Georgia O'Keeffe inspired Cow Skulls

 

The students looked at Georgia O’Keeffe’s Cow Skull With Calico Roses painted in 1931. They learned that O’Keeffe lived much of her life out west in New Mexico and enjoyed the plains and desert scenery there. She would often find skulls on her nature walks and use them in her paintings. And her colors often reflect the western tones that surrounded her. The students painted backgrounds in sandy tones. They created their skulls by writing their names on a folded paper and then cutting around the name and adding horns from the scraps. In the next class they painted their skulls, tore their paintings, mounted them on a background paper, glued down the skull and made paper flowers. All this creates a unique version of the O’Keeffe masterpiece hanging in The Art Institute of Chicago. 

3D Cardboard Relief Sculptures Inspired by Frank Stella

The Fifth Graders Studied the Pop Art of Frank Stella. They learned how he wanted his paintings to look dimensional and eventually created sculptures working with corrugated steel. He composed some dynamic relief pieces with unusual shapes and bright colors. Inspired by those sculptures, the students drew concentric shapes on corrugated cardboard. The shapes were cut and painted solid and then patterned. Additional patterns were added with craypas, then the pieces were assembled with spacers to create more depth and finally the students collaged all sorts of fun items on top. This project has many layers and steps and the 3D sculptures are fascinating to see.

Claes Oldenburg inspired Sandwiches

We studied the whimsical Pop-Art of Claes Oldenburg and read a funny and strange pop-up book Sam's Sandwich by David Pelham. Inspired by both, the students of 9C created realistic looking non-edible sandwich art using foam, paper, fabric, glue and even handmade frilly toothpicks.

William Steig Storybook Figures

As the 5th graders did an author study of William Steig in their ELA class, they learned about the artist William Steig in the Artroom. The students then got to create a storybook "bottle figure" based on their favorite Steig character. The base is made from a recycled water bottle and newspaper, first covered in plaster and then adorned with paint, fabric and other assorted collage supplies.  

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Ceramic Dried Flower Hangings

The 4th Graders made red clay wall hangings to hold dried flowers. They rolled clay slabs, created unique shapes and textures and folded it up to form a little pocket for the flowers.

2nd grade Portraits

The 2^nd graders learned about facial “mapping” or proportions in art class. We discussed the relative placement of facial features and the shapes of these features. The students practiced drawing faces in pencil and then used craypas for their final version. They designed a shirt, and then painted a uniquely patterned background. The elements were all glued together to create a beautiful and highly personal self-portrait composition.

Ceramic Fish Bowls

In the Art Studio, the Kindergarteners traced and cut fish shapes from clay slabs, and then drew patterns on them. They created bases by attaching a ring to the bottom using scoring and slipping. After the fish were fired in our kiln, the students glazed them, learning the difference between glaze and paint. As inspiration, we read The Rainbow Fish and Fish is Fish, two classic fish tales. 

Mixed Media Birch Tree Landscapes

The 4th graders practiced many techniques to put together these whimsical landscapes. They first divided a landscape scene and drew patterns using craypas.They painted using watercolor paints. The students then drew trees and cut them out and painted them to create a bark effect. Finally the trees were glued down.

Picasso Blue & Rose Collages

The students observed and discussed the paintings of Picasso's Blue and Rose periods, 

as well as his subsequent Cubist style. They first painted large sheets of paper in 

different shades of blues/greys and pinks/reds. These were cut up into pieces and used

along with recycled newspaper, wallpaper, sheet music and construction paper to create

 guitar, bottle, bowl and jug shapes. Some of these were also cut up and re-glued to a 

different background to create a fragmented Cubist art piece.

 

One Point Perspective Surreal Scapes

The 8th graders studied Surrealistic Art and the techniques of creating three-dimensional shapes with one-point perspective. Using colored pencil, they created surrealistic landscapes with shapes floating in a background of their design.

Colorful Succulent Drawings

As part of their Still Life Drawing Unit, the 7th graders sketched and drew succulent plants. First they drew timed blind contour pencil drawings and then detailed pencil sketches. Finally they drew the plants and colored them with sharpies adding patterns to the pots and table.