1st Grade, 2nd Grade, and 4th Grade: Current Art Projects

 First Graders are studying Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, and creating their own version of the "Starry Night" using oil pastels.  Here are some students demonstrating Van Gogh's technique of using short strokes to add color to their papers.

 Second Grade artists looked at Pablo Picasso's Rose period paintings, and then we discussed the art element of VALUE.  Students mixed red and white to make tints of red, and red with black to make shades of red, and created these heart paintings that are full of patterns!

 Fourth Grade artists have been studying the American artist Wayne Thiebaud, who just celebrated his 94th birthday in November!  Here students have already sculpted their cup cakes out of clay, and are adding color with glazes.  Stay tuned for more news next week!

3rd Grade Laurel Burch Dogs or Cats

 Artists in third grade are studying American artist Laurel Burch and her colorful depictions of cats and dogs.  Students drew different versions of cats and dogs with playful patterns, and personified the animals by giving human emotions to their facial features.  Students then chose the best idea for the final drawing, taking in account the sized of their shapes and patterns, because the next step was to outline the final drawing with glue.   Once the glue had dried, students planned out vivid colors using the color wheel, trying to choose complementary colors, or colors opposite each other on the color wheel.  Finally, students carefully started to add the color with oil pastels, trying not to cover up the now black glue lines.

 Students chose two different colors for the background behind their dog or cat, trying to maintain the high color contrast.  Last, students had to go back over the glue lines with a small wooden stylus to get any oil pastel off.  Check out the finished art here on Artsonia, our online art museum!

http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=885104

Kinder Jasper Johns Paintings

Kinder students are studying the Pop artist Jasper Johns.  We looked at several of his paintings that included letters and numbers and talked about how you can find letters and numbers everywhere out in the world: signs, buildings, telephones, microwaves, etc.   Students then folded their papers to get a grid, and started drawing numbers or letters.

 Then the most fun part was painting!  Each student added four different colors to each letter or number, which made the works a little more abstract like Johns' style.  We talked about the science of how the water-based paint resists the oil pastel lines and sticks to the paper instead of the letters or numbers.  Check out all of the wonderful finished paintings here at Zilker's Online Museum:  http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=766073

3rd Grade Laurel Burch Cats & Dogs

Third grade artists are studying the art of Laurel Burch.  We looked carefully at her brightly colored compositions, focusing on her dog and cat paintings. We used glue and oil pastel.  Look for these finished art works in the School-wide Art Show in April!

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!