Wednesday, July 21, 2010

X-Rayed Art

When visiting the Norton Simon Museum in Los Angeles two weeks ago, I was enthralled with the x-ray pictures the museum posted of various artworks.

Here's a picture of the x-ray of van Gogh's painting titled "Winter - The Vicarage Garden under snow". This x-ray shows a painting van Gogh did and for whatever reason, he chose to paint over it. I have many artist friends who do this too, but seeing this master's real x-ray made me kind of giddy... More proof to share with my students that everyone creates art they're unsure of - the goal is not to let it deter you. Just like van Gogh didn't! The x-ray above shows the painting that exists "under" the painting below. More info. about the painting here.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Renoir said it well!

"One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one's capacity."
Auguste Renoir, French, 1841-1919
This is why teachers are so wonderful, everyday they are coaxing children to go out on that limb. (Some of us need to coax ourselves too. Yes, that would be me!)

Friday, July 9, 2010

Frida's Parrot


Image 14Image by libbyrosof via Flickr


This little project based on Frida Kahlo's Still Life with Parrot was fun, but heartbreaking at the end.......(Heartbreaking is me being overly-dramatic, but sometimes my heart just sinks when I feel I missed an opportunity to encourage a child's artistic expression.)
Usually I always include in the beginning of my lessons that students are free and encouraged to create their own art. If I'm doing a directed drawing lesson, I tell the kids that they're free to draw similar lines as mine, or not similar. Our mantra is "You're the Artist of Your Work" -- make it yours, however you want your art to look.
Well, somehow in my haste and absentmindedness I forgot to share these words and at the end of this lesson one of the students said, "I really wanted to make a red parrot and different fruit." I said, "Well why didn't you?" He said, "I didn't know that would be okay." ----See what I mean, heartbreaking.....It's such a fine line between giving enough instruction to make the kids feel comfortable to create and not giving too much instruction to hinder their creativity. I'll be teaching 20 years from now and still working on that one!

At any rate, this lesson helped us focus on foreground and background. And, we solidified that objects in the foreground are low on the page, while objects in the background are high on the page.

Step 1: Draw fruit in the foreground.

Step 2: Draw fruit in middle ground.
Step 3: Draw fruit and parrot in background.

Step 4: Draw table and add highlights and shadows.









Saturday, July 3, 2010

Clay Funny Fish....Bloop, blub, blub......

Funny fish, blowfish, crazy fish.................I've been looking at various pics of these fish swimming around other blogs & finally it was my turn to share this idea with some of my students. They enjoyed the process and I especially want to thank Art Projects from MN Gal for posting her how-to on this lesson. You can see her directions here. Blub, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop... Right-side up, Upside down Fish....

Top Hat fish, ready for the special occasion!






Thank you Summer 2010 art students!!!!