November

Early Childhood A artists are studying leaves.  They made leaf prints by doing pencil rubbings as well as a study of positive and negative space using pin-punching.

Early Childhood B artists were introduced to a new medium, collage.  They created these collages using recycled paint swatches.

Lower Elementary artists continued their study of the elements of design focusing on space the last two weeks.  We discussed the importance of making good use of space when creating their artwork.  To prepare for their classroom study of the planets, LE artists created artwork of "outer space" to illustrate their knowledge of the three elements of design: color, shape, and space.

Middle Elementary artists created these elaborate works in marker using overlapped initials to divide space for pattern making.

Middle Elementary has also been working really hard on their Great Lessons Play which they successfully performed this week.

Upper Elementary is working hard learning their parts for their upcoming Shakespeare play.

Middle School artists explored the elements of design by creating a sculpture out of their name.  Using cardboard, they created these 3D sculptures in their own creative style.

ME, UE, and MS visited TPAC this week to see the performance, Ballet Hispanico.  This performance conveys the vibrancy and passion of the Latino spirit through a fusion of Latin, classical, and modern dance. 

Aftercare artists created these fall trees by blowing black paint through a straw to create tree limbs.  They used daubers to stamp fall leaves around their trees.

by Michaela

Friends in chorus are listening for the beat and tapping along as one continuous beat. They are learning about legato (slow) and presto (fast) beats.

October

Early Childhood Artists were introduced to the work of the American painter, Jackson Pollock.  They created their own Pollock-inspired art by moving a marble dipped in paint around on a piece of paper. One week they focused on using primary colors, and the next week they used secondary colors.

          

LE friends had fun working on their theater project with Christy Berryessa, an Abintra graduate. They prepared their theatrical demonstration of the two African folktales Kitoto the Mighty and Mabela the Clever.

Each student had an important and active role in the theater production. Their practice helped them learn to bring mindfulness to their voices, body language, eye contact and placement relative to the other performers. They learned to project their voices as they retold the stories to an audience. Students had great fun with this project, from acting and staging, to creating props and backdrop.

Kitoto the Mighty by LE 2nd year students

Mabela the Clever by LE 1st year students

Lower Elementary friends have rehearsed their songs for the play with Vanessa. 

They started the plays with an Arabic greeting song and closed the plays with a South African folk song.

 

In preparation for The Great Lessons Play, Middle Elementary artists have drawn a variety of planets with pastel on black paper, and painted large planets to be used as props 

in the performance.

Middle Elementary and Upper Elementary students visited the Nashville Children's Theater to see the production of A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

Upper Elementary students also visit the Nashville Symphony to see the Young People's Concert, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!.  This concert features Stokowski’s arrangement of Bach’s Little Fugue in G Minor, Stravinsky’s Royal March from L’Histoire du Soldat and Ives’ Variations on America.





Middle School Artists have been working on drawings as the result of two September afternoons of "en plein air". As the stark white paper can be inhibiting, they first applied a beautiful tone of pastel pigment to the surface. After discussing various techniques and selecting tools - graphite, charcoal, colored pencil, pastel, and erasers - each chose a quiet location upon the Abintra campus to begin drawing. Students were encouraged to meditate, contemplate, and to strengthen their powers of attention and observation.

by Shira

Aftercare artists have been studying the work of the artists James Rizzi and Joan Miro.  Inspired by their bright and playful work, they created these paintings using watercolor and oil pastel as resist.

 James Rizzi inspired painting by Avery

Miro inspired painting by Zach

Friends in chorus are practicing how to keep the beat together. This exercise encourages active listening to others playing the beat around them and to the metronome while tapping the rhythm sticks or shaking the egg shakers.

September

This week EC, LE, ME, UE, & MS have been working on a Chihuly inspired chandelier to hang at the wine and cheese party.  Be sure to go and see this beautiful collaboration piece in person!

 

  

by Rebecca

August

One of our goals for EC artists is to explore different mediums of art.  This week they explored collage.

LE artists began their study of the elements of design: color, line, shape, space, texture, and form. This week they focused on color by creating a color wheel.  Their palette started with the primary colors:  red, blue, and yellow.  They mixed these colors to create the secondary and intermediate colors.

by Lily

LE musicians started the year off by preparing and personalizing their music folders.   They worked on identifying music notation such as crescendo and decrescendo as Vanessa played a melody on the piano. They also practiced singing in the key of C. In this picture, they are practicing how to sing in their head voice and are creating the arc of the sound with their arm. 

ME, UE, and MS went on a field trip to the Frist to see the exhibitions, Sensuous Steel: Art Deco Automobiles  and  Vik Muniz: Garbage Matters. 

Sensuous Steel: Art Deco Automobiles  

Vik Muniz: Garbage Matters

ME decorated their portfolios with block letters in colored paper and symmetrical totems made by folding their names written in cursive.


by Shreya

UE artists started the year off on the topic of mindfulness.  They were first given a page out of a recycled book. Without reading the page, they were asked to circle words that stand out to them, when thinking about what it means to be mindful.  They then created artwork around the words they circled to make the words stand out. 

 by Serena Thanks to all of Larry's hard work, MS artists have had an exciting start to the year with a new art studio! To start the year off, MS artists were asked to create an album/cd cover for an imaginary band of which they are a member. Before beginning,  they briefly reviewed the elements of design and looked at album art and logo examples. This mixed media project - collage, pencil, colored pencil, watercolor - has engaged their imagination and attention. by Rebecca MS artists have also been exploring the use of their graphite sketching pencils and sketchbooks.  They discussed the importance of value and tone, students created grey scales and practiced the shading of three dimensional shapes. by Ellie Aftercare artists have been focused on the elements of design, making colorful abstract drawings based upon the work of Joan Miró.

With emphasis on the element of texture, aftercare artists have also been constructing mixed media sculptures. Each artist received a cardboard base along with a container filled with similar objects.  The results were varied and imaginative! by Anabel

Week 31

EC's diversity collaboration art is complete.  Every EC student has a piece of their skin color and their personality color incorporated in this work.

LE finished out the year by creating a visual story "quilt" inspired by Faith Ringgold's book, "Tar Beach".  The students started the project  by sketching a make believe place they would fly to if they could fly. They then painted paper to cut pieces to form their make believe places.  They finished off the story by drawing with oil pastels.  Finally they took pieces of pattern paper or fabric to create a quilt like border around their artwork.

ME performed their play, "Where is the Water?".  They told the story of a village in the Azawak region of Sub-Saharan Africa which straddles the border between Mali and Niger and how their lives are enriched by an organization with the goal of making ground water available to as many people as possible in this drought-parched corner of the world.

UE performed their play, "Ding Went the Bell: Life in UE"  and finished the performance off with poetry they had written.  To hear their poetry, go to http://youtu.be/yNRc7SqgoN4.

UE also visited the Frist to see the exhibition, "Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas:  The John Bourne Collection."

MS finished their Ellsworth Kelly Collaboration piece.

MS also spent the last few weeks working really hard to create collages to represent the lessons from the Civil Rights/Heifer Ranch trip.

Week 30

EC has been working with Missy on a collaboration piece about diversity.  The students identify their unique color of skin and mix colors to match.  They also talked about what color represents them and their personality.  They painted one piece of paper to match their skin and another piece of paper to represent their personality.   Missy will take the pieces of paper from all the students and combine it into a one big face painting using the skin colors and a background using their personality colors. Be sure to check back next week to see the final piece!

LE has been discussing Earth Day and the importance of recycling.  Using recycled magazines and paper they created trees inspired by the colorful circles of Wassily Kandisky.

Tree by Lucas

ME continues their three dimensional sculptures by experimenting with cardboard.

UE has been learning about growing plants and herbs in science.  In art, they built and painted planters out of recycled palettes to put their herbs in.

Week 29

ECA has been learning about contrast and balance with abstract art.  They created black and white abstracts modeled in the manner of Cecil Touchon, an American contemporary artist.

ECB is exploring painting with the dyes of tissue paper.  They take a piece of colored tissue paper and place it on their paper.  Then they paint over the tissue paper with just water.  The water releases the dye onto their paper.  The students then take tweezers to remove the tissue paper leaving a colorful abstract painting of blended dyes.

To continue their study of Africa, ECC read the book Anansi the Spider, a tale from the Ashanti.  Influenced by this book and the African culture, they drew a picture of a spider and wove a web out of African print paper.

LE finished their Spring inspired art projects.

ME is experimenting with creating three dimensional environments or sculptures.  They started with paper strip sculptures.  What happens when you experiment with the medium, how can you make it stand by bending, twisting, folding, curling, and slotting?  They talked about scale and about what size creature would enjoy traveling inside, around and on top of their sculpture.  The students labeled their pieces after they were complete, but stayed open to possibility throughout the process.

UE visited and toured the facilities of Casa Azafrán.  They spent some time in the Global Education dance studio learning African dances.

MS continues their collaborative art piece influenced by Ellsworth Kelley.