THIRD GRADE . . . Creating a tropical forest!

Forest by Ava G.

Third graders learned about the primitive artwork of painter, Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). Although Rousseau never left Paris during his lifetime, and never actually saw a real jungle, he was best known for his paintings of jungles and tropical forests. Inspired by the plants in the botanical gardens and animals in the Paris zoo, he created many imaginary painted jungles. "Tropical Forest with Monkeys" is perhaps one of his most famous paintings. Even though he was a self taught artist, he gained the praise of artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse and his paintings can be seen in museums all over the world. This painting now hangs in Washington DC at the National Gallery of Art.

Third grade artists learned how to draw monkeys and created a composition on the page with tall trees and many different shapes and colors of leaves to give us the illusion of a forest. Just like Rousseau we also used our imagination and our forests are very different from each other! Here are some examples of our work. To see all of our tropical forests, click on this link for Artsonia.com.

http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Forest by Caitlyn

Forest by Gwendolen

Forest by Layla

Forest by James

Forest by Marcus

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 . . . Optical Illusions

Optical illusion by David

Maurits Cornelis Escher, best known to us as M.C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. His woodcut, called "Sky and Water," from 1938, is typical of Escher's work. It plays around with the positive and negative spaces in the print, tricking us to focus on just the bird in the sky or the fish in the water. In mathematical terms, his artwork is often called a tessellation, a repetition of tiles that fit together like a puzzle.

Fifth graders worked on original illusions with one image that tessellates together with another image in the negative space. This project was difficult for us to do and definitely called on our creative thinking skills. It is hard enough to solve a problem, even harder to come up with our own puzzle for everyone else to solve! The main idea behind our puzzles is to be able to see an image two different ways. Many of our students played around with the negative spaces in letters of the alphabet, and others used a more random shape.

Here are a few examples of their illusions. To see all of our work, check out our exhibit page on Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Illusion by Anya

Illusion by Pierce

Illusion by Aadhi

Illusion by Nate

Illusion by Luke

Illusion by Maya

KINDERGARTEN . . . Rainbow Fish

Rainbow Fish by Gianna

Kindergarten students just completed an underwater scene with watercolor and tempera paints, based on the illustrations in the book, "The Rainbow Fish," by Marcus Pfister. In this story, we read about a beautiful fish who learned the way to true happiness only after sharing his special scales with the other fish in the sea. What activities do you do at home that is more fun when you share them with your friends? Doesn't it feel good when you make someone you care about feel special too?

Here is a video of the story we read together in class to share with your family...

To create our paintings, we first learned how to draw a fish using basic shapes, such as an oval and a triangle. We also learned how to add scales inside the fish and how to complete a full underwater scene with an ocean bottom, plants, starfish, crabs and bubbles in the water.

Next, we created the ocean with a large brush, lots of water and blue watercolor paint. With a small, detail brush, we added shimmering colors of tempera paint for each detail in the scene. Finally, when all the paintings were complete, we shared a sparkling sticker with every fish and friend in class!

Here are some examples of our underwater scenes. To see all of our work, click on this link for artsonia. com and scroll down to the Kindergarten exhibit.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Rainbow Fish by Anthony

Rainbow Fish by As'ad

Rainbow Fish by Scout

Rainbow Fish by Sadie

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