Chagall

Couple and Fish

Our next model is an interesting fellow and one I like very much. The more I learn about his life the more I like his artwork. His name is Marc Chagall. Here are a couple of informative You Tube Videos to give you some additional information about his life.

Marc Chagall

Can you tell me some of the different medium that he worked in? Can you tell me about his religious beliefs from his artwork? What kinds of symbols do you see that would tell you about who he is and where he comes from? You may have to look closely but I bet you will be able to tell.
Video 1
Video 2

Look at how large these paintings are-just beautiful!

Autumn in the Village

Tree of Life 1948

The Blue Circus

Check this Out! A New Twist to Pointillism!

Artist Mary Ellen Croteau- Self-Portrait

I am so inspired by this artist. Taking the mundane and doing something extraordinary-will wonders never cease!  Guess what she used? Can't ? Visti her website and see some more extraordinary photos of this new twist on modern Pointillism. I love this!

Seurat- Color and Pointillism

Eiffel Tower 1889

As we move into our next Art Element of study Color, I am excited for my students to study and interesting artist Seurat. He developed a painting technique called Pointillism. Using dots of colors to fool the eye into thinking it is a mixture of another color. It still exists today in how comics are colored, and anything that has  pixelated color, computers, cell phones, etc. these things build on this artistic way of mixing color.

Georges Seurat

For example: dots of blue and red together trick the eye into thinking it is purple if you are far away from it.  Here is what I mean, look at the picture below I took at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This is Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the bottom picture is a close up of the lower right hand corner of the painting.

                                                                         

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

detail of Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

As you can see from far away your eye is tricked into thinking it is another color when really it is several hues used to make one. Interesting, don't you think?

Please link to the following YouTube to see a 3 min. video all about Seurat and his artwork.  Then go to this video to see a time laps self-portrait done in pointillism- this is super cool!

Edvard Munch

Munch is famous for his painting The Scream. But he was also a great expressionistic painter and painted many other moving paintings. I wanted students to be able to see an artist's work as a whole. Munch created so many works depicting the deep emotional places of life, many of them filled with extremes, such as great love and great loss. This is a great view of the culmination of his life’s work, call The Frieze of Life.

At the website below students will still get a great understanding for this artist, even if they view just a few slides in each section. (warning there is nudity: slides #7, 11, 13, 18, 22) The  wonderful thing about this site is that the notes for each painting are a primary source! Munch’s own words, from his own diaries. I hope you will take time to visit and explore the world according to Munch.

http://www.munch.museum.no/livsfrisen/english/eindex1.htm

This is our artist model as we study the element of light. So much of Munch's work is from a deep place of emotion,  I chose this painting because it offered a bright look at life and the environment around him at the time he painted this picture. Students will be using oil pastels and watercolor washes to paint this picture.

Study of Light, Value and Shading

 Watch the following fun videos on shading. I hope they will inspire you to get out your art box and practice what we have been learning in class! Try different techniques and different mediums. Pens and cross-hatching, Charcoal and smooth blending with your smudge nubs, Sketch pencil and lines. Get creative! What did you like best? What did you find difficult?

Shading shapes into forms- this is awesome!  I hope it will inspire you to practice your shading! This complements what we learned about in class today.                       http://youtu.be/ExRRHY9wT6Q

This is a fun video to watch on how to draw a pumpkin and shade it . Can you see the value scale on the pumpkin?Which direction is the light coming from?

                              Shading a pumpkin http://youtu.be/xJnMK-kSbEo

The Study of Line

Please watch to see this artists work and how it changed over time from representation to abstract. Please be prepared to answer the following questions in class. Do you recognize this artists work? Do you notice anything about the lines this artist uses? Do they change over time? How? Do you like his early work or later work better?

Watercolor Peony

I spent the day yesterday, with a dear friend, watercolor painting. We had a wonderful time together and I wanted to share the results of our day.  My goal was to learn some preliminary things from her and practice before we took a watercolor class together.

I have never taken a watercolor class, so I wanted to learn from Laura whom I admire. Her artistic talent is inspiring and captivating. Not to mention she is a great teacher, wonderful encourage-er and helps me see God's world through a colorful lens! I am so glad we are friends! We had a lovely day together. Once I got over my initial nervousness and the feeling of being awkward and not knowing what I was doing, the paint started to flow. At one point, the feeling of defeat was creeping in around midday and Laura suggested that we start working on our background as a contrast. Boy that did the trick! We both were able to get a better picture of what we were trying to accomplish.  I can't wait for our Kay Barnes Watercolor Class.

This is my first ever, large format watercolor painting, it is 15 x 24.  It was painted from a photograph of a peony, one of my favorite flowers.

A Year in Art

Concentric Circles- Study of Color-11yrs. Old

Paints, smocks, techniques, vocabulary words, museum cards, art paddles, portfolios...my goodness! I am so proud of my art class this year( well I say that every year) but I am feeling a sense of accomplishment and gratitude towards my class.I suppose this is just typical musings of a teacher at the end of another school year, but true none the less. I was inspired by this years class and their attitude and encouragement of one another. They were kind, respectful and supportive of each other and so eager to learn.  Their excitement to learn and try new mediums was infectious too.
     It really made class time fun and relaxing at the end of our co-op day.

Personal Piece-Mixed Media-8yr. old

This year we studied American and European artist and artwork ranging mostly from 1830-1920, along with that, students learned all the Elements of  Art and Principles of Design. We had a great time playing games that solidified our vocab words, techniques, artwork and artists.

Personal Piece- Color Pens-10 yrs. old

Personal Piece- Mixed Media-13 yrs. old

Winter's Stormy Seas- Watercolor-11 yr. old

The artist we covered this year: Gustav Klimt, Vassily Kandinsky, Thomas Cole, Vermeer, Monet, Van Gogh, Frederick Remington, Joseph Turner, along with Navajo Blankets and NW Totem Poles. Students made a personal choice piece as well
and we did two collaborative projects, one in which we sold raffle tickets and donated the money to a family in need at our co-op.Here is some of my classes artwork.

Blue Pear- Study of Monochromatic colors - Acrylics-14 yr. old

Personal Piece- Colored Pencils-8 yrs. old

Marnau St.- Acrylic Paints- 11 yrs. old

Another Catskills Creek-Oil Pastes and Watercolors- 11 yrs. old

Birch Trees-Study of line- Mixed Media-14 yrs old. 

Personal Piece-Oil Pastels- 6 yrs. old

Starry Night-with  oil pastels- 11 yrs. old

Catskills Creek-Mixed Media- 11yrs old

A Waterlily- Study of Texture- Acrylic and Gel Medium-7 yrs. old

With each artist and their work I taught the students a technique, an element, and a design principle or two. It was so gratifying to see their powers of  observation grow. This is one of the most important concepts to enjoying art, in my opinion.  It is also, one of the most difficult for children to practice.  But when they start  to not only look at a painting, but to actually see the painting, something unlocks and the forces of creativity and imagination start to flow. I never grow tired of watching this happen.  Leave a comment I know they would love to be encouraged in their artistic pursuits.