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

K/1s Learn About the Art of Grandma Moses

Grandma Moses painted winter landscapes in Hoosick Falls, right near us! The K/1s learned about this extraordinary artist who began painting at age 70 and continued to work for the next 30 years! Her story and her artwork are very accessible to 5 and 6 year olds who appreciate the story like quality of her early farm life and later success. In her style, they are painting winter landscapes with a background, middleground and foreground and hopefully lots of details.

Sketching first ideas

Beginning the drawing

Just beginning to paint

Careful beginnings

K/1s Paint Snowmen with a 3/4 View

With a nod to Vincent van Gogh, the K/1s learned about portraits that can be painted from a frontal, profile or 3/4 view. They then drew very large snowmen, too big to entirely fit on their paper, and made it look like a 3/4 view portrait with the carrot nose protruding sideways between the two eyes. Hats and scarves were added, and snow was painted in the background.

Painting the snowman

Completed drawing

Finished work

Another finished

2/3s Explore Aboriginal Art

When one of our 2/3 students returned from an autumn spent in New Zealand and Australia we decided to learn about the art from that part of the world. We read several Aboriginal folk tales about Dreamtime and Walkabouts and then began paintings reminiscent of their unique style of art. Swirls and dots were incorporated into designs formed around a central image of a plant or animal. 

Initial sketch

Gathering ideas

Painting with lots of detail

The dots are being added

Koala!

Working on the whole composition

Middle School Students Paint Egyptian Tomb Paintings

After studying Ancient Egypt in Social Studies class and before a February trip to the Albany Institute of History and Art to view the Egyptian mummies, the 6/7/8th graders learned about the unique and extremely proscribed style of painting that the ancient Egyptians created to ensure their safe travels to and in the afterlife. Using a grid to achieve correct proportions, the students carefully drew the different parts of the body in the strangely correct profile and frontal view. They added a name cartouche and items specifically relating to them that they would like to have in the Afterlife! These drawings will be projected and enlarged and then painted and put up in the hall to resemble the decorative walls of an Egyptian tomb.

Working on the grid paper

Just getting going

Transferring to velum

Enlarging using a projected image

Painting the figure

Beginning to paint the enlarged image

Meticulous detail on this figure!

Some finishing touches with gold paint

Painting a canopic jar where the organs of the embalmed body were guarded

Ushabtis that the middle school students made at the albany Institute. Ushabtis were placed in tombs among the grave goods and were intended to act as substitutes for the deceased, should he/she be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife.