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.

Week 28

The Belmont Repertory Theater visited Abintra and performed three wonderful takes on old folk tales.

ECA has been studying the work of Ellsworth Kelly, an American minimalistic artist whose sensitivity to color influenced his use of colors, lines, and shapes.  

ECB continues their work with stamping by using fruit such as apples and oranges. 

 

ECC is learning about the Africa and how masks are an important part of their culture.   Children created their masks by pin punching holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth and then used crayons to decorate. A Popsicle stick is added to the bottom of the mask as a handle.

LE continued weaving for their spring project.  They also wrote a Haiku to go with their artwork. 

Nashville-based artist, Jairo Prado,  visited UE to speak about his artistic processes and concepts, as well as his experience working with the Frist Center’s community outreach team and a community group from Conexión Américas on the exhibition Connecting Cultures: Children’s Stories from Across the World.  Jairo collaborated with Abintra students years ago to create this wooden sculpture on campus.

MS is also studying the work of Ellsworth Kelly.  They are creating a collaborative piece influenced by his work. 

Week 27

ECA explores colors, specifically, mixing primary colors to make secondary colors, using an eye dropper and food coloring.

ECB continues to explore the many ways of printmaking by using the end of a celery stalk to make prints. 

 

ECC students asked for blank paper after studying Van Gogh’s "Sunflowers" and "Starry Night". They were given blank paper and watercolor to create whatever they would like with this work.

Artwork by Madeline

LE is kicking off the Spring season by creating a multimedia piece involving weaving, haiku, painting, and collage about what Spring is to them.  This project will take 3 weeks so be sure to check back to see the final piece.

 

ME created collage butterflies as part of their unit on symmetry...in this case, bilateral.  They've combined some of their woven Ojos de Dios, God’s Eyes, with the butterflies just for fun!

 

Middle School studied the nature sculptures of Andy Goldsworthy and watched parts of his documentary, Rivers and Tides.  Over spring break they created their own nature sculptures inspired by his work.

Nature Sculpture by Adam

Aftercare Art students take advantage of this beautiful Spring weather by taking their art outside.  They each picked a spot on campus to do a drawing of.

 

Week 26

LE studied the work of Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt.  They created paintings inspired by his work, The Tree of Life.

"Tree of Life" by Ryder

ME’s final project with bilateral symmetry uses color opposites to create optical effects.

 

To wrap up their study of European Renaissance art, UE took on the challenge of doing a realistic drawing of a live model focusing on capturing the right perspective, proportions, and dimensions.

 

AC kicked off the spring season with these bright and colorful multimedia paintings.

Week 25

EC, along with the upper school classes,  have spent a significant amount of time doodling this year.  You will see this in the up and coming yearbook!  Doodles are often overlooked, but should be seen as integral to the process of an artist.   “For children, doodling is their way of expressing their ideas and showing their perceptions in visual form. It comes from a need to give physical form to one’s thoughts. “  To understand more about the importance of doodling, please read this wonderful article in Smashing Magazine. 

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/03/i-draw-pictures-all-day/

LE studied the work of the Spanish Catalan artist, Joan Miro.  While listening to Spanish music with layers of moods, the students freely drew lines that formed shapes to illustrate what they were feeling . They then painted in the shapes in the style of Miro.

To continue their study of bilateral symmetry, ME created theses letternets.  Letternets are  mirror images of their names written in cursive on a folded paper and then cut out.

ME also visited the Nashville Children’s Theater to see the performance of, The Wind in the Willow.  This production is adapted by Scot Copeland and Paul Carrol Binkley

and based on the book by Kenneth Grahame and the songs of Gilbert and Sullivan.

UE continued their study of European Renaissance art focusing on the human figure drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci.  After reviewing his sketches and drawings, the students practiced drawing each other focusing on perspective, proportion, and dimension.

UE also visited the Nashville Symphony to see the performance of, The Red Violin, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

MS completed their Alexander Calder inspired sculptures.

Week 24

The Nashville Opera brought their performance of Little Red’s Most Unusual Day, an operatic twist on the traditional Little Red Riding Hood story, to Abintra. Upper Elementary Guide Maria (pictured far right) made a cameo as a lumberjack!

ECA friends experimented with clay.  This work helps strengthen the hand muscles for writing and performing practical life activities.

ECB friends reviewed a book of children from different cultures and chose a child to create a paper doll using fabric, glue, and crayons.

ECC friends experimented with watercolor paint by painting Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting, Sunflowers.

 

ME was honored to have the Nashville sculptor, and former Abintra parent, Alan LeQuire, visit their classroom to teach them about sculpting.  He did a demonstration by starting an armature of a student’s head for another student to finish. LeQuire is best known for his colossal sculptures, Athena Parthenos, the largest indoor sculpture in the western hemisphere and Musica, one of the largest bronze figure groups in the world.

ME visited TPAC to see the performance of Baobab.  In Western Africa, under a blazing sun stands a huge and ancient Baobab tree. The Griot tells the legend of the little boy born from this tree. Making wonderful use of African-inspired puppets, costumes, and live music on stage, Théâtre Motus creates a world where one child has the power, and only the village adults can guide him to use it wisely.

UE continued their study of European Renaissance art by creating a realistic painting of an orange using oil paint.

Drawing by Cora

Oil Painting by Seraina

MS started their Calder influenced sculptures.  The majority of students took on the challenge of creating a mobile.