Second and Third Graders Paint Fall Landscape

Mike and Coleman adding paint to their sketches

Jamie and Avery beginning to paint

The second and third grade students took advantage of Parker's glorious setting by going outdoors with pencil, paper and drawing boards to sketch the landscape they were observing. They returned to art class and, using a limited palette of shades and tints of green and yellow, they painted the landscape they had sketched.

Fourth and Fifth Graders Drawing Locker Names

Veda and Clare work on black and white design

Anna adding monochromatic color scheme

Adam working on his initial design

The fourth and fifth grade students came up with unique and inventive designs for their monochromatic locker identifiers.

Middle School Students Working on Name Designs

Nip Rogers sharing his work with students

Sam working on his name design

Imani at work

The school year begins with fourth through eighth grade students creating an identifier for their hall locker. This fall they worked on monochromatic names with black and white designs filling the rectangular space behind their name. As this project was winding down, artist illustrator Nip Rogers visited the middle school art classes to look at the students' work and inspire them with some of his own.

Second and Third Graders Paint Dutch Doorways

                         Ada working on her doorway painting

                        Veda and Clare working on their paintings 

An introduction to the Dutch master Jan Vermeer  linked to classroom studies of the early settlers in New York. Noticing that Vermeer often viewed his subjects through a window or doorway and working with accuracy and detail, the students created doorways and scenes beyond or within them. Using watercolors and Sharpies they painted compositions that were careful in execution and often fanciful in inspiration. 

Fourth and Fifth Graders Drawing a Bicycle

                     Students drawing the road bike

The fourth and fifth grade students spent several classes closely observing a bicycle, carefully drawing it, adding a background and then adding a rider!

Fourth and Fifth Grade Historical Puppets

                     Harvey Milk, Gandhi, MLK, Helen Keller, and more

                       Lincoln, Louis Armstrong, Crazy Horse and more

The fourth and fifth graders spent the last few months creating extraordinary hand puppets of specific  historical characters they had studied in class. They made the heads from paper mache, painted them, added yarn hair, sewed their clothes and finally added an artifact to help the viewer accurately identify their character. They are amazing!

Middle School Students Drawing a Bicycle

                         Zara, Kiki, and Nora drawing the Bianchi

                       Zali and Zara looking at the bike

As an exercise in observational drawing, the middle school students closely observed Jack's Bianchi road bike, and discovered many intricate shapes and forms that presented fine drawing challenges. The results of their efforts were impressive.