My second graders recently learned about simple ways to show depth in an artwork. I gave a demonstration on my new document camera and showed them how rivers and roads that go back in space would be wider in the front and narrower in the back. I demonstrated how things that were far in the distance would be smaller than things in the front. The use of overlap is also a way to show depth. I showed the students this … Read more…
This may have been my favorite unit we studied all year! We looked at the whimsical landscapes of contemporary artist Justin Vining. Here is one of his paintings: We watched videos of him talking about his influences, watched time lapses of his paintings and emailed him some questions about himself. He responded to our questions in this interview I posted previously. This was a perfect artist to study for us because Justin lives in Indiana in a rural area and … Read more…
This oil pastel drawing project is inspired by the artwork of Paul Gauguin, in particular his painting Tahitian Landscape. To build up a little enthusiasm, when the kids arrived to class there was an envelope at their seat. I told them to open the envelope and see what was inside. I had printed off pictures of Tahitian Landscape, laminated them and then cut them into puzzle pieces. The kids worked quickly to put together the puzzles. Then, I introduced the … Read more…
Just a few quick pictures of American landscape paintings that the third and fourth graders created. A few summers ago I took a watercolor painting class which was very useful. I used some of the techniques I learned in that class to teach them about how to use the fan brush and sponges to create texture. The kids looked at photographs of landscapes from America and they learned about the Hudson River school of painters.
