Beautifully MONOCHROMATIC!

MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEMES are not the easiest way to paint. But these 4th grade students seemed to make it look easy. Monochromatic painting means that you are painting with only ONE color. Now, you may think that they used more, but they have learned that BLACK and WHITE are not actually colors. White is the absence of pigment, and black is the combination of all pigment. Therefore, adding black and/or white to a color to lighten or darken that color, is still painting with only ONE color. Pretty neat, huh?

Why would someone WANT to paint with a monochromatic color scheme????? Well, one reason is that colors illicit different emotions therefore they would more strongly communicate that emotion to the viewer. Another might be that the artist is focusing on that particular skill. Can you think of other reasons?

The RADIALS are rolling in again.

Once again, 2nd grade is learning about RADIAL BALANCE, which is one of the concepts on which they are tested. I have done this project for the last 2 or 3 years, and every year I am amazed at the final pieces these students produce. They not only understand radial balance, but they understand it BEAUTIFULLY!

We look at examples of objects that show Radial Balance. That would be objects reflecting a pattern that begins in the center, and radiates out to the edges. When turned in any direction, you should view the same pattern. Examples would be a flower with a center and petels moving out, a bicycle wheel, a propeller, doilie, just to name a few. What kind of radial balanced patterns do you see around you??????

This year, we made them smaller and glued them onto CD's. I put holes at the top and bottom, connecting a class of Radials together to form a mobile of sorts, to be hung outside their classrooms. They really look great!

It is nice to have a FAN!

It is always nice to have an art fan, but to have a SUPER FAN is even BETTER! This student dressed up as WONDER ARTIST! It is no "wonder", because she IS a super artist! Carry on WONDER ARTIST! Keep up the great work.

1st Grade learning about SHAPE

1st grade always gets a lesson on shapes. Most GEOMETRIC shapes they know - square, triangle, circle, rectangle, oval, even trapezoid and paralellagram. And some even throw out hexigon, and octagon. BUT they become stumped when I ask them to name an ORGANIC shape. Well, that's because you can't!!! Organic shapes are those that are free form. Sometimes they occur over and over again, sometimes they only occur once. For example, the shape of spilled milk on the floor would be undescribable, therefore it would be ORGANIC. That exact shape would more than likely never happen again. The shape of an oak leaf is organic, and occurs over and over again on the tree.

In these collages, the students had to tear ORGANIC SHAPES out to paper to form clouds, hills, grass, tops of trees, etc. Then they used GEOMETRIC SHAPES to build their houses, buildings, all those things that "named" shapes can create. As you can see, we really ended up with some fabulous collages.

Of course, we continued to learn how to glue and cut as well.

ILLUMINATED INITIALS

Some of our Third Grade students have been learning about ILLITERACY. At least that, which abounded in the Middle Ages and earlier. We learned that during that time period, most people could NOT read and write. Mainly those who were wealthy and the priests of the churchs could read. There were very few books to be had, and those were HAND COPIED by scribes and monks. Can you imagine having to rewrite a whole book by hand? That is why they were called MANUSCRIPS (meaning written by hand). The scribes would elaborately decorate the pages and illustrations, as well as the first letter of each paragraph or page. Most of the time, they would use GOLD paint which, when hit by the flicker of candlelight, would light up......thus called ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPS.

This project focused on one of the students initials, which they designed, painted gold, and then decorated with personal symbols or pictures that reflected something about them. We used paint and markers for embellishments and details.

Then students chose a piece of wallpaper on which to glue their initial. THEN they glued that onto a black sheet of construction paper, decorating those edges with metallic pencils.

These turned out to be BEAUTIFUL and ILLUMINATING!

2nd Grade Warm/Cool drawings

Many of the 2nd grade classes are working on understanding WARM and COOL analogous color groups. We are also talking about EMPHASIS. So we created a picture where students EMPHASISED a certain area by grouping colors into warm and cool colors. Can you tell where they want you to look first?

Chets Creek has a Quilt!

Thanks to Mrs. Holloway, one of our itenerate Art Teachers, Chets Creek has a quilt entered in the Greater Agricultural Fair! The Quilt contest is centered around a pre-chosen book for the county. This years book was one familiar to Chets Creek - The Curious Garden. She worked with one of our 5th grade classes to produce the images and then she sewed them all together, quilted and submitted this beautiful Masterpiece. Go the the Fair and vote for Chets Creeks quilt! And a HUGE THANK YOU to Mrs. Holloway!

We are getting into the REAL stuff now!

Art to Remember is being finished up and classes are now moving on to regular art projects. The emphasis this year will be on the elements of art and the principles of design. Below are Kindergarten students learning about LINE. STRAIGHT,CURVY,WAVY, ZIG-ZAG, AND BROKEN. We also are discussing line DIRECTIONS. HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL, DIAGONAL. Later on, these colorful sheets of LINES will be used in a collage about shapes. Be on the lookout!



Below, my Second Grade Students are learning about RADIAL BALANCE! These are patterns that radiate out from the center, in all directions.



More to come as we move into other exciting projects.

New Art Teachers At Chets

We have two new Itenerate Art Teachers at Chets Creek this year. On Tuesdays, Trish Holloway will be teaching students in the Resource B groups. On Thursday, Elaine Perez will be teaching students in the Resource A groups. Welcome to them both! I know your students will love their time with these two exceptional Art Educators.

Art To Remember Time Again

Summer certainly flew by with a flurry, and now school is rolling along with excitement of the new year, soaring everywhere! Our new theme "Empowering the Future" has superheros coming out of the woodwork! How much fun!

The beginning of the year also signifies the beginning of our Art To Remember Fundraiser program. Each child will produce a small work of art that will be sent home in a special envelope in October. You will have the opportunity to purchase many different items with YOUR CHILD'S personal artwork displayed. This makes beautiful Holiday Gifts for family members, as they are as one of a kind as your child. Look for examples to be set up during OPEN HOUSE on Sept. 15th and 22nd!

ART & ENGINEERING: A 3-D expression of Form and Balance

The 3-D thing just keeps on going. After wonderful experiences with the students AND an amazing workshop with fellow Art Teachers, I had the opportunity to hold the workshop with classroom teachers at the Arts For Learning: Tools for Teaching Conference at UNF. I am never disappointed at the creativity that is displayed from everyone who "tinkers" with sculpture. I wish I could show more pictures, especially of the finished products, but, alas, my camera batteries died. Trust me! They were FANTASTIC!

Wonders Never Cease!

No......your eyes are not deceiving you. This is Dee Dee with a paint brush in her hand. You did not know just how multi-talented she was! I appreciate all her help on the 3rd grade backdrop. She paints wonderfully straight lines!

3-D Problem solving at its BEST!

Often, when I think of doing Three Dimensional projects with my students, it usually ends up being clay. Clay is not bad.....it is just not all that there is with which to work. This year, we are breaking away from so many clay projects and we are moving toward using different materials. Below are some cardboard sculptures done by students with only a few instructions. That means, they had to tinker with the materials, experiment to see what worked, come up with some personal solutions and make some decisions. I did allow them to use hot glue guns, with parental permission, to make the process move more quickly, but otherwise, they came up with the final pieces themselves. Two of the pictures below are abstract sculptural pieces and one is a cardboard tube tree, with the "leaves" made from different found objects.

I have to admit, the students really liked this as they were fairly free to go where they wanted with the media at hand. Expect to see more pictures as they finish these :-)!

Worhal Pop Art Prints

What is popular right now?????? Definitly cupcakes, coke, cellphones, water plus many more objects that we see around us all the time. We decided is was time to look at POP ART and imitate the master, Andy Worhal. The students chose a "popular" image and carved it into Soft-Kut linoleum. This was a two ink process, focusing on complementary color combinations. When completed, they glued them on to one sheet of paper, forming the repeating pattern recognized in Worhals work.




As stated in an earlier post, this requires some backwards thinking.

Planning Day Workshop..Sculptural Success!!!!

This past Planning Day, I was asked to give a workshop entitled "Sculpting with things at hand". Art Teachers, many times, are limited to what they can use to create three dimentional pieces in the classrooms, due to budgets and space. In this workshop, we experimented with what could be sculpted with cardboard (which can be found in abundance) and found objects. Participants were give two hours to come up with unlimited ideas, and they really did come up with some great ones. I brought back some new ideas to try in my classroom.

Fun seemed to be had by all AND we contributed to the Green movement by recycling cardboard and all kinds of interesting donated treasures.

6th grade students coming back to glaze

We have been welcoming home our old 5th grade students, who have gone on to experience the world of middle school, to paint their "high 5" tiles for our upcoming Formal Five event. I must admit, it has been fun to see them again and its been a blast watching them react when they see each other. The conversation has been priceless! The interesting part is how the parents have commented how much they miss Chets Creek. I guess we do kinda have that effect on people!

5th Grade Watercolor Seascapes

Studying DEPTH and various watercolor techniques, produced exceptional work by these 5th grade students. We talked about wet and dry brush techniques, then how to detail with detail brushes and marker.

Do they make you want to go there???

Our After School art students are producing some beautiful work. Below you can see some of the landscapes that they painted on textured paper. They first glued on various textures onto their paper and then painted on top, adding interest and variety to the final piece.

Wild Cat Faces frozen in clay

This really turned out to be a wonderful project where every student enjoyed creating these wildcats in clay. We looked at pictures and noticed shapes seen in the faces and discussed how to put them in to "form" through clay. Using the pinch method, we pinched a thick bowl, inverted it, creating the armature for the face. Then we used clay attachment techniques to build the wildcat of choice. Some students put small holes in the lips, and then when fired, they cut and glued monofilament in for whiskers.