Mixed Media Abstract Collage

 This (whip smart) 4th grade student was cutting up his textured paper with reckless abandon and gluing it to his board in a haphazard manner. I said, "Let's make sure we use some intention when we cut and glue our shapes." Without a moment's hesitation he said "I'm doing my collage like Jackson Pollock, my intention was no intention" It completely caught me off guard and I started to tell him that I believed every splatter that Pollock made had some sense of intention behind it. And then I realized, I'm debating abstract expressionism with a 10 year old who is clearly enjoying this process, let alone making a connection to Pollock who we had not even discussed. It made me pause and smile and I told him to carry on! 

Well done Matthew!

This was a very open ended project I did with my Abstract Art class. I was really trying to focus on process over product and let the children enjoy different methods of creating patterned and textured paper and finally incorporate them in a collage. I first played Pharrell's song "Happy." I said this would be the inspiration for our piece.We then made 4 different textured papers: Acrylic scraped with cardboard, wet on wet watercolor, rubbing alcohol and Adirondack ink, and Suminagashi (Japanese paper marbling). Fun and messy! Day 2, I showed them various collage art including, work by Rex Ray, artist and children's art teacher Mollie Moseley Morrison, and even the Gee's Bend Quilts. They had the option of painting their base or covering it completely with their collage work. Then I let them loose. I loved seeing the different ideas and compositions my 1st through 5th graders came up with. It was a nice departure from straightforward, subject based projects.

Abstracted Names

 Bailey

 Jenna

 Grace

 Kate

Calvin

Thank you to Janis from Dream Draw Create for this lesson idea. Her abstract name lesson was the perfect way to kick off my Abstract and Representational Art Class with my 1st through 5th graders. I was excited for this class since some children get very hung up on their art looking "right" or "okay". We discussed abstract art in its' simplest terms being a piece of art that doesn't portray a person, place or thing, but uses color, line, shapes or brushstrokes. We looked at what is considered to be the first abstract painting by Kandinsky from 1910. One of my student's reactions was priceless, "well that just looks like a bunch of colors and scribbles!" A perfect lead in to my commentary about it being possibly the most subjective form of art. ( Along these lines, if you want to have some fun, take this quiz Can You Tell The Difference Between Modern Art or Art By a Toddler? A landscape painter that I follow on Facebook posted it and asked everyone to try it and give feedback. I only missed 1, fairing better than everyone. But I know this is only because I teach children's art).

As you probably surmised, acrylic name paintings were cut up into 16 equal pieces and reassembled. I encouraged my students to think about the play and balance of color and form, rather than just putting them down arbitrarily. Yes, these are young children. But they could see that some compositions were more pleasing to the eye than others. I have another group of mostly Kinders next week and plan to do this with them. Looking forward to seeing their take on it.

Heather Galler Inspired Owls

This project was loosely based on the art of folk artist, Heather Galler. She is heavily pinned on Pinterest and has a large shop on Etsy. Her colorful and patterned filled animal art make great springboards for art lessons. My students chose large or extra large black paper for their compositions. They followed a basic line drawing lesson to create their owls and could then decide how detailed they would like to go with patterns and designs. Pencil drawings were gone over with black oil pastel and then filled with color. Artwork by K through 4th graders.

Raccoons

 4th

 Kinder

 Kinder

 3rd

 3rd

 Kinder

2nd

Let it be said that a 5 year old wielding a stick of charcoal is a wonderful and terrifying sight all at once.
: ) Every time I do a lesson in charcoal, inevitably I will bid farewell to my students and parents only to discover my face looks like I moonlight as a chimney sweep. (Why no one ever tells me, I'll never know)

That being said, it still remains one of my favorite mediums and worth every smudge. I revisited this raccoon lesson with my K through 4th grade group. We started our pencil drawings with a series of simple circle shapes and defined the face from there. These critters always seem to have a lot of character....just like the artists who created them.

Geninne Inspired Collages

My experiment

Geninne Zlatkis is a wonderful contemporary artist best known for her elegant bird artwork. My current class used her "Friends" piece as our inspiration. In lieu of a vintage map, we used old dictionary pages for our base. The divided page was then washed with watercolor. I gave the children warm and cool color acrylics to create textured paper that they later used to create their birds and fish. Oil pastels were used to add more color if they wished, as well as to add their lotus flowers. Birds and fish were cut out and glued to their compositions. Lastly, some scattered stars were created using the ends of their brushes. Artwork by kinders thru 4th.

Georgia O'Keeffe Style Flowers

 4th

This artist was not happy with her close-up rose. I'm still scratching my head:

it is the epitome of  Georgia O'Keeffe's style. Gorgeous!

 5th

 

2nd

 Kindergarten

5th

You know it's spring when you start to see the O'Keeffe style flower projects around the blogs. She is a favorite artist of mine and ironically, I almost went to the University of New Mexico before I decided to head south. I have done my fair share of O'Keeffe flower projects: tissue paper and acrylic, watercolor, black glue line, and oil pastel and watercolor resist. But I think these straightforward chalk pastel on black pieces are my favorite to date. My students used view finders to crop photos of flowers I had collected from books and calendars. This is always a bit confusing and disconcerting at first, especially when asking the children to blow up a 6" photo to 12" X 18". But with a little guidance, they got it!

Hundertwasser Fantasy Landscapes

Beautifully intricate work by a kindergarten artist!

Ella

 Franziska, 3rd

 Alexandra, 5th

 Pia, 4th

 Jenna, 5th

Scott, 3rd

My Mini Modern Artists looked at the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser. I have 2 students who speak fluent German and were hysterical at my pronunciation of this Austrian artist's name. "Ms. Mary, you just said Dog Water!!" Once we all recovered from laughter we focused on certain elements of his art: repetition, concentric circles, and bold colors. I talked about him being an environmentalist before that was even a popular term. Originally I had planned on creating environmental posters using slogans from ones he created in the 80's and 90's. (My favorite is "You Are A Guest of Nature Behave.")

But once they had completed their art, we all agreed they were beautiful on their own. These were created with glue line and chalk pastel on black paper. It is certainly nothing new, but I think it worked well with Hundertwasser's style. The children had the option of being a part of their fantasy landscape and placed a cut photo where they wished (an idea I have seen on several blogs with Hundertwasser inspired art). This was a great project for a wide age range.