THIRD GRADE . . . Zooming in on Vincent van Gogh

Third graders began to fill their canvases with color today and learned about color theory in the process. We applied paint to our faces, neck and ears, being very careful to circle around the eyes and mouth. Once the face was complete, we began working on the background.

For inspiration, we looked at Vincent van Gogh's self portrait that hangs in my art room. We studied the swirls of colors he applied to his background and noticed how this fills his painting with texture, movement, and interest. Vincent used swirls of green and lavender over his light blue background. These colors are all close to each other on the color wheel so they blend well visually and create a subtle design.

To see more Vincent van Gogh paintings and appreciate his ability to use his brush to add detail and movement, check out this link to the Van Gogh Museum. This site has a gallery of over 150 paintings by Vincent van Gogh and you are able to zoom in on any painting to examine each brush stroke and every small detail.

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/collection/van-gogh-museum?projectId=art-project

To add subtle swirls and designs with color to our backgrounds, we looked at our color wheel chart and selected a tone close to the color of background we painted on our canvas. For example, Pierce K. in Mrs. Congemi's class painted a bright orange background, and then added red stripes all around his portrait. This works beautifully because red is a neighbor to orange on the color wheel. Next week we will learn how to use a very small detail brush to paint the features of our face and we will begin working on our hair.

Note to families . . .
    This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

FOURTH GRADE . . . Mirror Image Writing

Today students were asked to read this quote by Leonardo da Vinci as they entered the art room. Everyone recognized it as backwards writing and most had no trouble figuring out what it said, after stumbling over a few words here and there! We talked about the reasons that Leonardo might have written in mirror image and discovered that many of his journals contained top secret inventions he worked on for the government. It could be that he was writing in code. At a glance, the mirror image letters might appear to be from another language and someone glancing at the page would not bother to take the time to figure out his code.
    We also discovered that Leonardo wrote with his left hand. That means that all of you "Lefties" are in good company. Leonardo was a very talented and brilliant man! When you write from Left to Right across the page, a person writing with his left hand might smudge the letters just printed. However, if you write with your left hand and are writing in mirror image, then you write from Right to Left and your hand does not cover the wet ink. Perhaps mirror image writing was simply a brilliant invention by a left handed artist to not smudge his work!

This is Leonardo's quote written the correct way. We then talked about what it could mean and I heard the most wonderful interpretations from my students. People who can "see" can imagine a different way to do something. For a Renaissance man like Leonardo da Vinci, living life to the fullest meant always discovering new and better ways to understand the world. He used painting, music, mathematics and science to help him come up with new visions of the world, amazing inventions, and a new standard of mastery in art.

Danielle F. in Mrs. Bass's class was very clever when she showed us how learning to "see" could mean being a creative thinker. She used an old pencil tray in our room to explain this, showing us how it could be fixed up and made into a jewelry box. Not everyone has the vision to see things re-purposed like that. Great idea, Danielle!

Lily E. in Mrs. K's class came up with a very different explanation. She thought some people might be able to just "see" the good in a person, while others may not "see" this until the person proves it by doing a good deed. In other words, they have to be shown. Imagine being the one who does not see at all? I was so impressed with your thoughts, Lily!

Note to families . . .
    This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

FIFTH GRADE . . . Seeing through the eyes of an artist

Fifth graders began their first art project in class today. Instead of a full self portrait, students are creating a close up study of just their eyes. We looked at the shape of a human eye and determined that it is not just an oval as we used to draw for our eyes in earlier grades, but actually an almond shape. Some of us thought it resembled more of a lemon or a football. Those are also good interpretations of the shape of the eye. We noticed that the inside corner of the eye has a tear duct that helps to define the outline as well. Next week, we will focus on more details such as the iris, the pupil, the eye lids and the highlights.

Our sketchpad assignment for this week was to draw a realistic sketch of an animal. We heard the most wonderful artist statements and the funniest stories about our favorite animals and pets at home from all of us presenting the sketches in class.

Here is a lovely sketch done by Chloe G. in Mrs. Moruzzi's class. Click on the word "comments" below to share some of your reflections of this drawing. Are you impressed with the details she was able to show? How does this illlustration make you feel?

SECOND GRADE . . . The art of silk screening

Today we learned how Andy Warhol created multiple images for his Pop Art prints. He designed only one version of each portrait he made, and then constructed a screen from that image so that he can print it many times. This process is called "silk screening." When you purchase a printed T shirt from a store, chances are the printing was done this way. Each shirt looks exactly the same because they were all printed from the same screen.

Here is a screen that I made with the Ranney School logo. A very fine fabric (similar to silk) was stretched over a wooden frame and then coated with a film to seal off the holes in the fabric. Only the area that shows the Ranney logo is not coated. Fabric paint is then forced through the holes of the screen with a squeegee.

When the screen is lifted up, the shirt displays the printed logo.

Andy Warhol often used many colors with one screen and varied the colors from one print to the next. The images look identical, but the use of color makes them appear as separate works of art. We will use this idea with our marker portraits. We drew only one portrait on paper and these drawings were then copied on a copy machine. Next week we will experiment with color.  By varying the palettes we select for our hair, shirt and background, we will be able to make our own version of a Pop Art portrait.

FIRST GRADE ... Mona Lisa's Pose

In First Grade art, we continued to work on our self portraits using Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" as our inspiration. Students followed the same guide lines for the correct placement of the features as Leonardo used. Once our faces were complete we added a neck, shoulders, arms and folded hands, just like in the famous portrait.

We want our portraits to tell a story about who we are. In our folded arms we each added something special that we like, such as our favorite pet. Next week, we will begin to add color and choose just the right color palette to best represent us.









Note to families . . .
    This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839