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Category Archives: collage

Abstract Shape Collages and Artist Reggie Laurent

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Abstract painting with colorful, irregular shapes and patterns. Artist Reggie Laurent's influence is evident in the vibrant abstract shape collages.

Reggie Laurent:  Contemporary Artist Reggie Laurent is a self-taught artist living in Georgia.  He creates very intricate abstract shape paintings.  I saw his paintings online and I was immediately drawn to all of the fun patterns and colors. My first graders learned about his abstract pictures. They are filled with lots of different shapes, fitted together like a puzzle.  His artworks are highly detailed and very colorful. Student Shape Collages The students learned about and used organic (freeform) and geometric shapes … Read more… →

Chicks at School

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Handmade art of three yellow chicks with feathers on paper, ideal for school projects or classroom decoration.

We have some chicks at school.  Chicks, like baby chickens. One of the science teachers taught the kids about the life cycle of chickens and the kids watched as the eggs were incubated and hatched. They grow so quickly! With all the excitement of the hatching chicks, the students were thrilled to create some chick artwork.  Here is a mural/bulletin board that students in grades 2-3 worked together on. Next, we did a step-by-step project in kindergarten to make a … Read more… →

Why I Love Collage

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A collage of various objects and patterns, featuring watermelon slices, oranges, and the word "awesome" in the center.

Collage became a part of Modern art in the early 20th century. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were credited with naming this type of art. The word collage comes from the French word coller, which means to glue. Collages can be made of many materials.  I have an assortment of student collages to show you. Collage art is unique because you take already existing materials and arrange them into a new art form. Collage is all about playing around with … Read more… →

Paul Klee Castle Collage

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Colorful abstract collage of a whimsical cityscape with geometric buildings, clouds, and a castle against a white background.

Paul Klee was an important painter in the history of modern art.  I have always been drawn to his colorful, abstract pictures.  Children can relate to the simple geometric shapes and bold colors.  His art has been related to Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism. Swiss artist Paul Klee painted the Castle and Sun with simplified shapes, but viewers can easily see the way the shapes form a castle or city-like scene.  For this lesson, we are going to paint colorful swatches … Read more… →

Art Project for Dot Day

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Dot Day Art Projects

Another Dot Day has come and gone.  I’ve seen lots of dot projects all over the internet already.  Here is what my kindergartners made this year.  You can read all of the lesson details on this previous blog post.  I didn’t do Dot Day with all of my classes, because I did a big Dot Day thing last year.. which you can see all of our fabulous artwork on last year’s blog post.  If you don’t know, International Dot Day … Read more… →

Hybrid Machine-Animal Drawings

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Illustration of a tree figure and a green bear with a water gun, labeled "Hybrid Machine-Animal Drawings.

After looking at the art of contemporary artist Nicolas Lampert, my students combined two or more different objects or creatures to create hybrid drawings.   Here are the steps to this lesson: 1.  Start by discussing the machine animal collages and the machine insect collages by Nicolas Lampert.  Ask questions such as” How do you think Nicolas made these pictures? How do they make you feel? Why do you think he combined animals or insects with machines? How would these … Read more… →

Notan Cut Paper Designs: Third Grade

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Nine square-shaped Notan designs on a white background, each in a different color and unique pattern.

I have several art lessons that I did not post about yet from this past school year, so look forward to a few more art project ideas this summer.  This lesson is fairly simple to prepare for and teach.  “Notan” is the term used by the Japanese to mean “light/dark” space.  We can also learn about positive/negative space through Notan designs.  My third graders studied Asia this year in their Social Studies class, so this was a nice tie-in. To … Read more… →

Emily’s Blue Period – Personal Collages for 3rd Graders

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Collage with robot, bamboo, and various elements like tickets, alphabet print, 1989 dates, and swimming certificates.

Our school librarian introduced this book to me and I think it is such a sweet story.  This book is called Emily’s Blue Period by Cathleen Daly.  The illustrations are lovely. This is a story about Emily, whose parents are divorcing and now she has two homes.  She goes through her own “blue period” of sadness. Emily was learning about Pablo Picasso, his Blue Period and his collages in her art class.   Her art teacher asks the class to … Read more… →

Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

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Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

Every year, my 5th/6th grade class carves rubber stamps with symbols they have designed.  This year, we stamped extra prints on tissue paper with acrylic paint to make collaborative artworks.  To stamp, simply use a foam brush to lightly paint acrylic paint on the stamp. Then, the tissue papers were decoupaged (with hard-finish Mod-Podge) on these fun triangular canvases called Squangles.  These are going to be put in our school auction at the end of the year.  We made three … Read more… →

A Page of Hearts (Valentine’s Pictures)

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A Page of Hearts (Valentine’s Pictures)

Valentine’s Day is coming!  Are you looking for a fun heart project idea to try with your kids?  This challenge for my 3rd graders was to design 9 different hearts.  I used this project with a substitute teacher earlier this week when I was home with sick kids.  The students received a photocopied grid and they were challenged with drawing hearts in each rectangle and designing them in unique ways and to try a variety of materials.. these were made … Read more… →

Learning about Patterns, Shapes and Henri Matisse

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Learning about Patterns, Shapes and Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse is one of my favorite artists.  I love his bold colors and beautiful shapes.  While teaching about patterns, painting, collage and shapes, I recently introduced his artwork to my kindergarteners and 1st graders. First, we learned about his artwork through this Henri Matisse presentation.  We also read the book called Oooh! Matisse, which is a fun, colorful book (but not very informative about his artwork.)  The book is good for discussing and thinking about the shapes in his … Read more… →

Art with Words | 1st Grade

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Art with Words | 1st Grade

The 1st graders looked at the art of Stuart Davis and read some of the words, letters and numbers in his artwork.  They analyzed his pictures and tried to figure out why he might have included text in his art.  I teach about him every year and the kids create artwork with letters and numbers.  You can see the ones we made last year at with this  blog post. This year the students wrote words in an artistic way and … Read more… →

Mixed Media Self Portraits by 3rd Grade

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Mixed Media Self Portraits by 3rd Grade

My students made self portraits with construction paper, tissue paper and paint. This project is always a hit with the kids and parents.  I love it because it involves lots of good art concepts such as color mixing with paints, shades and tints, proportion, facial details and collage techniques. We start by creating the background with tissue paper and paint.  The kids are encouraged to experiment with color mixing.  I demonstrate how to make colors lighter by adding white and … Read more… →

Penguin Collage Paintings with Kindergarteners

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Penguin Collage Paintings with Kindergarteners

Thank you, Patty Palmer, for this fun penguin collage project idea! We used paint dotters to paint the backgrounds instead of paintbrushes (and I also didn’t get out all the extra collage supplies because so much of our stuff is in storage right now), but otherwise, you can see the steps on Patty’s website.

Creating a Collage with a Preschooler (My Little Pony!)

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Creating a Collage with a Preschooler (My Little Pony!)

What did I do on our two “cold” days off school this week?  Well, besides snuggling under the warm covers and working on some school work, my 4 year old and I made some canvas collages for her bedroom. While I would not necessarily recommend this for a project in an art class, I see no problem introducing appropriation in the context of Pop Art.  After all, Andy Warhol used cartoons in his famous art.  I observed a really awesome … Read more… →

  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.