What's Going on in Art Class

8th Grade - My second marking period eighth graders start Art this week. We'll be going over the rules and expectations, filling out a survey, discussing it, and preparing our Art folders to store our work for the marking period. Our first project will be a conceptual self-portrait or "Future Self-Portrait" as I like to call it. We will depict what our lives will look like in twenty years - my eighth graders will be about 33 years old then. Most of them can't even imagine being that old, but they need to think about their hopes, plans and goals for their future including family, career, hobbies, interests, where they'd live, causes they might feel strongly about, their heritage, etc. and find a way to show those ideas visually. This is not necessarily an image of themselves in twenty years, but of their lives if they can design them any way they choose, because let's face it, they can!

5th Grade - Some of my fifth grade classes are finishing up their self-portraits. Our new project is completely different. We're going from these beautiful faces to the ugliest things you can imagine! Art isn't always pretty, but that doesn't mean it's not art. Gargoyles are some of the ugliest creatures ever created and were carved out of stone and used as decorative drain spouts for water. They were purposely evil or scary looking so that they'd "protect" their home from evil spirits. These grotesque monsters are most commonly found on Medieval buildings in Europe (such as the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris). Now we're making our own and saving them for our Fifth Grade Art Shows.

4th Grade - It's time for Mrs. Purcell's favorite fourth grade project. Fauvism! Fauvism was a short trend in Art history (around 1900) when painters, bored with the tedious color mixing lessons they had in Art school and the pressure to paint colors realistically, decided to paint expressively with color instead. They had a ball like a little kid with a new set of paints, but the art critics hated their work at first and called them "fauves," which in French means "wild beasts." They continued painting in this very vibrant style anyway and the art world grew to like their work after all. Fauvism freed color from having to appear realistic and it had a strong effect on art forever. So we're seeing a slideshow that includes lots of paintings, pretending the year is 1901 and we're a bunch of Fauves creating our own Fauvist works of Art. Everyone agrees, this is a fun and crazy art style.

Here's an example of Andre Derain's Fauvist painting style. Notice the unrealistic, vibrant colors. (For another example of Fauvism, see my "Art Tips and Facts" page of this site.)

3rd Grade - Our palettes are done and now we're doing a quick review of space and depth (for the three tricks we've learned, see my "Art Tips and Facts" page). Next is every third graders favorite project ... Snowglobes! We'll learn a little about their history and then create our own using the baby food jars so many families have donated to us (thank you!). We'll fill them with glitter, sequins, and a watery substance, and then put a decorative piece of fabric over the lid for decoration. These make a great holiday decoration or gift! I love seeing my third grade artists proudly shaking their snowglobes as they leave the Art room.

2nd Grade - Our "Starry Night" paintings are done and gorgeous!

Now it's time for a little clay in second grade! We're starting to create a "wall pocket", which is like a clay plaque that can be hung on a wall with a built-in vase to hold flowers or sprigs of a plant. We'll be adding texture using various objects to impress into the clay, and later painting them. This is a fun project and can be a nice homemade holiday gift too!

1st Grade - Incase you haven't noticed, I love Kandinsky's paintings. They're full of Art lesson possibilities especially for my younger grades. The gorgeous painting on top of this page is the inspiration for our new project. Each student will get their own large square section to paint colorful concentric circles. When the separate paintings are completed and dry, I'll piece them all together to create one huge joint painting.

Kindergarten - For Thanksgiving we're making our very own Native American headbands decorated colorfully with the many shapes we've learned about and we're even adding a feather. We love to try them on and see each other wearing them.