The 5th graders learned about Leonardo da Vinci and the influence of the Renaissance. Because Leonardo made many sketches of human skeletons in his journals, the students drew shells (as close to bones as we could get). They made careful observational drawings. Using viewfinders and magnifying glasses, they zoomed in closer for a better and more detailed look.
Whole Foods Market, at River St and Putnam St, is the newest gallery space for our artwork. For the month of December, visit the cafe at Whole Foods to view 3rd grade still life drawings. The students observed gourds and pumpkins for their still lifes, using line weight to differentiate between close objects and far objects. They used water color paints and colored pencils for color, detail, and shadows.
Please visit Whole Foods to see the artwork!
I’ve spent the past few Tuesdays with the Special Start pre-schoolers. Instead of going to their room today to make art, they came to the Art Studio for the first time. As an introduction to the studio, they created a mixed media mural, using oil pastels, collage, and paint. The hardest part was reaching the tables!
We have a busy year of art exhibits coming up! Look for Morse artwork here:
December: Whole Foods, River and Putnam Sts.
February: Four Burgers, Central Square
March: Creatoyvity, Memorial Dr next to Trader Joes
April: Rodney’s Bookstore, Central Square
April: Gallery 263, Pearl St.
May: Cambridge Open Art Studios
May: Cambridge Public Schools Annual Spring Show
June: River Fest, Charles River
The 4th graders made personal symbols in clay to identify themselves as a follow-up project to their family tree drawings. Some of the symbols the 4th graders are represented by include: baseball, bowling ball/pins, book, cat, paintbrush, Bangladesh flag, PS3, laptop, camera, dog, parrot, pizza, donut, and more!
Some of the colorful ceramic sculptures:
The kindergarteners just finished a shape collage. With a scavenger hunt checklist, students had to search for their necessary shapes (for example: 2 orange circles, 4 green triangles, etc.). This task helped with counting and sorting. Once the scavenger hunt was completed, the students had to incorporate all of those shapes into a collage. Oil pastels were used for final details. Some pictures books we read to go along with the unit included: The Shapes Game by Paul Rogers and Shapes, Shapes, Shapes by Tana Hoban
Some of the finished collages:
The 7th graders recently finished an observational drawing project. After sketching their sneakers, students learned abou the traditional methods of shading and giving value through pen & ink. They created value scales, and worked to include light, medium, and dark values into their sneaker drawings. Next up, they will be observing and drawing the soles of their sneakers, and creating reliefs in metal.
For the month of November, Superintendent Young’s office will showcase 4th grade artwork. The 4th graders just completed a symbolic family tree drawing, where they had to symbolize various family members with simple visual representations. The students studied and learned how tree branches grow to create convincing drawings.
Photos from the superintendent’s office:
Mrs. Walsh’s class just completed a ceramic mosaic class project. While learning about textures, the students made crayon rubbings. They also pressed clay into various textures. The students experimented with leaf rubbings and pressing leaves into clay tiles. The end result is a mosaic of all the glazed texture discs and glazed pressed leaves.
Some zoomed in photos of the leaf tiles:
The 8th graders’ Mimbres vases are finished, and look wonderful. They spent 2 classes carefully glazing their black and white geometric designs onto the coil vases and bowls. Here are a few of the many amazing results:
