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!

Gum Ball Machines after Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud is a natural fit for young artists. What's more fun than ice cream and cake? With such a diverse age range (4 - 11), I often wonder how much of the lesson they retain, especially the Littles. Do they even remember who we learned about? So for this lesson, I focused on three pieces of information:
1. Our artist's name is Wayne Thiebaud.
2. He likes to draw and paint food (among other things).
3. He is still alive. (That may seem strange, but most of the artists we learn about are long dead. I think it's important that the children know that artists are creating everyday.)


We looked at pictures of Thiebaud's work in a sweet (pun intended) little book called Counting with Wayne Thiebaud. It was too young for my Bigs so we focused on the media he used to create each piece. Most were pastels or oils which fit nicely with our project.


They were fascinated that he was still alive and working. I showed them a recent picture of him and the consensus was that he looks like somebody's grandfather. But how to teach that complicated name so they'd remember?

Ta da! Worked like a charm! Periodically I'd ask them to answer one of my three questions and if they got it right they were allowed to push the little gum ball machine down which makes the gum balls fly into the air. Boy they loved that!


The Littles used crayons and  tracers for the rectangle base and circle globe, then dipped bottle caps into paint for the gum balls.

Age 4

 Age 5

Age 6

The Bigs had an additional term to learn: Pop Art. They simply interpreted their gum ball machines in oil pastels. I did point out the colors Thiebaud used for the glass because every one of them automatically reached for black.

 Age 6! Check out the shadow!

 Age 9

Age 8

Fave Sites

Just thought I'd share a few of my favorite art websites:

Pigments Through the Ages is exactly what it says. You can click on a timeline and see how different colors were achieved at that time. There's also a section where you can deconstruct a painting, layer by layer!

Paint Like Pollock Move your mouse to start. Click to change colors. While away hours pretending to paint like a god!

Piece of Cake Fun and educational game where you can decorate cakes ala Wayne Thiebaud.