Category Archives: Uncategorized

Earlier this week, I toured a medical software company with some 7th graders at our school.  The hallways are decorated very artistically and contain many works of sculpture and paintings.   For part one of my visit to EPIC, go here! I LOVED this one! A unique sculpture made of computer parts.  Kind of reminds me of Louise Nevelson. Fabric art on the wall This was a celestial hallway.  Yes, this is in the office building! Also in the hallway… … Read more… →

This week, I went on a field trip with some 7th graders at our school.  We toured the EPIC company which makes medical software for hospitals and clinics.  The company has three different locations in the Madison, WI area.  The campus we visited had about 13 different buildings.  Each building has a decorative theme.  There was TONS of artwork from local artists around the buildings.  It was amazing!  There was so much to take pictures of, that I only took … Read more… →

The 1st graders studied the Arctic in their Language Arts/Social Studies class.  In Art class, they chose an animal from the Arctic to depict in a print.  They made impressions on styrofoam printing plates using regular pencils. Then, they inked the plates using a brayer and printing ink.  These lovely prints are the result! Tips:  Set up printing stations and watch a small group print at a time.  The other kids can work on a drawing while some are printing.  … Read more… →

This is a repost from my personal blog! I’ve been having lots of fun with Traci Bautista’s online workshop at Strathmore.  Strathmore has a series of FREE online workshops with videos and pdfs.  If you haven’t heard about it, you should check it out!  The first session was about spraying with stencils, overpainting the stenciled images and adding details with markers.  Here are some of the pictures I am working on.  These still need marker doodles on top, although they … Read more… →

It’s been a great year at Art is Basic.  We’ve made tons of colorful art and expanded our skills.  My blog now has over 300 followers, which is super cool and way more than I ever thought would look at this blog.  I’ve gotten tons of new ideas from Pinterest this year which I highly recommend if you haven’t checked it out yet.  Here is a year-end roundup of some of my most viewed blog posts. Art Teacher Blog DirectoryThis … Read more… →

Once in a while I will share with you some projects that the other teacher in our school is doing.  This one is so cool I had to take pictures for you.  She had her 7th/8th graders embroider using needles, thread and embroidery hoops.  The kids used felt as well to make their designs.  The bottom one here was made into a pillow.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this cool site that has tons of FREE Fonts.  They are all fun and contemporary handwritten fonts.  I thought they would be fun to use when I make up signs for bulletin boards.

In Part One of the Art Elements Review, we worked on Line, Shape, Color and Form.  This post will talk about Part Two, which is Value, Space and Texture. VALUE:  the kids illustrated a value scale with either crayon or pencil SPACE: This was shown through overlap, perspective, positive/negative space, filling the page, etc. TEXTURE: The kids used texture rubbing plates and crayons to show texture. All of these element exercises were on small pieces of paper and we taped … Read more… →

Someone asked how to find my pins on Pinterest: Here they are!  http://pinterest.com/marciabeckett/ I pin lots of things from art teacher, artist and random blogs and online articles.  Here are some of my recent pins. Fun!  Fun!  Fun!!   Don’t you want to be part of this inspirational fun??  (and no I don’t work for Pinterest!)