Drawn to Abstraction

The fourth grade made representational drawings from a still life of glass vases and bottles. They learned all about the circle in space- the ellipse- and then colored in the drawing to abstract the work.
The artist and illustrator James McMullan is writing a series about drawing for the the New York Times, it is published every Friday for the next twelve weeks. The First lesson talk about with what ease and gusto children draw and create. The second lesson Mr. McMullan discussed ellipses! I couldn't wait to show the kids that what they are doing in fourth grade art class an artist in New York is teaching his adult readers. We even e-mailed him out work. What a fun connection.
See the articles here:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/getting-back-to-the-phantom-skill/

Mr. McMullan's reply to our e-mail:

Hi Rebecca,
The work from your class looks great! I think they still have the phantom skill that everyone is trying to get back to.
Keep up the good work.