Tree of Life - Klimt

The Tree of Life, 1905, Gustave Klimt

Cheryl did this hour-long project with a group of sixth-graders last week. Their Klimt-inspired trees were amazing.

materials: construction paper (brown or black), gold metallic paint, white tempera paint, black tempera paint, thick & thin paintbrushes, bowls for the paint

The original lesson can be found on Deep Space Sparkle here. The slideshow Cheryl put together is here - please note that it also contains instructions for the kids on executing the project, which is super helpful and user-friendly.  

Silhouette Art

This fun lesson was created by Cheryl Collins. 

Materials:

Watercolor paper, pencil, brushes, watercolor paint trays, black sharpies, water bowls, paper towels

Presentation:

Check out the slideshow, here. 

Activity:

1. Have the students draw their spooky house or tree, etc. in pencil (this took the most time).

2.  Using black sharpies, have the kids outline the picture. 

3. Paint the background using the watercolors (practical tip: I always remind the kids to blot their brushes on a paper towel so they don't get soggy paper!)

4. Fill in their black outline with sharpie

The kids had a lot of fun doing this lesson - you can also do it without the halloween flair.

Paul Klee and Egypt

The purpose of this lesson is to give children a chance to think critically about two of Paul Klee's grid paintings, Red and White Domes and Legend of the Nile, and to produce a project using his techniques that evokes a feeling of Egypt. This ties a little bit into Egypt units in that it is an art project that focuses on capturing either the heat of the Egyptian desert or the cool of the Nile river.

Using the Paul Klee slideshow, skip through the color wheel slides and focus on the 2 paintings shown above. Give the kids a bit of background info about Paul Klee (1879-1940)- he was Swiss, and never thought he was a very good painter - although now he is considered one of the most important artists of his time. He admired the art of children for its directness and loved using color as his primary language. Also he used symbols that he made up as a way of communicating what he wanted his pictures to say to viewers. Fun fact: during WW1, he had a job painting camouflage on german war planes. Guide a discussion using the VTS technique and talk a bit about each painting: what's going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find? 

Materials:
bowls, brushes, water, watercolor paper, liquid watercolor

-Have the kids make a grid with pencil. Not too many squares or else they will never finish - maybe 5 lines going down and 6 lines across. They don't have to be straight at all. Give them like 15 seconds to do this.

-Then have them think about what they'd like to paint. Do they want to make a picture that is hot/land - using warm colors to evoke the dry desert climate of Egypt? or cool/water - using cool colors to evoke the Nile river? Brainstorm together some symbols related to either: fish, pyramids, hieroglyphics, snakes, boats, etc.

-On top of their grid, with pencil, have them draw some symbols that are meaningful to them related to their choice of water/land.

-Then, if they are land, have them use warm colors alternately to fill in the squares of their grids. if they are water, have them use cool colors. then - at the very end, have them use opposite colors to fill in their symbols.

James Rizzi

Rachelle Smith explored the vibrant and cheery contemporary art of James Rizzi (powerpoint here) with the sixth graders in this fun lesson. Using some simple drawing tips explained in the slideshow, Rachelle asked the kids to draw either people or buildings using bold lines and bright colors. The kids used pastels to draw their pictures, and then filled in with watercolors. 

Polly Jones

Cheryl Collins put together an amazing art lesson for the fifth and sixth grade, using artist Polly Jones' multi-media work as inspiration.

LESSON TIME:55 MINUTES

 

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

WATER COLOR PAPER

PENCILS

RIPPED NEWSPAPER SCRAPS (APPROX 2 INCH) 3 PER STUDENT ALL SHAPES

LIQUID WATER COLOR PAINT( I CHOSE 4 MAIN COLORS AND LET EACH 4 PACK OF STUDENTS TO ADD ONE SPECIAL COLOR LIKE SPARKLY RED)

BRUSHES

WATER DISH

PAPER TOWELS FOR BLOTTING

GLUE

 

1. TO GET STARTED ORGANIZE THE KIDS IN GROUPS OF 4 FOR SUPPLIES.
2. HAVE THE GROUP SEND UP ONE OF THE GROUP FOR PAINT , THEN ONE FOR WATER ...REPEAT UNTIL ALL ARE OUT
3. A COUPLE STUDENTS CAN HAND OUT BRUSHES AND WATER COLOR PAPER
4. HAVE THE STUDENTS WRITE THEIR NAME ON THE BACK
5. PRESENT THE POWER POINT ON POLLY JONES~
6. THE NEXT STEP ~I BROUGHT IN A TENNIS BALL, BASKETBALL AND A PEACH FOR THE STUDENTS TO VISUALIZE LIVE OBJECTS AND TALKED ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED POLLY JONES( REAL LIFE OBJECTS)
7. THE STUDENTS THEN CAME UP WITH THEIR OWN ROUND OBJECT FOR EASE ....A DIFFERENT FRUIT OR SPORT LIKE SOCCER OR BASEBALL
8. THEY THEN DREW A LINE ACROSS THE PAGE HORIZONTALLY ( TO REPRESENT A COUNTER)
9. THE NEXT STEP WAS TO DRAW THEIR OBJECT ON THE COUNTER
10. THEN THEY TOOK THE NEWSPAPER(WHICH REPRESENTS DAILY LIFE)AND GLUED PIECES TO THE COUNTER AND ON THE OBJECT. MAKE SURE THEY GLUE WELL ...AL EDGES SHOULD BE DOWN
11. THEN THE NEXT STEP WAS TO USE THE LIQUID WATER COLOR AND PAINT THEIR OBJECT. THEY WILL PAINT THE NEWSPAPER TOO!
12. THE STUDENTS THEN COULD CHOOSE A DIFFERENT COLOR  FOR THE BACKGROUND...

 

AFTER DOING THIS PROJECT AND USING LIQUID WATER COLOR FOR THE FIRST TIME...YOU COULD USE THE WATER COLOR SETS, BUT THE LIQUID IS MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE AND FAST I THINK. IT IS SCARIER FOR SPILLS, BUT WE DID WELL IN BOTH MY CLASSES AND HAD NO INCIDENTS:)

  

Powerpoint is here.

Op-Art

Artist Bridget Riley (slideshow here) was Rachelle's inspiration in creating this pen-and-ink experience. It was a hit - the kids enjoyed creating this optical illusion so much that many of them continued to experiment with making these drawings on their own after the lesson.

Note: within Rachelle's slideshow is a lot of information on op-art, as well as a detailed step-by-step that really walks you exactly how to do this project. Awesome.

Materials: paper, fine tip black sharpies, or black ball point pens

Whistler: Moody Nightscapes

Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights, 1874

Nocturne, 2012 - sixth grade

Supplies: watercolor paper, liquid watercolor (make sure and grab the gold!), brushes, foam brushes (you know, those rectangle ones), little plastic bowls for paint and water, salt (there are 8 small salt containers in the art cabinet).

Slideshow here... and below, information to go along with it. I put lots of stuff in here so feel free to omit/simplify as needed.

James McNeill Whistler was one of the famous american expatriate artists of the nineteenth century. Born in Massachusetts in 1832, he was raised mostly outside the United States as his father was an engineer who built railroads around the world. The family lived in Russia when he was a boy, and the winters were very cold. He often got sick and had to soak his feet in hot water. Instead of complaining about not being allowed to play, he used the time to draw picture after picture of his feet, until he could do it perfectly. 

He came back to America for college, where he attended the exclusive military academy West Point. Whistler did horribly in all subjects related to science and war, but flourished in his art classes. After being kicked out of West Point at the end of his third year (apparently due to a particular disaster in his chemistry class) he moved to Paris to take art classes, and finally settled in London.

One of his most famous paintings is of his mother, Harmony in Grey and White but commonly known just as Whistler's Mother. (Fun fact: this painting is currently valued at 30 million dollars). It's so famous that it's often parodied (see motorcycle slide)

Whistler loved music, and said this: "Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick and choose… that the result may be beautiful – as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos glorious harmony."   

We discussed how when you take music lessons, you start by learning the notes and the scales. These notes work together to either make harmonies (sounds that sound nice to your ear) or dissonance (when the sounds clash together). In the same way Whistler sought to make his art harmonious, arranging his "musical notes" - color, and form, and composition - to make his paintings beautiful. If you look at Whistler's Mother, you can see this harmony (he used mostly greys, whites, and blacks, and the picture is perfectly balanced in its composition). Compare it to the next slide, Woman with a Hat, by Matisse. You can see how this painting is deliberately not harmonious, especially compared to Whistler's. It might be fun to have the kids compare/contrast the two paintings, bringing out the point that different artists use the SAME colors, brushes, paints, even shapes - and yet through the way they choose to use these elements can achieve wildly different paintings.  Just like how musicians use the same notes, keys, etc. and yet can create wildly different sounds depending on how the composer arranges the notes.

This activity focuses on the moody, harmonious landscape paintings he did, called Nocturnes. A nocturne is a musical composition inspired by night. (You might want to play Debussey's Claire de Lune or Chopin's Nocturnes for the kids as they paint...I have a CD you can borrow.) Included in the slides are: Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, painted in 1875, Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (more fireworks!), Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights and Nocturne in Blue and Green. Whistler had a friend who lived by the water. They had a deal that whenever the night weather was just right for his paintings, he'd knock on their door and their sons would row Whistler out onto the Thames river and he'd paint right there, his canvases laid flat on the floor of the boat.

Activity:

1. Using pencil, have the kids draw a straight line across their paper to indicate the horizon (the line that separates sky and ground). If they want they can put in some buildings or trees or a bridge (for a good simple example, look at the Blue and Silver Nocturne - the last slide.) Stress to keep the shapes of these things SUPER SIMPLE. Like rectangles or squares or triangles. Any detail really won't be visible once they paint, and they'll run out of time if they worry about windows, doors, etc. at this point. Then have them draw the reflection of these simple shapes right below, mirrored/upsidown.

(this is a good example of SIMPLE)

2. After this step have them use the foam brushes to quickly wet their entire paper (this will help the paint absorb into the paper and spread more easily). Then, have them use the watercolors and paint the night sky/river. Encourage them to choose a color family for their painting (I set out bowls of purple/blue or blue/green, plus the gold) to mimic Whistler's tonalism. Point out how they can play around with how vibrant the colors are by using more/less water, and when their paint is wet, they can add the salt to make an interesting texture/bubbled effect.

3. Whatever is at the horizon will be the darkest part of their painting. Have them wipe any water off their brushes and use the undiluted watercolors, mixing the two colors together (purple + blue, or blue + green) to make a dark color to paint their buildings, etc.

4. Once this dries for a couple of minutes, add the gold lights. You might want to point out in the last slide how the lights at Whistler's horizon are like little gold blobs - and the reflections are right below, like blobs pulled down (this probably won't make sense unless you are looking at the slide :) ). Lights, fireworks, it's all fun.

(note the effect of the salt to the left and right of the hand)

(this student decided to just make a simple gold bridge rather than a reflection. Again, the salt effect in the sky above the bridge)

Animals Everlasting: Egyptian Animal Mummies

Slideshow here

Background Information from this really interesting article from National Geographic:

In 1888, and Egyptian farmer working his field uncovered thousands of mummified cats. Since then Egyptologists have found many, many examples of mummified animals - some buried in mass graves, some tucked away in the splendid tombs of the pharoahs themselves - which have taught us much about the daily lives and beliefs of Egyptians. Many animals were tucked into the tombs of pharoahs as companions - pets in life and in death. Some of the animal mummies were intended as food for the human mummies in the afterlife (cows, ducks, geese, and pigeons). Others symbolized egyptian gods - like bulls - or were considered inherently magical. One example of a magical animal is the crocodile (see the crocodile in the slideshow). Egyptians noticed that they always laid their eggs above the waterline of the Nile before flood season, so they became symbols of the water god of fertility and were very special offerings.

How did the Egyptian priests mummify animals? They snipped out all the internal organs except for the heart (mummies always keep their hearts), and then filled the cavities with natron, a kind of salt, packed in linen bags, to dry out the animal. Then they used palm wine to clean out the internal cavities where the organs were, and frankincense to seal the incision and perfume the corpse. After a drying out period in the hot and dry egyptian air (between 6-12 months), the animal was wrapped in bandages, with magical spells drawn on them to protect the creature on its voyage into the afterlife.

(This discussion ended up being lots of fun because I played egyptian music in the background (I will put the cd in the art closet, by the books on the second shelf), put on a goofy dress-up crown, and then used a beanie baby panda bear to demonstrate the mummification process described above. I will put the cut-open panda, plus his cotton entrails, the little bag of salt, and the wrappings in the closet next to the cd if anyone wants to use it)

Art Activity

materials: school glue & a handful of little bowls, clay, markers, and a 5" strip of rolled gauze or cheesecloth. Put a little bowl of glue (like with only a tablespoon) out for every 4 students to share (or, you could put it on a paper towel, on a tray)

Have the students use a tiny bit of clay to make a very simple animal shape. Truly, the simpler, the better - like, a body (without limbs, really) and a head. (This took us about 10 minutes)

(tip: to connect the body and the head it is useful to show them how to score the connecting ends (rough up the clay) before smushing them together, like this: (i used my nail to scratch the clay)

When they finish their shapes, pass out the gauze strips. They should wrap the animal as tightly as they can, stretching the gauze so it gets really thin. Then they can use their finger to get a tiny bit of glue, and rub it on the end of the wrapping, and on any parts of the gauze that stick out to smooth it down. (This was the most difficult part of the project - it takes a little bit of patience and smoothing to get the bandages flat).

When the glue dries (if they don't use so much, it should only take a few minutes), they can use their markers to decorate the wrapping with designs, etc. It would also be cool to use gold paint if you have time.

Day of the Dead Skull Project

image via art projects for kids

Here's a link to a great October project, and a powerpoint presentation is here.

Day of the Dead Historical Background: Celebrated Nov. 1 & 2 in the hispanic culture, the Day of the Dead is a gathering holiday about celebrating loved ones who have passed away. Traditions include making private family altars and decorating with orange marigolds. A common symbol of the day is the skeleton – often decorated with elaborate patterns, or dressed up in a humorous way.

This art lesson focuses on the idea of decorating a skull. In addition to making a symmetrical pattern, students will practice facial proportion.

Materials: black construction paper, pencil, white or silver sharpie, cardboard skull template

1. Pass out skull template. Using the last slide in the powerpoint presentation, discuss how eyes are in the middle of the head (not up on the forehead, where people tend to want to draw them), and how the nose is halfway down from there, and the mouth halfway down from the nose. Have kids pencil in the facial features.

2. Once these are in place, pass out the sharpies and have them outline those, and begin their patterns. Encourage them to make them symmetrical: if a flower is on one side of the face, see if you can mirror it on the opposite side. Other ideas are dots and swirls.

3. Then let the kids go for it! The contrast of the white or silver sharpie against the black construction paper makes these look so great.

VARIATION: Collage Skulls

materials: construction paper, cardboard skull template, scrapbook/collage papers with patterns/colors, glue, (optional - tissue paper flowers)

1. Pass out skull template. Point out how eyes are in the middle of the head not on forehead. Have kids trace template onto patterned paper, cut, and glue to their large piece of construction paper.

2. Have them cut and glue onto their skull eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Then let them go to town adding whatever else they want to bling up their skull. 

Keith Haring

Keith Haring - adapted from the Deep Space Sparkle blog art lesson and The Keith Haring kids website by Pam Wilkinson

• Go over the Keith Haring biography http://www.haringkids.com/lessons/envs/live/htdocs/khbio.htm I added a few more facts. 1. Even at age 1 years old, Keith would draw with crayons. 2. Keith loved Walt Disney, Dr. Suess, and Charles Schultz's cartoons (especially Charlie Brown). 3. His subway drawings were done with chalk. He started with pyramids, flying saucers, human figures, winged figures, television sets, animals and babies. 4. Kieth would add rays all around with drawing figures. This became his signature.
• If possible, have the teacher go to the Keith Haring kids website, http://www.haringkids.com/master_k_life.htm and click on the art link to show some of his work (posters) and flipbooks (the kids loved this). Or go to http://www.keithharingart.com/ to print out some examples before the lesson or have the teacher show some work using their computer/overhead. You might also want to show the kids some picture of the artist http://www.haringkids.com/master_k_life.htm under the Keith link, snapshots/funny friends.
• Supplies- white paper and markers
• Using the example from Deep Space Sparkle blog, have the students create action figures drawing. Show them an example of creating the simple action figures. http://deepspacesparkle.blogspot.com/2008/04/keith-haring-rocks.html

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch~The Scream

(lesson created by Pam Wilkinson)

• Munch is one of the most well known artists of Expressionism. Expressionism is the cultural movement initially in poetry and painting, orginating in Germany at the start of the 20th century. Artists sought to express the meaning of being alive and emotional experience rather than physical reality. His works are a great example of this type as shown in the intense emotion in his subjects facial expressions.
• He was born on Dec 12, 1863 in Loton, Norway
• Edvard was the son of an Army Medical Corps Doctor and the 2nd of 5 children
• He was influeneced by 2 older friends who were into Norwegian Art Scene, and were painting based on French naturalism
• In 1880, he decided to become a painter and left his egineering studies and enrolled at the Royal School of Design in Kristiania, even though his family was not in love with his idea of becoming a painter.
• In 1881, he attended Royal School of Drawing
• In 1889, Edvard arranged his first one-man show at the Student Association in Kristiania.
• He traveled a lot to learn from rich painting traditions.
• His work was poorly received by critics at first
• Scream - 1893- The Scream symbolizes human angst (which means anguish, torment, anxiety, trouble, worry or fear). He painted 2 versions (one pastel and one a lithograph)
• Story of the Red Sky in the Scream painting. In Munch's personal diary, he wrote the following to explain how he felt, "I was walking along a path with 2 friends-the sun setting-suddenly the sky turned blood red. I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence-there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature." The reddish sky in the background of his Scream painting was probably inspired by the aftermath of a very powerful volcanic eruption on the island of Krakotoa (now Indonsia) in 1883. It was one of the most voilent volcanic explosion on modern times and created the loudest noise historically recorded. The ash that ejected from the volcano left the sky tinted red in much of the eastern United States and most of Europe and Asia from Nov 1883 to Feb 1884. (Here's a link to an interesting article about that, connecting it to the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland)
• Art Thefts- The Scream has been the target of a couple of high profile art thefts. In 1994, the same day of the opening of the 1994 Winter Olympis, four men broke into the National Gallery and stole the painting, leaving a note saying, "Thanks for the poor security". It was recovered several months later. In 2004, a different version of the scream painting was stolen from the Munch Museum, but was recovered in 2006. It sustained some damage and had to undergo some restoration.
• Munch died in 1944. He willed all his property and over 1,000 paintings and close to 20,000 sketches, woodcuts and lithographs to the city of Oslo, Norway. The city opened the Munch Museum in 1963.
  

Supplies- white drawing paper and colored pencils

Activity- show the students a picture of the scream painting. Talk about the simple lines and expression of the face. Talk about how the scared face looks similar to popular holloween costume mask and the Home Alone movie boy character. Have the students either draw the scream painting or instead of the red sky, have them incorporate something they might be scared of instead of the red sky. Show them how to draw the simple face (like a light bulb). Many students decided to draw something that scares them instead of the red sky. Some examples include bats, snakes, the dark, clowns, etc...

Family Fun's Van Gogh

This is from February 2010's issue of Family Fun magazine - it looks like a fun activity (albeit quite time intensive... probably this would need to be spread out over a couple of art sessions). If you need a slideshow to go along with this, click on the George Kelly Slideshare link for the Van Gogh presentation; additional historical background can be found in the other Van Gogh lesson(s) in this link.

Family Fun Henri Matisse

I found this in February 2010's issue of Family Fun magazine and thought it might be a fun, low key project. Click on the picture for a larger image (which you can print), and if you need images for a slideshow presentation, click over to the George Kelly slideshare site and use the Matisse presentation. You can also find more information on the life of Matisse if you click on on this Matisse lesson link.

Blue Dog Art

This is a great lesson worked up by Pam Wilkinson, who did it for the sixth graders.

George Rodrigue-- A Cajun Artist

History on the artist:

* Recent Artist- Born in 1944
* Born in Louisiana
* Had polio as a child and was bedridden for months. He took up painting and drawing to pass the time in bed.
* His talent was recognized immediately and was encouraged by his parents and teachers to pursue a career in art.
* George went the University of Southwest Louisiana, and then later went to Los Angeles to continue his studies at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.
* He created his own brand of pop art, but felt he needed to return to Louisiana to express something of his Cajun background into his art.
* Once back in Louisiana, he started painting the bayou landscapes and established the oak tree as a symbol of the Cajun world and placed the oak tree in many of his paintings.
* He was invited to illustrate a collection of Cajun ghost stories. George painted his late dog, "Tiffany" as the dark creature of the tale of the "Loup-Garou", also known as an evil werewolf. He developed the story of the Blue Dog and the Blue Dog became a hit. His painting interpretation of the Blue Dog in the ghost story was originally an eerie blue white pale grey dog with bright red eyes. Over time, the Blue Dog became more friendly with a bright blue color and yellow eyes.
* If you were to visit New Orleans, Louisiana, today the Blue Dog image is everywhere! There are three Blue Dog galleries: one in New Orleans on Royal Street, one in Carmel, California and one in Aspen, Colorado. There is also a Blue Dog Cafe in New Orleans.
* George's pop art style is similar to Andy Warhol with very bright and vivid colors.
* He also has done many celebrity portraits like Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Whoopi Goldberg and Cher. He also has done many local celebrities like the great Cajun chef, Paul Prudhomme. In this particular painting, George used some humor by paining Paul under an oak tree with a huge apple on his head to portray Paul's recent visit to New York (the Big Apple).
* Unlike Van Gogh, George has been successful in his lifetime with his paintings. His original paintings start at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
* He has also painted hurricanes in a very abstract pop art feel.


George Rodrigue featured on CBS Sunday Morning News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp_UhYOhulA&feature=player_embedded

George Rodrigue's official website:
http://www.georgerodrigue.com/rodrigue/index2.htm

Blue Dog painting examples:
http://www.georgerodrigue.com/originalbluedogpage/originalbluedogs.html

Examples of his hurricane paintings:
http://www.georgerodrigue.com/originalhurricanes/originalhurricanes.html


Art Lesson:
have the students create their own "Blue Dog" by using a pencil first to create a very simple outline of a dog and then use oil pastels. The dog can be any color. (many of the students created purple, orange, pink and green dogs). Show them that faces are not perfect; not even their own faces. For example, ears are not perfectly shaped or even in the exact same location.