Henri Matisse Drawing with Paper Collages

Henri Matisse's collages are absolutely beautiful. The organic shapes and compositions, colors, and the actual size of the artwork is astonishing. We had so much fun today!!

Paul Klee Letter Squares

First Day of Ladera Recreation Art Club - Inspired by the Masters! Learning about Paul Klee and his many forms of art making in his career. 

Keith Haring, 2 Ways!

5th grade learns about artist Keith Haring. We are doing this project in 2 parts. This first part resembles Haring's subway drawings on black paper. 

PICASSO PORTRAITS

These portraits are inspired by "Portrait of Dora Maar" by Pablo Picasso - famous for rendering multipule perspectives in his portraiture. 4th graders used color symbolism and color theory to show us a hint of their inner selves. Take a peek!

ERNST KIRCHNER - FOREST MURAL

Room 23

3rd graders have each been working diligently on class murals, studying German Expressionist Ernst Kirchner. Each student gets a thumbnail of his painting, and uses proportion to enlarge it using oil pastel. The key to a comprehensive mural is to work with your neighbors!

VAN GOGH IRISES

2nd graders are in some serious competition with Van Gogh... Take a look at all the different ways each student renders a "stoke", how they illustrate movement, and how they perceive Van Gogh's Painting.!! Love these. 

PERIMETER, AREA AND...ART!

Inspired by Piet Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie", 4th grade teachers asked if I could do an art project to learn visually through the arts how to find Perimeter and Area in Geometry. We used graph paper to grid design our neighbo-rhoods..Really neat idea!

Georgia O'Keeffe Mural

5th Grade was studying Georgia O'Keeffe this year and one of the teachers asked if I could do a class mural. O'Keeffe is one of my inspirations so I was more than happy.

We looked at her painting, "Poppy 4". The class is a small group of about 10 - a fairly challenging group to get "interested" in a project. But I'll tell you - this project really brought the best out of all of the kids - mostly their spirits.

Henri Matisse "Kelp" Forests

4th Grade had visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium earlier in the year so this lesson reinforced the excellence of KELP!
(ok....aaaaaand positive shapes, negative shapes, organic vs. geometric :) )

Archimboldo: Veggie Self-Portraits

I have been wanting to do a lesson using Giuseppe Archimboldo's fantastic, odd, modge-podge, surreal portraits forever! I think this artist is fantastic for kids to experiment with in the art room.

Arcimboldo Self-Portraits

Our last day of the Spring Art Club consisted of being goofy and funny and making self-portraits using fruit and vegetable shapes.

Cezanne Still Life Collage

3rd grade should be introduced to not only shapes, but how shapes are 3-dimensional forms. I got this idea, again, from my fabulous colleague who did a similar lesson with her Art Club.

Van Gogh Irises

Learning about Impressionism and how to paint/draw like an impressionist is a great skill to learn.

Modigliani Self-Portraits

Modigliani is known for his portrait paintings with elongated, stretched faces and facial features, the almond shaped eyes. Which is why he's a great artist to study for a self-portrait lesson - gives the student a little wiggle room for fun, not striving for perfection.

Starry Night Watercolor

My students added watercolor to their contours of Starry Night, seen on another blog post a few weeks back, here.

Fantasy Jungles

Imagine...What it would be like to be an ant walking through a jungle? Huge plants and leaves all around you. Carnivorous plants maybe, hmmmm. What's the weather like in your fantasy? Nighttime, raining, storming, lightening?

Calaveras Printmaking

Today November 1st is in Mexican tradition, Day of the Dead. We talked about the Mexican culture of venerating the dead, sugar skulls and the printmaker, Jose Posada.

Arcimboldo Self-Portraits

I have been wanting to do a lesson using Giuseppe Archimboldo's fantastic, odd, modge-podge, surreal portraits forever! I think this artist is fantastic for kids to experiment with in the art room.

Edward Curtis Tee Pee Landscapes

4th grade learns about Native America! My favorite subject in grade school...Our 2nd study on value, and also contour, I thought Edward Curtis would be so perfect with his gold tone sepia photographs of native people, their environment and daily lives.

Van Gogh Sunflowers

Today I had the pleasure of teaching my friend's first art lesson of the school year! Her awesome 5th grade class was nice to work with especially given the nice facility loaded with materials to use and ample space!