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!
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!
We started our lesson distinguishing between three subjects in art: portraits, landscapes, and still lives. We discussed the differences between these subjects, and then students each got a photo of a Vincent Van Gogh painting. Students had to decide which subject category their particular painting belonged in. A few were tricky!
I searched for a real pumpkin, but alas, in early September none were to be found in Central Texas. I did find a rather realistic one from Michael's as a substitute. Students drew the pumpkin carefully, paying attention to the sections and how many they could see on one side of the pumpkin, as well as the free form shape of the stem. Then we divided the background into different shapes with lines.
On day three we talked about mixing white with a color to make a tint. Each student picked one color, and then we carefully mixed the color with white to get different tints. Students then added the tints to the lightest side of the pumpkin. Here are students mixing their tints. The next day we also mixed colors with black to make different shades. When the paintings are finished I will post a few photos, and post the link to the Artsonia exhibit page. Happy painting until then!
