Drawing from life

These are the pastel drawings the third grade artists made. They first made many line drawings of the pumpkins. They had no idea that pumpkins could be so difficult to draw! Once they became pumpkin professionals they made these pastel drawings. The biggest discovery was how to draw the stems and the sections of the pumpkins behind the stems.

That time of year

The first grade finished these pieces of work this week. For these artworks the student artists studied trees (roots, trunk,bark, crown, branches and leaves). They studied hot and cold colors. They learned why leaves change color. They learned what happens when you paint on wet paper and then hold it upright. They also learned about silhouettes. The artists also enjoyed the joke "why didn't the cat go near the tree?....It was afraid of the BARK!"

Second Grade Architecture

This book is a perfect start to the second grade architecture unit. We also watched Bill Nye The Science Guy
talk about architecture. The second grade was amazed to see so many elements of architecture in our studio. We watch a power point on houses of the world and realized that not everyone lives in the same kind of structures. We discussed form+function in regards to our creations.

We started sketching our structures today. The students had to add seven elements of architecture to their creations. We are using books and booklets that are filled with different elements as resources.
Wow! I want to live in these houses.

Fouth Grade Still Life

Line Drawing

The fourth grade started a still life drawing. The artists started with blind contour line drawings, contour line drawings and line drawings. Many of the artists could not quite keep themselves from looking at their papers for the blind exercise so I had them make their drawing in a bag. The drawings were completed with oil pastels.

Our classroom

This is the Shamrock Studio.

Kindergarten

The Kindergarten artists start the year exploring the elements of art. We have almost worked our way through LINE. They will create a booklet for each element. Yesterday the artists painted lines using large and small brushes. We discussed all the different lines they could make and learned basic brush skills.

More Jasper Johns

More Creative Choice

Kids are so cool!! Here are more creative choice 18x24 paintings by the third grade artists.

Andy Goldworthy Collaborations

The fourth grade artists studied the artist Andy Goldsworthy. They were amazed at his natural creations and even more amazed by the fact he brought nothing with him to the work site to help him create his work. The students artists went to Shamrock's outdoor lab to collect and design their creations. This activity was done in groups and involved planing and problem solving.

To find out more about Mr. Goldsworthy please check out this you tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq1Sw35mYzc

Jasper Johns

The second grade artists just finished their study of the pop artist Jasper Johns. The student artists loved learning that Jasper Johns used symbols that we see all the time as design objects instead of information objects. They also enjoyed using the stencils to create their work just like Mr. Johns did.

Creative Choice

Here in the Shamrock Studio we talk about using our imaginations. The third grade artists discussed how using our imaginations help us problem solve. We watched a great (and short) video from brainpop.com about the science of imagination. The student artists then created paintings on 18x24 paper. They did a great job. Imagine!!