Drawing & Painting our Landscapes

During the last two weeks before winter break, we drew and began painting our landscapes.   This resulted in a short demonstration on how to best draw on watercolor paper, so as not to have your drawing show through your painting.  I discussed how pressing too hard will damage the paper by creating a groove that catches more watercolor paint.  Watercolor paper is fairly forgiving and many students had to erase their drawing to make them lighter.  Here's a good example of how light the drawing should be:

Some students were ready to paint, so I went over watercolor techniques and we were on our way...

This was our progress after the first week:

Some of the students are using what is called liquid "masking" on their paintings.  It's a liquid that you place on areas you want to keep white.  In watercolor, there is no white paint... the paper is the white paint.  So, in order to keep our white areas white, it's a good idea to use masking.  We'll use rubber cement pickup squares after our paintings are finished to pull the masking off, revealing the white paper.

Here's a our progress right before the break.  We'll meet right after the break to continue these wonderful paintings!

The Earth as Art

This week, we talked about environmental art and eco-art, and how nature influences artists and their work.  I showed a powerpoint presentation to the class to cover how different artists portray the environment in their work.  Some artists simply choose to show the beauty of nature in their work.  Others are more activist/conservation based.  (We will talk further about the conservation based art as we get towards Earth Day in the spring.) 

Within the powerpoint, were photographs from the United States Geological Survey(USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS) satellite image gallery.  For our next project, students will choose one of these photographic images to explore watercolor techniques and produce their own environmental artwork.  We also talked about four different basic types of watercolor techniques including flat wash, gradient wash, wet on wet, and dry brush.  Students got to try out professional grade watercolor paint, that comes in tubes instead of palettes, which results in highly pigmented colors and offers more versatility in mixing paints.  

Next week, we'll start drawing our compositions for our environmental art paintings.  See you then!  

Welcome to Art Enrichment in the New School!

It's the start of another great year in 4th grade art enrichment!  We had our first class this week, and did  sort of "getting to know you" exercise.  Mrs. Luker knows all of the students, but I don't.  Each student drew their name graphically and then illustrated different symbols and pictures around their name of things they are interested in.

We also talked about the expectations for art enrichment:

• Mrs. Luker and I want it to be fun, but we also have to work too.  So, behavior in AE should be just like it is in regular art class during school hours.  
• Students are allowed to bring a "working snack".  
• Clean up at the end of class should be handled just like it is in regular art class.  You are expected to put away all supplies and leave the table and chairs just how you found them.  
• We'll work on short projects that take one class period, other projects will span several weeks.  
• If you miss a class, you can check this blog for details on what we covered.
    

I am really excited this year as this is the first year we'll be having art enrichment in the new building.  There's so much space in the classroom and we are hoping to take on some larger projects including eco-art, sculpture, digital work (photography and/or video) and possibly a permanent installation piece on the school grounds.  

Next week, we'll begin a watercolor project using landforms as our inspiration.  The fourth graders are learning about landforms in their science classes, so Mrs. Luker and I hope to tie in some of science along with art and watercolor technique.  This coming Tuesday, we'll talk about the different ways that watercolors can be manipulated.  See you then!

Wrapping Up the School Year & The End of the Year Party

You know when you mean to do something, then days turn to weeks or in this case :gulp: months?  I've been meaning to write the last few posts for 4th grade art enrichment now since school ended in June.  I got busy with the summer classes in my masters program, which ended last week and now I'm on vacation penning the last few posts in Florida.  Better late than never!

We finished our Rothko inspired colored paper collages:

For our last class, we decided to do some computer generated art.  Mrs. Luker set up a still life from which to work from. It was neat to see everyone's interpretations on line, pattern, shape and color of the forms:

For our end of the year party, parents brought food and drinks and I brought some colored pastels to draw and paint with outside.  Here's what the students created on the school playground:

Thanks again Art Enrichment parents and students for a fabulous year!   Best of luck at Canaan Middle School!!

Week 20- Beginning our Abstract Expressionism Collages

This past week, we worked began our Abstract Expressionism Collages.  We reviewed what we talked about last week by discussion feeling, emotion and expression depicted in work in an abstract way.  I did a short demo on applying the glue mixture to the tissue paper, and we were on our way...

I asked the students to think about what they want to convey in their work as far as feeling or emotion are concerned.  It's fun to play with color and shape, but we also want there to be a purpose and thought process behind it.  

This week, we'll finish up our collages and the following week we'll have our end of the year party.  See you then!

Week 19- Learning about Mark Rothko & Abstract Impressionism

First of all, Mrs. Luker wanted to let everyone know that student work is currently being displayed on the Pelatonia Blog!  As if you all weren't famous enough being on TV a few weeks ago, now you have your work published.  Great job, everyone!! 

This week, we began our last project of the year by learning about Abstract Impressionism and specifically, Mark Rothko's work.

We listed to a recording of Christopher Rothko talk about how his father painted.  I asked the students what struck them as unusual or interesting about Mark Rothko's technique.  They thought it was interesting that he laid his canvases out on blocks and used a pulley system to move it up and down. He also painted from all angles, sometimes moving the painting different ways, so that people weren't sure where the top and bottom were, as the paint drippings were going in all sorts of different directions.

We then viewed a powerpoint presentation to further discuss Rothko's work and get some insight into what Abstract Impressionism is.  Abstract Impressionism was an art movement in the 1940's and 50's, and arose after World War II.  Many people refer to Abstract Impressionism as "action painting", with artists of the movement depicting strong emotion or expression.  Mark Rothko tried to express some of his feelings and emotion in his work, by using large blocks of color, and line.

Students worked in groups brainstorming emotive and expressive words that came to mind while viewing Rothko's work.  Each table in the class got a print of one of his color block paintings and a stack of Post-It Notes.  Each student was to come up with 3 or 4 descriptive words for their particular painting.
Here are some of the more notable descriptive words students came up with:

• Yellow-y
• Gloomy
• Sad
• Happy
• Sorrowful
• Bright
• Smiley

Next week, we'll start a collage using tissue paper and illustration board depicting expression and emotion in an abstract manner.  See you then!

Week 18- Drawing for the Pelatonia Blog

This week we continued on our Pelatonia Blog drawings of bikes and bicycle themes.  Mrs. Luker noticed last week, that the kids were focusing more on the cancer aspect of the concept rather than the race itself.   So, we had to redirect their attention to bike race themes instead.  Mrs. Luker had multiple photographs to use as references.    Once they had a new direction, they were off and running with scenes of bike races, patterns, and even a still life of bike elements.  

Next week we'll start our last project of the year, an abstract expressionist inspired collage.  See you then!