This month, we have been very busy in the art room. Our Kindergarten classes just recently finished a still life watercolor painting of pears. I’m so impressed with the effort they put into their paintings. You would never know that they have only been in school for only a month!
In first grade, our students have been working on a life size mural of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. We discussed the textures Vincent used in his paintings and his technique using oil pastels and water colors.
The second grade students are in the middle of creating an apple still life similar to the style of Henri Matisse. We are learning how artists use the element of art “value” to illustrate shading and highlights, as well as giving their pictures a three dimensional feel. In addition, we are using the elements of line and shape to create patterns for their paintings.
Our Third grade students are also working on a still life watercolor painting of some seasonal pumpkins. We are learning value scale with the watercolors to make the pumpkins look more 3-d. In addition, we have been learning how artists show overlapping within their paintings by placing one pumpkin part way in front of the other ones.
In fourth grade, some of our students have been working on showing value scales with artist charcoal and blending tools, symmetry, and the use of watercolors. What a beautiful job they are doing with their still life of colored bottles. Others are working on landscapes and how they can make the objects in their pictures look 3-D by overlapping as well as practicing on shading. We have also been working on showing the difference between the foreground, middleground and background.
~Mr. Granucci’s