January

Early Childhood artists studied the work of Piet Mondrian.  They learned that during his time, Mondrian’s friends liked to paint landscapes but he liked to paint lines and shapes using the primary colors. 

Early Childhood A artists have had tissue paper collage work on their art shelf. Some of them decided to frame their work.

Early Childhood B artists combine gluing within lines and order of colors of the rainbow to wrap up their color wheel art.

Lower Elementary artists kicked off the winter with a painting of birch trees.  This project was a review of the 6 elements of design. They used masking tape to "shape" the trees and limbs on white paper. They were careful of how they used the "space" when making their trees and branches.  They painted over the whole paper with cool "colors".  They then removed the tape exposing the white paper and "forming" the trees.  They then used "lines" to create "texture" in the trees.  .

Birch trees by Beckett

Lower Elementary artists studied the work of nature sculptor, Andy Goldsworthy.  They created their own Goldsworthy inspired sculpture out of nature founded on campus. They then created frames out of nature for the photographs of their sculptures. 

Middle Elementary artists designed mini flags for their own imaginary countries. They discussed the many symbolic meanings of color and continued to experiment with 
color mixing.

Middle Elementary also created gratefulness mandalas usually colored pencils.  

Upper Elementary artists studied "Pandora's Box" by Odilon Redon, a piece in the NationalGallery Art Collection.  The students created their own box to illustrate a feeling of their choice.

Visiting artist, Asher Wood, gave Upper Elementary a brief history of encaustic paintings and it's relevance during the Industrial Revolution. Asher did a demonstration and then walked the students through creating their own encaustic painting.

Upper Elementary also visited the Frist to see the exhibition of American Chronicles:  The Art of Norman Rockwell.

Middle School artists studied the self-portraits of Paul Gauguin, then created their own.  They will have the opportunity to see some of his portraits in the National Gallery of Art during their trip to DC.   Gauguin’s challenge when painting self-portraits is to show his many sides.  Some of his portraits are realistic; some are more abstract using symbolism. Middle School artists had the choice to create their own self-portrait realistically or symbolically. 

Self-portrait by Rebecca