Positive and Negative Hearts

2nd grade artists reviewed the Elements of Art--Line, Shape, Form, Color, Texture, Value and SPACE. We then elaborated on space. There is two types of space in Art: Postive Space and Negative Space. We began with a square of construction paper, folded it in half, and cut out half a heart. We then had two heart stencils-positive and negative. Using pastels and our stencils, we created the overlapping heART you see here.

Alexander Calder Wire Hearts

 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students looked at the life and artwork of Alexander Calder. Calder is a renowned American Sculptor known for his mobile sculptures. He also created 3D wire drawings, drawing with wire much like we draw with pencils or sharpies. We used 18ga wire, shaped it into a heart, then used pipe cleaners and beads to create the sculptures you see here. These examples come from 4R & 5M.

5th grade eraser prints

5th grade Eraser prints

5th grade artists looked at Islamic art. We noticed the patterns, the repeating elements and the lack of representational imagery. We came up with six different ideas for our 1"x1" eraser stamps.  The ideas had to be: abstract, asymetrical and fairly simple given the size of the erasers. After we chose our strongest design, we drew the design on the end of the eraser and then began to carve away the negative (empty) space on the eraser. The areas we left in relief (raised up) are the designs you see here. Using a guide sheet to help us line up our stamps, we created radial balance. Each stamp is repeated four times as it rotates around a central axis. Lastly, since we printed on thin rice paper, we used rulers and following specific measurements, we created a paper mat for our art. The original idea for this project can be found here:  http://www.artforsmallhands.com/2010/07/printing-patterns.html

Eye Love Art Club

 4th and 5th grade members of Art club learned how to accurately draw the human eye. We used #2 pencils and blending stumps to create a range of values from dark, to medium to white.

First grade warhol flakes

First graders watched a youtube video about the colorwheel- www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGrGkJtSLsk
After discussing primary colors, secondary colors, warm colors, cool colors and complementary colors. We looked at some of Andy Warhol's "Pop Art".  Pop art refers to popular culture. Warhol's artwork is infamous for its use of repetition and color. Using the primary colors for back ground colors and the secondary colors for snowflakes, we created our art. The rule was that each secondary colored snowflake had to be glued to its complementary primary color. We had a large color wheel projected on the wall as reference.

Kindergarten Winter Collage

Kindergarten artists read the book "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. We read the book online using the website www.wegivebooks.org. It's a free site that requires an email address to register and then you have access to thousands of books online--for free! I like it because you can zoom in quite a bit and look at details of the artwork. After reading we talked about collage. Collage is a french word meaning "glue". Using construction paper and glue we created these paper collages of a street during a snow storm. We finished our collages with white paint for snow.