WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE ART ROOM??: Mar 19, 2013

2nd Grade Matisse Collage

The 2^nd Grade students learned about the life and artwork of Henri Matisse. Students learned that Matisse loved to use his scissors to make various shapes overlapping to create a collage. He rarely threw any scraps away. Students learned the difference between positive and negative space. Students also learned the difference between geometric and organic shapes. The students created a collage with many overlapping geometric and organic shapes using the positive and negative images just like Henri Matisse did!

4th Grade Chuck Close Portraits

The 4^th grade students learned about the artist Chuck Close. His first paintings were called Photo Realism because they looked like they could have been black and white photographs. Chuck Close ended up having a spinal collapse, which paralyzed him from the neck down. He had such a passion for art that he wanted to continue but he had to totally change his style because he could not longer grip a paintbrush. He went through a lot of therapy to finally get motion back in his arms. Because he cannot grip a paintbrush he has a glove that he Velcro’s a brush to the top of his hand. He is not able to get the fine detail like he used to so he changed his painting style an impressionism style. He uses grids and overlaps different color circles and hearts inside each square to create some really interesting portraits of people. The students had to create a grid overlapping on a photo of their self. Then they used colored pencil to create overlapping circles in each square to complete a piece of art in Close’s Impressionism style.

5th Grade Picasso Portraits

The 5^th grade students learned about the artist Pablo Picasso through a power point. Picasso was born in Spain and has become one of the world’s most famous artists. The students were able to see the progression of his different styles of art. The Blue Period was a time that was depressing and sad for Picasso. He showed this through painting his artwork in all different shades of blue. His next period was called the Rose Period. He used more bright and cheerful colors. This was a more happy time in Picasso’s life because he was involved in a relationship with his future wife. The period that Picasso is most famous for is CUBISM. Cubism is using various shapes to create multiple viewpoints. Picasso love to use people as his subject matter. The 5^th grade students created faces using multiple patterns in the cubism style that Picasso was so famous for.