Save the Date: Winter Arts Showcase 12/17/15

WINTER ARTS SHOWCASE

ORCHARD GARDENS PILOT SCHOOL 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17th 

5:00-7:00pm

Come walk the corridors,

view the amazing student art work, 

and stay to enjoy performances from 

music, dance and theater!

1st grade VanGogh Inspired Still Lives

7th grade Romero Britto Painting

1st grade Paul Klee Cats

Middle school elective Jasper Johns inspired American Flags

5th grade Clipper Ships

6th Grade Cowboy & Cowgirl Portraits

2nd grade Geometric Cityscapes

Navajo Design

Keeping with the western theme, 6th graders worked on pattern and design by making Navajo Tapestries.  Students watched a short clip about Navajo rug makers and learned how colors were limited due to the color of the fleece of the sheep.  I had students design their own rugs using similar shapes and patterns that they saw in Navajo examples and then select a limited palate of three colors to work with.  Afterwards, we sketched cow skulls to add onto their tapestries.

1st Graders Take On VanGogh

Still Life with Roses and Anemones
1890
Vincent van Gogh

It all started with wanting to use leftover paint from previous classes.  There wasn't enough to make a full painting but certainly we could make petals and flowers.  Ah-ha!  1st graders would begin a study on Vincent van Gogh and Still Life painting.  We began by designing the flowers and using a variety of brush strokes to make the petals.  After folding our papers into four sections, we experimented with circles, straight lines, and even inventive combinations to make the flowers.   

Day two consisted of making the vase, table and background.  I had the students section off their painting by using a 9"x12" to block off the top of their paper thus leaving room for the flowers and allowing the vase to be on the bottom half of the paper.

Beautiful!!!

Bicycles and tricycles

I accidentally stumbled upon this short film when my children were watching a Scholastic DVD.  It immediately brought me back to my childhood as I vividly remember watching this as a child.  The magic of the tricycle still holds strong as I showed this clip to my middle school students.  They cheered for the fearless rider as the tricycle tries to reunite with its owner.  

We then used the video/story, The Remarkable Riderless Runaway Tricycle, to launch our study of drawing parts of a bicycle and using view finders to isolate an image and focus on details.  Students were given images of bicycles and a view finder.  They were asked to take the view finder and place it on a section and draw what they saw in the focus window.  We sketched four different variations before selecting a favorite snap-shot to then enlarge and add color to. 

Todd Parr Faces

My Strand students listened to the story, It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr.  We looked at all the different faces and talked about color, shape and feelings.  Students then painted four 6"x6" squares for the background of the four faces they were going to make.  We used bright fluorescent colors to really capture the illustrations in the book. 

Students then worked on each face by tracing a circle and then adding the essential features for their Todd Parr style faces: eyes, mouth, ears, and funky hair.

Cezanne inspired still life

5th grade students are making a still life inspired by French artist, Paul Cezanne.

Cezanne's post-impressionist paintings showcase beautiful blending techniques that I wanted my students to replicate.  As students entered into the art room, I composed a still life for them to look at with a vase, flowers, and fruit.  We talked about how we could see simple shapes in the objects instead of feeling overwhelmed by the assignment.  We discussed while I demonstrated how an orange could be a circle, and apple similar to a heart and a pear like a letter "u".  Then we began to paint.  No drawing or sketching allowed!  We were committed to the lines that the brush and mind placed on the paper.

Matisse and his fish bowl

My middle school elective class began the year by making a still life.  We admired the work of Henri Matisse and tried our best to replicate his masterpiece.  Students started with black crayon to create the basic shapes of the fish bowl, table, and background.  From there, we discussed color value and how to make the fish bowl give the illusion of depth by making the blues vary from dark to light.  

Then, students we set free to color the remaining parts of the picture.  We talked about complimentary colors and how using a pair for the wall and floor would make for a strong composition.

 Below are some pictures from the fist class.  More to come as the paintings get finished!

Pumpkin Patch

Oops, I meant to post this one in October but time got away from me.  Kindergarten and 1st grade students worked diligently making these awesome pumpkins.  Students learned about color mixing and value as they drew from observation.  We talked about the basic circular shape of a pumpkin and how there are ridges on the shell.  We then mixed red + yellow to make orange by dipping the paint brush into both colors and letting the brush do the mixing on the paper.  We strived to make each section of the pumpkin a different value of orange.

After the pumpkins dried, we then turned them into jack-o-lanterns!  Students practiced their cutting and collage skills and spooked up their pumpkins.

We then placed the jack-o-lanterns onto a pumpkin patch and used oil pastels to create grass and wind.