OCTOBER/NOVEMBER in the Studio

First order of business is to show the results of the projects started in September by the Bigs. Here they are:

after Jasper Johns' Zero-Nine - William, Age 10

 

after Wyland's Whaling Walls - Grace, Age 10

Quite impressive, don't you think? This group of older kids really takes their time and pays attention to detail and it shows. It may take them two or three class periods to finish up, but I think the results are worth it.

Now on to October:

Using a q-tip to put our designs onto the plate.

Ideally, we learned about Mary Cassatt who was famous for her impressionist painting and dry point etchings. But really, we covered her very quickly and got right to the printmaking. Printmaking is like magic for kids, and they love that you can make them over and over again. The Littles were encouraged to choose Mary Cassatt-like subjects (i.e.families and babies) but they could make any designs they wanted.

Drawing what we see, not what we think we see.

Emma, age 5

Next we tried observational drawing. This is ambitious for the younger kids, but I really feel they can do more than we think they can and it's never too early to introduce a concept. Observational drawing is a big focus for the older kids throughout the year, but it's a little early for the PreK and Kinders. Still, they did an amazing job!

Warhol stole the flower image (and got sued for it), so we stole it from him!

Colin, Age 4

Back to printmaking! The Littles really enjoyed learning about Andy Warhol (and his 25 cats, all named Sam). We set up our studio like his Factory, using factory techniques to product our handprints.

As Halloween approached, our thoughts turned to pumpkins and the Bigs created pumpkin farms using one-point perspective. This is a technique usually taught in middle school, but you never know which kids will really "get it" and incorporate the concept into their arsenal of art skills.  We learned about regional painter Grant Wood as part of this project.

Mateo, Age 7

My intention was for the week of Halloween to just be a fun class for the Littles, but once we were done, I realized we'd covered all the art bases when approaching our subject of pumpkins. We painted, drew and sculpted pumpkins, and threw in a little spooky music and a scary story or two!

We painted pumpkins...

… sculpted pumpkins...

… and sketched pumpkins! (& other things)

And on to November!

Carter, Age 4

The Littles enjoyed an old favorite - string painting. We learned about the Dada movement which was as silly as it sounds. Then we explored the concept of "happy accidents" by dropping paint covered string from a height onto our papers. You'd think this would be messy, and you'd be right.

More observational drawing!

 Our next subject was Georgia O'Keefe. Finally, the Littles and Bigs are aligned with the same artist each week! I doubt it will last long, but it does simplify things.

Laurel, Age 7

 Both age groups did big, O'keeffe flowers in oil pastel and watercolor. The Littles also made their own interpretations of her Ladder to the Moon. 

Teddy, Age 4

PreK Inventions

 Which brings us to Leonardo DaVinci! I like to read an art related chapter book to the Bigs as they work each week to help with noise level and focus, and our first one this year is Monday with a Mad Genius, part of the Magic Treehouse series. This project was a nice tie-in and worked for the Littles as well. Both age groups learned that Leonardo was not just an artist, but also a scientist and inventor. We designed our own machines (above) and did other activities like backwards writing and building and testing parachutes based on Leonardo's design!

First Impressions

As promised, here is a recap of our Impressionism week:

Impressionism was, in part, a reaction to the advent of photography.

 We took that one step further and painted right on the photographs!

 Magazine Impression - Age 5

You can't do the Impressionists without painting some Monet water lilies.

 Well, you can...but why? - Age 8

We painted our Monet project using only the colors he used in his palette: blue, green, purple, white and yellows (he used several). Red was added pater with oil pastel.

Plein air painting. Taking the studio outside!

Several young artists chose the same subject but interpreted them quite differently. These are hibiscus flowers. Left - Age 8  Right - Age 11

 Why, exactly, is Ms. Melanie soaking our canvases in milk?

So we can create vivid pastels ala Degas! - Age 8

 

We studied Mary Cassatt then created our own monoprints of a family schen. Step 1 - Paint the scene onto the plate (in our case, the back of a cookie sheet).

 Step 2 - Press paper onto the wet plate to make a print.

 Step 3 - Lift paper and viola! - Age 11

 What else for our Cezanne study but a bowl of fruit?

 Classic Cezanne perspective trick. Which bowl of fruit looks closer, 

the warm or cool colored one? - Age 11

 Painting a bazillion dots like Seurat can me boring. That's why we did it on a cookie first. Cookies are never boring.

Looking for inspiration for our pointillist paintings.

Lots of dots. Lots and lots and lots.

But the results are amazing! - Age 10 

 Last day of camp. We stormed the Chrysler Museum of Art, sketched in the Impressionism gallery...

...and rocked out with some interactive art! 

Every Picture Tells A Story

I promise to post a full account of this week's First Impressions Art Camp soon, but I had to go ahead and share the story we wrote about this etching by Mary Cassatt:

Mother's Caress

This activity came from a book, Monet and the Impressionists for Kids, which has lots of great info and ideas for introducing young children to Impressionism, I gave my young artists prompts to tell the story behind this painting. This is what they came up with:

This is Mary and Bob. They live in a house in Sicily. They have just finished having a bath and are thinking about putting a bow in baby Bob's hair. Earlier they were reading a book. They love to read books! What you can't see in the picture is a diaper for the baby. They are feeling sad, but we don't know why. Later they will go to the park. Maybe that will cheer them up!

Pretty great, huh? I must say they were quite concerned about the lack of a diaper. They asked to do it again so tomorrow we will try the activity with Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte.