Dreaming with Chagall

Chagall's Paris from the Window, 1913

sponge painted sky base

I was very excited to introduce my students to the art of Marc Chagall this session. I found a wonderful book geared towards children. (Dreamer From the Village by Michelle Markel) It does a fantastic job of detailing his upbringing in Russia, the impact his devoutly religious Jewish background had on his art, and his awakening as an artist by the modern center of art, Paris.

We looked at his painting Paris Through the Window to create our own inspired versions. We also talked about some elements that you see often in Chagall's work, vibrant suns, floating people, animals and flowers. Chagall painted his world of dreams, fantasies and memories.

My 3rd thru 5th graders created a dreamlike sky base using sponges and acrylic. Painted cities, glowing suns, surreal cats (or other animals) and flowers were added to create their own window into their dream scape. The last step was to add strips of black posterboard to create window panes and a photo of them flying. They are really enjoying creating these pieces. More to post next week as they complete them.

Armadillo Ray

This week my students are looking at the wonderful oil pastel illustrations of Peggy Turley in the children's book Armadillo Ray. The story follows the curious Ray as he wonders the desert and ponders the many shapes of the moon. Turley's illustrations are full of patterns, shapes, and vibrant colors against the nighttime sky.

My Kindergarten through 4th graders first created Ray using oil pastel and watercolor. While these dried they used oil pastel to create their desert landscape. Some added tumbleweeds, cactus, desert owls and of course that curious moon.

Hundertwasser Inspirations

The above collages were created by 6-9 year olds

carved foam for prints

You know you've taken too long to enter a new blog post when your mother calls and tells you, "I'm tired of the Lorax, you need to put something new on there" Ha!

Well during this 6 week art session my students are creating works inspired by two children's books (The Lorax and Armadillo Ray) , several artists, including Marc Chagall and Hundertwasser), and a couple other projects.

I purchased a wonderful book "Harvesting Dreams, Hundertwasser for Kids" by Barbara Steiff. It playfully highlights this very unique artist's take on the world and a bit of insight into his instantly recognizable works of art. I hadn't known that he was born, Fritz Stowasser and changed his name to Freidensreich Hundertwasser, German for: Kingdom of Peace Hundred Water. (Later he threw in 2 more middle names Regentag Dunkelbunt, meaning Rainy Day, Dark Bright. I have had fun exploring some ideas to capture his love of nature, "dark-bright" colors and curved lines.

The bottom piece is a straightforward oil pastel and watercolor resist that mimics Hundertwasser's other-worldly gardens and repetition of line.

The top pieces are collage prints created with two styrofoam plates. These Hundertwasser inspired villages were created using acrylic prints on carved foam on a variety of colored construction papers. The prints were cut out and highlighted with oil pastel. They were layered to create a city-like feel. This project was inspired by these pieces from Artsonia from a school in Hong Kong.

The Lorax

Beautiful composition Daniella(3rd grade). I particularly like your happy Swomee-Swans!

I love your take on the Lorax with the added chopped down Truffula tree Harrison(4th grade)!

Alexis, 8

Savannah, 9

Lacey, 6

Kindergarten and 1st Grade Loraxes in Progress

In honor of Dr. Seuss' Birthday on March 2nd, all my students are working on a piece inspired by his beloved book, The Lorax. Written in 1971, the book almost parallels the plight of the Amazon Rainforest. The Lorax is a small creature who details the story of the greedy Once-ler who has chopped down all of the Truffula Trees to create a useless item known as a Thneed. As a consequence, many of the creatures that depended on the Truffula tree for survival have been driven out. One could swap the Amazon's Kapok Tree for the Truffula, Toucans for the Swomee- Swans, and The Sloth for Bar-ba-loots.

The children followed a direct line drawing lesson to create their Lorax as he sits on his tree trunk perch. I love his quote, "I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues." They could then decide to create his surrounding environment with tree stumps, beautiful Truffulas, Swomee-Swans, Humming-Fish ect.. They used a combination of marker, tempera and watercolor.

(I discovered that The Lorax will be an animated motion picture in March 2012)

Moonlit Fireflies

phase 1

We just started our new art class session this week. All my students (K-5th) are creating a moonlit tree landscape with fireflies. I haven't seen a firefly since I lived in Atlanta 0ver 13 years ago. What a treat to look out and see the tiny glows in a summertime sky.

We learned that there are over 1900 species of fireflies in the world, 170 in North America. Antarctica is the only continent without them. The chemical that makes the fireflies glow produces no heat. It is meant to attract mates and warn predators.

We created the base of our pieces on black construction paper (they could choose between horizontal or vertical). We used a dry brush method with acrylic paint, no water necessary. They were given blues, greens and purple and were encouraged to use broad horizontal strokes. A moon was painted with circular motions to give a glowing effect. Some children will create their trees using oil pastel and the older children will have the option of using paint. They can add other dry brush effects with metallic paint to mimic the firefly glow. And finally they will dot their sky with the end of their paint brush dipped in white and yellow for added glow.

On a small strip of poster board the children draw their fireflies. They can add color with colored pencil or markers. (Some of my older elementary children chose to make realistic fireflies versus cartoon ones.) Once these are cut out, I have flower wire to create some antennae that is taped to the underside and can manipulated to their liking. The fireflies are then arranged and glued to their base. Many more to post.

Stylish Blogger Award

Ally and Kobe

What a nice little treat to receive a Stylish Blogger Award!

1.) Thank and link back to the person who awarded you:

Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits - Thanks so much Megan!

2.) Share 7 things about yourself

• I'm a Food Network junkie. Love Giada, Ina, The Neely's, Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives ect...
• Despite my present occupation, I can't bring myself to wear an apron or smock.(Much to my daughter's disappointment) I might as well be in a bee-keeper suit. So consequently, many of my clothes have acrylic paint stains.
• I met my husband 22 years ago tomorrow (on his birthday, February 22)
• No one can make me laugh harder than my kids (9 and 15)
• I am a big dog lover, especially my 2 rescue wonder-mutts, Ally and Kobe
• The sight of chewed gum almost sends me into dry heaves. Of course my family loves to have a little fun with this weakness.
• I am a sporadic Facebook user and never tweet, but I love the blog world :)

3.) Pass the award onto 5 other favorite bloggers (I have SO MANY. Here are a few I haven't mentioned before.)

smART Class Natalie has so many inspiring ideas. Recently, I love her Hip Hop Kandinksy Murals and Rodeo Art

Fine Lines Christie has some innovative "out of the box" projects. Recently, I love her Japanese Notan pieces and explorations of color and composition. And her students' Wayne Thiebaud treats are exceptionally good!

Pamela Holderman Pamela's blog has such lovely and serene feeling with frosted photos, some beautiful poetry (and of course pictures of her beloved pets.) Her students' art has a wonderful joy, humor and spirit about it, clearly influenced by their teacher.

Briargrove Elementary Art Katie has some terrific "green" art projects. Her recent Nature Observation: Complimentary Color Resist Paintings are fantastic!

This Little Class of Mine Nellie does some great art lessons based on children's books. (a favorite of mine as well) She recently posted some over-sized vintage cameras in vibrant colors that are fabulous! (some of them have a Hundertwasser vibe)

Enjoy your holiday everyone!

Mary

Hockney Experiment

If you've been following my blog for a while you know I'm a big fan of David Hockney and have done several projects based on his photo collages. This time I decided to let my 3rd thru 5th graders take charge of the whole process. Each student had the opportunity to be the photographer. They divided into pairs and took pictures of different facial features at varied perspectives and ranges. (They were given a max of 10 shots). Some children chose to change facial expressions during their shoot to add another dimension. Yesterday they were given the photos of their own face to manipulate and create a cubist photo collage. Some children chose to keep their faces very coherent while others liked more of a disjointed collage. As you can imagine, there was a lot of laughter with this project(our final project of the 6 week art session).