and free form shapes, and creating at least two "double shapes" that would show reflection twice. 

The cutting is tricky, because student had to really concentrate on only cutting around the edge of their shape, so that the negative space left is an exact mirror of the shape that was cut out.  The contrast of black against the color background is really pleasing on these.  Thanks to the website Arts in Education for the great lesson plan!

See the finished works here at our online art museum on Artsonia!

http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=874407

1st Grade Paul Klee Collages

First Grade artists read the story "The Cat and the Bird" as an introduction to the artist Paul Klee.  As we read the story, students were asked to point out Klee's use of geometric shapes to create the building shapes, like squares, rectangles, triangles, and rhombus. We also looked at some of Klee's artworks and again noted the use of geometric shapes.  Students then used papers to create their own artworks of a city by combining the different shapes.

Students then added small details, such as doorways, windows, bridges, and balconies with construction paper crayons.  The results are beautiful!

See them all at our online art museum:      

http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=846613

Kinder Mondrian Collage Prints

Kinder artists are studying Piet Mondrian and his primary color compositions. We looked at several of his paintings and talked about the shapes, lines, and color that we noticed:rectangles, squares, rhombus, straight lines, primary colors, black, and white. Students then used primary colored papers to arrange their own composition. The next class, we printed the black lines using a piece of straight-edged cardboard and black paint. Here are some photos of the printing in action: