FEBRUARY in the Studio

ICE CREAM with Wayne Thiebaud: We started off the month by finishing our yummy, pop art treats. Oil pastel details were added to the painted cones.

Art Words: Pop Art

Hungry yet?

HATS AND EYES with Rene Magritte: I found a marvelous book at the VMFA called Magritte's Marvelous Hat, in which the famous Surrealist painter finds that his bowler hat is the key to his painting success. With his hat he paints like a master. When he looses it, his ability to paint is lost too. The PreK/K classes tried on lots of art hats to see if the same would be true for them. Sure enough, they felt their art was better when created while wearing a hat. The Elementary classes used Magritte's famous painting The False Mirror as inspiration for their own surrealist takes on what can be seen in the mind's eye.

Art Words: Surrealism

Everything is better in a hat.

OP ART HEARTS: Around the middle of the month our thoughts turned to love and we created various heart artwork. We made hearts that seem to pop out at you, hearts that seem to move, heart-shaped valentines and used hearts as stencils for fingerpainting. It was a lovely week!

Art Words: Op Art, Stencil

Valentines for our valentines.

COLLAGES after Reggie Laurent: Atlanta artist Reggie Laurent uses layer upon layer of paint to create his colorful, abstract shape paintings. We didn't have quite that much time, so we used colorful paper shapes and oil pastels for a similar effect.

Art Words: Amorphous/Organic/Free Form Shape

Hearts make another appearance,

ABSTRACTS after Sarah Morris: The last week of classes was catch up time for the older kids, but the PreK/K classes continued their focus on shape with Sarah Morris. Tape was used to block off rectilinear shapes which were then filled with bright oil pastels.

Art Words: Resist

Busy.

AND... the Art Explorers were busy as usual! So... very...busy. We created an extensive project using yarn relief then earth tone paint, then sponged on gold and silver accents. The aforementioned finger paint hearts were joined by finger paint trees and we also started a work based on Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. And we did some of it in hats!