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Haring (1958 - 1990) attracted public attention with his bold graffiti-inspired street style art. Drawing inspiration from the break-dancing culture of the times, Haring's action figures were characterized by bright colours and bold black lines. He often used his work to make a statement about different issues and he was well-known for his social activism. Today we are using Keith Haring as our master artist to create another piece on Carnival. We are imagining our Haring action figures are at a Carnival event jumping and dancing to the beats! Check out my Picassos as they use what they have learned about this artist to create their own artwork!
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 The Warhols are starting off the term with a little history... Art history and local Trini history. They learnt about Impressionism today. Claude Monet was the first painter in the Impressionist movement. The word IMPRESSIONISM comes from one of Monet’s first paintings called Impression: Sunrise. Because sunlight is always shifting, Monet decided to paint the same scenes over and over to show how the color changes as the light moved. He was pretty determined, too. He painted over 30 paintings of a cathedral on France. Each painting shows how the light effects not only the cathedral’s color but also how light affects the details in the architecture. He set up a series of easels and used different paint colors to paint the cathedral at dawn, mid-day and a sunset. Art critics labelled the painting, impressionism, in order to mock it but the term stuck. It now means painting with light. Monet and other Impressionist had many things in common: they all painted outdoors, used photography to influence their art, wrote about their ideas and used color in a new and different way. Unfortunately we aren't able to paint outdoors, but we can mimic the characteristic elements of Impressionist work by focusing on the use of light as well as the quick gestural brushstrokes of Impressionist painters. As for our local history... well! Chacachacare which is an island off the coast of Trinidad (actually it's only 7 miles from Venezuela but it is T&T territory.) is only about 900 acres of hilly and thickly forested terrain. All that's left of the few structures now are the remains of the house pictured above. During the course of it's history it has served as a cotton plantation, a whaling station and a hospital for a small leper colony. There was once a small convent and cemetery close by that is now almost completely overrun. This is the subject of our piece. The children will draw and paint this fascinating place in the Impressionist style.  This lesson was inspired by artist Sandra Silberzweig. That's her piece in the picture. The main focus of this lesson is to teach children how to create tints and shades using tempera paint. But creating the tints and shades is quite easy, what is more difficult is establishing a prominent positive space with the fish. Especially when colours are everywhere... it's easy for a piece of art to get hard to look at it seems unsettling. To avoid this Silberzweig uses mostly cool colours on the fish and warm colours in the background. She also emphases unity and balance in the art piece by enforcing the RULE OF THREE... so there are 3 large fish and 3 smaller ones. Also the fishes are tied together using colour, whereas the background is multicoloured. Watch as the Warhols explore, line, shape, colour, movement and balance! A whole heap of Elements and Principles of Art to create some beautiful masterpieces. My Warhols were introduced to artist Gustav Klimt. They learned a bit about the artist himself, but they really focused on what made his style unique. He helped to shape a movement called Art Nouveau or new art. This movement was all about using symbolism to make statements in art and this is exactly what they did. They were challenged to look at two local icons, Wendy Fitzwilliam and calypsonian Shadow. They will use Klimt's style of including lots of gold and metallics in their piece but they will also bring the focus to the background and instead of using Klimt's motifs, they will practice symbolism by including local flowers and birds and other symbols that speak to their subject with a nod to Klimt. I just love how they're moving around the space, getting into the different aspects and really putting their mark on their piece! YAY for creativity! This is going to take two weeks so check out what they've done so far!  The Picassos heard all about Gustav Klimt who was born in Vienna in 1862. His father, a gold engraver, taught Gustav how to work with gold. When Gustav was older he used gold, tiny pieces of colored glass and stones to make images that were inspired by Byzantine Mosaics. This was called his “GOLDEN PHASE” Klimt was a part of a group of artists that were tired of traditional art and wanted their art to symbolize something beyond the canvases. They used bright colors, swirling lines and curves. They called this new style of art ART NOUVEAU. Klimt was famous for his paintings of women. They were both decorative and abstract. He’s most famous for his painting The Tree of Life but he’s also done numerous portraits, mostly of women, so I decided to go the portrait route. My Picassos drew a simplified version of a Klimt lady wearing a robe. They created patterns and really zeroed in on using pattern and colour that was indicative of the ART NOUVEAU period. This one will take two classes so stay tuned to see how they turn out!  My Picassos and Warhols are exploring the wondrous art of Klimt so of course my little Doodlebugs are going to get a taste as well! We talked about the main characteristics of Art Nouveau and how Klimt loved to use real gold in this his art work! They used all the patterns and the metallics characteristic of the man and created some gorgeously shimmering fish! Divali is in the air and while the Hindu community is immersed in prayer and fasting, the rest of us can't wait to take in the colour, food and fashion that culminate on Divali day! When I first came across these Indian Dancers by local artist Danielle Rahael I was immediately drawn to them! I love her use of colour and her the fact that she stays true to her abstract style while also infusing our Trinidadian culture! Thanks Danielle for giving my Picassos such a fine example of how a local artist can interpret our life, our colours and our vibrancy into a style that is not always easy to digest. Check out my 7 to 11 year old Picassos as they try their hands at recreating an Indian Dancer in the style of Rahael in celebration of Divali! Our focus here was on colour. They took turns using the colour wheel to figure out their split complimentary colour scheme starting with the colour of their backgrounds. Then they drew and painted in Rahael’s signature style!  Inspired by Cezanne's painting Tulips in a Vase the Doodlebugs followed step by step and drew and painted their own gorgeous floral arrangement! They used watercolour resist techniques to create the cool texture effects and learned a bit about light and shadows! This was fun to create but it also is just so beautiful! Hooray for my talented little artists! Continuing on our artist study of Cezanne, the Picassos and Warhols took a look at some examples of Cezanne's landscapes. We looked at his use of complimentary colours and his brushstrokes as well as his shapes. The Picassos went on to create a Cezanne-inspired landscape using simple plains and focusing on colours and brushwork.  This week the Picassos were introduced to artist Paul Gauguin, who was born in Paris, but moved to Tahiti. He loved the tropical setting and native people. In his painting, Tahitian Women on the Beach, he depicts two women in their everyday environment. One woman is weaving a basket while the other keeps her company. In his paintings, he used colors that were much brighter and bolder than the colors found in nature. Because of his use of color and painting style, he was called a Post-Impressionist painter. My artists focused on his use of complimentary colours as well as contour lines in recreating this piece. By looking at this piece they also got a good example of how an artist can be influenced by his surroundings... for instance Gauguin started using the bright, sun-drenched colours of Tahiti in his work. |
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Be a fly on the wall in our art room! Take a look at what we do, how we do it and the smiles that I get to see week after week :) Archives
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