K/1s Look at Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" Painting

The K/1s had a brief encounter with a painting , "Cat and Bird" by the Swiss artist Paul Klee. They looked at his work and discussed how it related to their recent renditions of animals and birds, where they broke the forms into basic shapes to make them more accessible. Klee's painting uses simple shapes to whimsically represent the cat and bird forms, and the students made their own versions of his well-known work. 

After the basic form is done, Sharpie adds emphasis

Concentration

Finished picture

One more!

2/3s Create a Book About the Hudson River

The 2/3 students are each researching a specific topic as they investigate the life and history of the Hudson River. They will be using their "eyes of a scientist" in art class as they do careful observational drawings of the specific fish or flora they have chosen to study. These will be added to a painted background page which will include their research on their chosen topic as well as a poem. The individual pages will then be assembled into a class book on the Hudson River.

Drafting the blue crab

A water snake emerging

An alum came back to help with the book project

Working on accurate colors

Three finished pages

K/1s Study Native Birds and Animal

Working from photographs of the bird or animal that each student is studying in class, the K/1s will apply their observational skills and their newly acquired ability to see how complicated shapes can be seen more simply as basic ovals, circles and such, as they draw pictures and then create collages of the creature they are researching in the classroom.

Observing shapes in a photo while sketching a deer

Feathers on a red tailed hawk

Spots on the back of a frog

Painting water over the colored pencil around a cloud

Finishing touches on the water under this sizable frog

Beginning to collage a tree with an owl

Tearing paper for the red fox

Raccoon in collage and drawing

                                               A chipmunk, a duck and a deer all in drawing and collage

Middle School Learns About Ming Vases

With two Chinese students in our middle school this year, it seemed like the ideal time to all learn something about Chinese Ming vases. These vases date back to the Ming dynasty, 1368,  and are characteristically made of white porcelain with cobalt blue decoration. The shapes were quite specific, generally having a narrow neck and designs featuring fish, birds, floral motifs, vines and iconography. Using oil pastels covered with white acrylic paint, the students tried their hand at demonstrating their understanding of this art form by scratching designs into their rendition of large vase shapes that were then cut out and mounted on black paper.

Creating a stencil for the initial vase shape

Filling in with blue oil pastel

Tracing the stencil onto final paper

Beginning to scratch in the images

Blue images are beginning to emerge

Lettering the name in Chinese characters

                                                             Three finished works

4/5s Craft Native American Drums

The 4/5s are studying the Iroquois and learning about their music and art. Combining all three disciplines, they are each crafting a large drum, made from a construction tube and nylon packcloth, that will be decorated with Iroquois designs and symbols and used to accompany their voices in music class.

Painting a primer coat on the construction tube

These will be sizable drums!

Sketching the design onto the cylinder

From the bottom up!

Working around the cylinder

Drawing continues on the floor

Painting a background for a substantial snake!

Lots to consider when working in the round

Everyone painting their drum cylinders

Four almost finished drums

Drums being played around the fire circle

2/3s Add Frogs to the Pond

After creating some remarkably detailed turtles the 2/3s went on to draw and paint frogs to join the turtles. Frogs are a considerably larger challenge as the shapes are not as obvious or straightforward as a turtle,  but after some careful analysis and observation of photos, the frogs took on a life of their own!

The frog turns green

Adding Sharpie to enhance details

Adding some snakes to the picture

And a dragonfly

4/5s Learn About Japanese Notan Paper Design

"Notan" is the term used by the Japanese to express the principle of “dark-light” as an element of design. This concept illustrates the interaction of positive and negative space, emphasizing that one can not exist without the other. The 4/5s tried their hands at this exercise in design using black and white construction paper to illustrate the principles of positive and negative space. They cut simple shapes into the center of the smaller black paper and flipped their cut shapes out and glued them onto the larger white paper to mirror the negative space that was cut away. This was challenging initially, but once they grasped the idea, the results were clearly worth the effort. 

Cutting a practice design

Cutting a shape from each side

Refining the shape

Working on a final black and white design

Carefully fitting all the pieces in place

A finished piece

And several more