2/3s Become Familiar with Marc Chagall's Paintings

The Russian artist, Marc Chagall, painted whimsical fantasies based on recognizable images; weightless people flying through the air, cows in the sky, off balance buildings, etc. After looking at his art and learning about his life, the 2/3s tried their hand at a similar whimsical composition working with oil pastels on black construction paper.

A flying critter

Underwater castle!

Two layers of color give a richness to these pictures

A bird with an Egyptian motif

K/1s Become Illustrators

After the K/1s spent time studying animals of the Northeast, each student wrote a short work of fiction with their animal of study as the central character. They brought these books to art class where they became author illustrators, paying attention to the text on each page and drawing pictures that related to the text.

Adding the illustrations

Concentrating on the color

4/5s Repousse Designs

Incas, Aztecs and Maya are the topic of study in the 4/5 classroom. These early civilizations had intricately patterned deities often involving images of birds, snakes, spears and more. Taking image ideas from these cultures the students are designing 6"x6" squares to transfer to soft copper plates where they'll inscribe them in the art form known as repousse. The copper is placed on a surface of newspapers and pressed with an implement to push the design from the back to the front. As the plate is turned over it can be worked in both directions. The final result is a finely patterned design in low relief that is inked and wiped then down so the ink remains in the indented areas.

Pencil design in a square format

Project beginnings

Applying a coat of ink

Wiping the ink off selected areas