Finished Rousseau

Here is a small sampling of the finished Landscape paintings in the style of Henri Rousseau.

When we talked about how to fit all of the animals (and one bug) into the painting we discussed depth and composition. 

Matisse

This lovely lady is simply 'Woman with a hat' from the french painter Henri Matisse. The kids talked about why she looks like that and then created a collaged background from our recycled scraps of paper. On another sheet of paper I asked them to draw a portrait of someone facing slightly off to the side. I asked the children to use crayon to force them to work with their mistakes and trust their ability to draw overall. It worked really well after the murmurs subsided. You can see below madame a couple of the finished products. Some of them look Matisse, some Picasso, and some simply original!

William H. Johnson

William H. Johnson was an interesting artist to learn about. His artwork took on many forms but the folk art style paintings of everyday life were fun to talk about and finally inspire work from the kids. They had a choice of a portrait of a single person or two people.

The kids and I talked about the time constraint that we had in finishing these portraits using oil pastels (when you want the color to be solid the coloring can take quite a while). So the students colored the faces first followed by the body (most of them) and then the background, horizon line first, outline background details, finally color in the background. I like how this turned out for different kids who each work at a different pace. They all look completed and unique!

Bzzzzz

One of my favorite people on the planet, we'll call her Ms. Thompson, asks her fifth graders to tell her all about Bees each year in the springtime. This year, after perfecting the quick, student-led, set up and clean up of Papier-mâché, I joined the bee frenzy and they made these in art class:

I know, one of them is orange and one is gold. Why not, right? The students liked them that way and made a good enough case for why they should be allowed to use those colors. We also had a pink bee. You will not find those colors in the cases that I borrowed from the Field Museum Harris Loan center but I kind of prefer the odd color choices.

I think the bees in this case are like 20 years old. wow.

Georgia On My Mind

Georgia O'Keeffe changed the world with her paintings. We studied her up close and personal flower painting style. I brought in some very real looking silk flowers (real flowers may not have made it through our course of study) and the students once again practiced drawing from life. They used chalk pastels to bring the flowers to life.

Fantastic!

The Field Museum was nice enough to renew my membership to the Harris Loan center this year for free! Some of my students were reading Fantastic Mr. Fox so I borrowed a fox for a few weeks. We simply spent some time practicing quick sketches 'from life' and then students took their favorite sketch and colored it with coloring pencils. The following are some examples of this work. I just love all of the different perspectives!

Frank Stella Mobiles

In the spring my students took two paintings, one made using cool colors, the other using warm colors and glued them back to back. Then they began cutting and twisting until they discovered something that they loved. Finally they stapled them together and put a string through a hole punch to hang the mobile. A few examples of this Frank Stella inspired project are below.

Frida and the Fifth (and Fourth)

Last winter the fourth and fifth graders studied Frida Kahlo and the reasons why she often created self-portraits. We looked at The Frame before creating our own self-portraits. More pictures to come of the artwork once the students created their frames to surround the portraits.

Klee Fish in Fifth Grade

The fourth and fifth grade students flexed their creative muscles and thier knowledge of lines to create these watercolor paintings inspired by Paul Klee.