Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Jackson Pollock and Salvador Dali

As promised we have been painting in the style of Jackson Pollock and the weather has been cooperating nicely. If your child has come home with paint on his shoes and in his hair or ears, then he definitely got the Pollock technique down pat! It is fun to see how each child uses the same technique in a different way. Some like lots and lots of paint and others use very little.

On Thursday we will learn about Salvador Dali and surrealism. Dali is fascinating with his dreamlike works. We will take the ideas of surrealism and try to capture that in a collage. I can't wait to see what your child creates. If time allows we will play an art game where we compare and identify surrealism and realism in paintings. I love using games in learning.

If you have any art ideas or games or if you see a great art website, let me know about it. I'm always up for learning new things.





Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Weeks 2,3, and 4

Well, I'm a little behind on this venture. But here is what has been going on in art for the last 3 weeks.

We created a shape collage. We looked at rectangles, triangles, squares, circles, ovals, and we were introduced to the trapezoid (a very fun shape).  Then we took only 3 or 4 or 5 shapes and tried to make something real. That meant  that when the teacher or other students looked at it, they could also see the rocket, house, robot, or whatever was created. It was a lot of fun.

The next week we worked on our color wheel. Your student might be able to tell you the primary colors and the secondary colors, as well as which colors mix together to make other colors. The color wheel is always a hit. Who doesn't love mixing and blending colors, right? Some students may have blended more colors than they were told to and thus the color wheel may not be as distinct as it should be. However, the majority of the children did listen and follow directions on this project. That was a big plus!

Part of last week and most of this week we have been working on emulating the abstract style of Hans Hofmann. He loved to paint shapes and fill the canvas with different colors. He especially favored squares and rectangles. So we did a block print painting using warm colors and followed up with a game where we identified warm color paintings and cool color paintings. Your child may or may not tell you about Hans Hofmann, but she should be able to tell you that her painting is an abstract.

The end of this week and the week that we return from fall break we will be doing our "Action" Jackson painting. Painting in the style of Jackson Pollock, we will be outside slinging and dripping and spattering paint. Oh, it will be a blast! We will definitely wear our smocks. If the paint gets anywhere else it should wash out easily. If weather doesn't permit I will substitute another project and we will get back to this one on the first sunny day.

I am enjoying getting to know your child and looking forward to more art adventures.