Friday, March 29, 2013

Mini Master Samplings


Modigliani Style Portraits





 Oil Pastels on Black Paper



O'Keefe Flowers


Watercolor with Oil Pastels or Black Glue Outlines


Delaunay Inspired Eiffels




Oil pastel based on this lesson from last year



I bid my group of Mini Masters au revoir on this Good Friday. I've had a fun 5 weeks of introducing this group of 3rd graders to the works of Monet, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso (and Contemporary Cubist, Sandra Silberzweig), Modigliani, Robert Delaunay, and Georgia O'Keefe. 
They were a fun and enthusiastic group, always eager and excited to dive into the next project. 

Monday, March 25, 2013

Sandra Silberzweig Inspired Portraits









My group of 3rd grade Mini Masters looked at the Cubist portrait work of Picasso and contemporary artist Sandra Silberzweig. This is the third time I've done an art lesson based on the work of Silberzweig. The children are always enthusiastic to get creating and really respond to her dynamic, vibrant work. These were created with minimal palettes of acrylics and children were encouraged to create a variety of colors, shades and tints. I was pleased with the diverse works from this lesson. Thanks to Ms. Silberzweig for inspiring a new group of young students!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Flower Power

Georgia O'Keefe Inspired



Romero Britto Inspired Collage
Original Post/Directions here


I have a very special student who has been coming to my classes almost consistently for over a year now. Here are two of her latest pieces. Beautiful work as always Jenna!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Matisse Meets Cezanne Still Lifes




 
                           


                           






I saw a version of this lesson first on Artsonia









My group of 3rd grade Mini Masters looked at the still life work of Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse. From Cezanne, I wanted them to appreciate his love for light and shadow, tone and shade. And from Matisse, I wanted them to take away his love for color and pattern. (Of course, each artist is obviously worthy of a singular spotlight. And this is only simplifying aspects of their work, but I enjoy marrying the two artists' styles together - especially given my short, 5 week course.)

My students started by observing green, yellow, and red apples, and created contour drawings of them in different angles. They added color to their colored construction paper work using chalk pastels and charcoal shadows. They created a plate or basket in the same way.

For the Matisse background portion, I offered a variety of brightly colored patterned fabric as inspiration and encouraged them to become textile designers using oil pastels and watercolor. "This is not the time to be matchie matchie, poo poo". They had never heard this term, and were of course cracking up. But looking at Matisse's vibrant work, they saw it was fueled by a variety of patterns and colors.

I think these pieces came together beautifully. Nice job kids!

See Sofia, I told you it was frame worthy! : D

Here is a link to a similar lesson I did several years ago.
http://marymaking.blogspot.com/2010/11/cezanne-meets-matisse-apple-still-life.html