Kindergarteners are hard at work on their large flower paintings. After drawing large compositions, with the petals going off all the edges, the students began painting. The goal has been to mix colors together, similar to Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings.
The first graders have been coming to Open Studio sessions to create pinatas. They’ve been studying Mexico in their classroom, and are planning to end the unit with a fiesta! The other first grade class will be coming to make papel picado, also for the fiesta.
The students have already paper mache-ed the balloons, and are now painting the pinatas:
The 4th graders have been studying the regions of the U.S. in Social Studies. The first component of the Art project was choosing one of the 5 regions (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, West, and Southwest) and drawing a landscape with the correct characteristics. Thinking like the Hudson River School, the students were showing the natural beauty of our country. Second, for color, the students were introduced to Fauvism and the landscape paintings of Derain. Students painted their American landscapes in wild, brilliant colors! And third, the students had to use 6 different painting techniques in their paintings: blending, wet on dry, sponge-painting, paper-toweling, stippling, and drybrushing.
What great results! And have you heard of the book, The Art of Freedom? It was a wonderful wrap-up to our project.
The 7th and 8th graders have been creating 1 point perspective drawings. Working from a small photocopied part of a room, they had to find the vanishing point, and then create the walls of the room. They were required to add at least 4 new elements to the room drawn in perspective, but most students added much more than that! As a bonus, some students are now learning the basics of 2 point perspective. Here are some finished 8th grade work:
Can you find the vanishing points?
While this is a blog about my students’ artwork, it’s not everyday my art is in a show! The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, which recently hosted the city’s student show, is now hosting a teacher’s show. Our artwork will be on display until mid August.
The Morse Art Studio's Weblog 