Chinese Ink Painting

The third graders explored Chinese ink painting today.  We looked at various Chinese scrolls and the nature scenes depicted on them.  We discussed how Chinese characters represent a word, not a letter and that each character is created using a certain brushstroke order.  Characters are often read from top to bottom or right to left.  We also watched a video clip to learn how to correctly hold our bamboo brushes.  Then the third graders got to work painting still lifes of bamboo, tea cups, parasols, and lanterns.  Here are some of their paintings:

2nd Grade
The 2nd graders have been doing several projects that involve mixing colors.  This week, we've been mixing tints.  A tint is any color mixed with white.  The students mixed several tints of one color and then drew an interesting array of lines overtop with oil pastels, color stix, and crayons.

Chinese New Year Art

The 3rd and 4th graders are creating art related to East Asia.  Our first projects with this unite coincide with Chinese New Year.  The Chinese follow a lunar calender, and so this year Chinese New Year began on February 3rd.  The festivities continue for 15 days and are all about bringing good luck for the new year.  In Chinese cities, a big part of the celebration centers around a dragon parade.  The dragon is similar to a huge puppet that is carried by many people, sometimes over 50.  The 4th graders created their own miniature dragon puppets.

Photo courtesy of  www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/image_galleries...

The 5th graders have been learning about Greek pottery.  This week they've been creating a coil built vase.  Later they'll be painting the vase with a scene from a mythological story that they created.

More Jim Dine...

 Here's some more of the heart collages that the 2nd graders made.  Don't you just love seeing all the layers and textures in their work?

  The Kindergartners have been creating still life collages based on the work of Ralph Goings.  Goings is a photorealist painter.  The kindergartners drew objects that would normally be seen on a table in a diner.  Then they created placemats and glued on paper plates, napkins, and all of their objects.

Three Set Up by Ralph Goings, courtesy of www.ralphgoings.com
Kindergarten Artwork

 

The first graders practiced mixing colors today and made an abstract painting on canvas.  Here are the beginnings of their work:

We Heart Jim Dine

 Hope you're all enjoying your snow day.  Everyone loves a day to sleep in right? 

Since it's February and almost Valentine's Day, my second graders made some heart collages inspired by the artist Jim Dine.  He's a Cincinnati native who creates pop art and is still alive and creating art today.  Normally art teachers frown upon kids putting hearts all over their artwork...sometimes the symbol diminshes the beautiful quality of their work.  But with this lesson, I focused on getting the kids to make their hearts in new orignial ways just as Jim Dine does.  We used the bubble wrap printed paper that they made a few weeks ago and lots of other fun papers.  I'll have to take more pictures of the students' work once I'm back at school and not snowed into my house :)


Photo courtesty of superflygallery.com



Photo courtesty of kaya-artgallery.blogspot.com



Photo courtesy of novakart.blogspot.com

Student work