Artist Studies-The Floral Kind

Spring=Flowers, am I right?  After winter we're all ready for a little bloom and pop of color, and the idea that summer is so very near (I heard there's only 31 day of school left).  

1st graders took on Van Gogh's,  Red Poppies and Daisies.  I think they darn well rocked it.  This two day lesson certainly blew my socks off.  The students loved making their textured and patterned backgrounds using foam rollers and funky brushes.  And who knew saying the word "poppies" over and over in 1st grade is soooo fun?!!?

3rd graders explored the world of Georgia O'Keeffe, I was inspired by this lesson.  Before I go any further, let's talk about "analogous" colors....and how painful it is for students to try and remember what (and how to pronounce) the word.  As long as they can tell me what they are and how to find them on the color wheel--we're golden! 

Anywho, if your school happens to have access to BrainPop there is a pretty awesome one on Georgia O'Keeffe and the kids will pretty much BEG you to take the quiz at the end.   

  

All right, this lesson here I WAS SO EXCITED about, but it kind of seemed to be a bust.  We win some, we lose some I guess...but boy do I hate losing.

We started by looking at this painting by Renoir: 

Students drew beautiful tulips in their vase and we outlined them with glue.  I'm kind of over oil pastels for the year--I'm just sick of using them for this school year, and for pete's sake who keeps taking all the black's and white's???!!  So I experimented with soaking chalks in sugar water and absolutely loved it, but the result didn't really transfer over that well with the 2nd graders.  I probably should have stuck with the oil pastels, but if this lesson wouldn't have flopped I would have never known! The more you know.  

I have two classes that are a little behind on this project so I think I'll go ahead and try out the oil pastels...I'll share those results later.

I'm yet to see the sun in the sky this week.  I know the clouds are doing their job to bring us our pretty spring flowers, but I need a little sunshine.  The second I see the sun, you'll know where to find me.

2nd Grade Van Gogh Sunflowers

Have I mentioned that Spring is blooming in the hallways? It's pretty awesome between the classroom teachers and the artwork I've done with the students the HALLWAYS are filled.  It's so fun to walk down the hallway (in this particular school there are two forever long WHITE hallways) and see them filled with lots of color.  I also love overhearing students talking about other students artwork, it's fun to hear the Art Criticism they do on their own without even realizing it. 

Here's a lesson I did with 2nd graders.  I found the inspiration for this lesson here.  We started off the lesson by drawing the vase all together and dividing the table from the background.  I gave them different sizes of circles to trace 6 to be used as the center of the flower.  That was all the drawing we did.  I then handed out to each table a copy of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  Students were to look at the painting to determine what colors to use with oil pastels. The focus here was seeing color. As you can see some students stayed true to the painting and others decided to do their own thing.  It is fun to see how everyone interprets the same image differently and you can clearly see that here.

5th Grade Van Gogh Irises

It's the first day of April, and as I sit in my classroom listening to the students yell "April Fools" in the hallway two thoughts come to mind: 

1.  Surprisingly enough it's April and there is a chance of snow later this week.

2. There are only two months left of school! Woo Hoo! (Every teacher loves summer)

Well hopefully the same yields true for April SNOW showers bringing May flowers?

Nonetheless, cold or springtime the hallways are blooming with color.

Here is a lesson done by 5th graders.  I love teaching about artists and art history, but I try not to get carried away or we won't get to any art making.  With this in mind I try to talk about the same artists from year to year, but having our focus be on a different piece then before.  I find this helps with the sequential learning process of students retaining information about the artist and the movement they were part of from year to year.  So we talked a little bit about Vincent Van Gogh, but looked at a painting most students had never seen unlike that of Starry Night.

Our focus was on The Irises.  I showed students how to draw an Iris and required them to have 5-7 on their paper.  Then we went to painting.  For the petals I gave students pinks, blues, purples, and white.  As students painted they were to keep in mind Van Gogh's iconic brushwork.  Next students used white and yellow for the flower centers and move on to green, yellow, and white for the stems and leaves. The ground was painted with yellow, brown, white, and a little bit of gold (I love an excuse to use gold).  I had students use the paints in this order so we didn't have to rinse out brushes and maybe we'd get some of the results of Van Gogh's optical mixing.  I did let students get a new brush or clean it out for the background.  I let students choose the colors they wanted to do on the background, while keeping in mind if there flowers were all blue it wouldn't be a good idea to paint the sky blue.  As you can expect my example was done with oranges and reds so most students went down that road, but not all.

I am very pleased with the results and the students really seemed to enjoy the project.  I think the students liked to have the time to just paint and paint where they wanted.  Our last few projects required a lot of specific thinking and directions, so I think this was a nice break.

Here's to hoping for warm weather of Spring and Summer, but chances are in 3 months I'll be longing for snowy day when I'm sick of the 90 degree heat.  But as my 4th grade teacher would tell me about Nebraska, "If you don't like the weather just wait 15 minutes."

4th Grade Van Gogh Sunflowers

Spring has sprung (in the art room). Flowers and colors are filling the drying racks and shelves.  Well, I mean there are always plenty of colors in here as you can usually see the color of my pants illuminating through the hallway. BUT I think we are all ready for a little green to start showing through.  

This is a lesson I did with 4th graders last year.  I LOVED it so I tried it again this year.  We talked about Vincent Van Gogh and looked at his "Sunflowers" painting.  The first day of the lesson was dedicated to drawing.  Students went ahead and drew a vase and 5-6 flowers using a white oil pastel.  I then gave students yellow paint to fill in the flowers.  I came around with some white to put on top of the yellow.  WITHOUT rinsing out paintbrushes I gave them some green paint for the stems and leaves and finally some brown paint for the centers.

On the second day we reviewed Warm and Cool colors. Using oil pastels (in the short brushstroke way like Van Gogh used) students filled in the vase, table, and background with oil pastels.  Most of the students finish in two days some needed a little more time at the beginning of the next class. 

They all turned out beautifully.