LINES into SHAPES

Continuing on with our study of LINES, we drew five different types on our paper using permanent marker.

 Try to find these lines in the painting below:

VERTICAL, HORIZONTAL, DIAGONAL, WAVY and ZIG-ZAG.

 

 

OVERLAPPING our LINES created SHAPES that were perfect for painting!

 

We used watercolors and worked carefully to fill in SHAPES around the paper. 

We left some shapes white for visual balance.

 

As always, we hung a few on the art wall in the kindergarten wing

for all to enjoy.

 

We invite you to stop by!

Artist: VINCENT VAN GOGH

For our very first art project of the 2012/13 school year, we learned about

VINCENT VAN GOGH.

He was a dutch artist who lived long ago and painted many pictures which now hang in museums all over the world. Some of his favorite subjects were sunflowers and night skies like the one above titled

The Starry Night.

(please excuse the glare in this photo)

Our challenge was to work as a group to re-create this famous painting as a large mural.

 All of the kindergarten classes worked on this project during our art time. 

We used small strips of colored paper to repressent

Van Gogh's brush strokes.

 Glue was applied to the back of each strip using our "handy dandy tool"

 (aka pointer finger). Each strip was then placed on the mural in a spot where each particular color was needed.

We had to pay close attention to the direction of his brush strokes. 

We found that some were horizontal, vertical, diagonal and wavy.

This is a close up of our finished mural.

And this photo will give you an idea of just how large our mural is!

It is currently hanging in the Kindergarten wing.

We love it and hope you will stop by to see it for yourself!



FISH COLLAGE

Creating these fish involved many interesting steps.

We began by using watered down tempera paint for the background.

We had to work quickly to paint the whole paper before we covered the wet surface with a piece of ...

plastic wrap! 

We used our hands to pat and twist the plastic wrap on the paper.

Once the paint had a chance to dry, the plastic wrap fell away revealing an interesting "water" design.

Using a piece of colored paper and crayons, we created patterns to represent the scales on a fish.

Then, we cut an oval and triangle from the patterned papers for the body and tail.

Finally, we glued our fish to the "water" background

 and then added a tissue paper fin and an eye. 

A stream of glitter bubbles created just the right finishing touch. 

Our fish sure looked happy swimming along on the display wall!



Illustrator: ERIC CARLE

We read Eric Carle's book

THE ARTIST WHO PAINTED A BLUE HORSE.

We liked the books so much that we decided to make some illustrations similar in style to his.

We began by studying reference photos of many different animals.

We practiced... 

 and practiced...

and practiced our drawing...

until we got things just right!

Next we used tissue paper and papier mache paste to cover a large piece of paper with an

"unexpected color"

just like Eric Carle who created pink rabbits and polka dotted donkeys!

Once it was dry, we turned it over and drew our animals LARGE!

Then we cut our animals out, and added them to our backgrounds.

We love how different each of them look!

And, we had fun adding details like feathers...

and spots!

Our display was enjoyed by all!



OP ART using Complementary Colors

Op art, or Optical Art, became popular in the 1960's. It is a style of abstract art that gives the impression of movement, swelling or vibration when lines, shapes and/or colors are grouped together in patterns. Below are some examples of Op Art that the kindergarten artists studied while learning about this style of art.

 Do the images in this picture appear to be moving or pulsating?

Or shifting?

Or swirling?

Do they make your eyes "jump"?

The students thought so and this delighted them!!

In fact, they liked it so much they each tried their hand at creating their own piece of Op Art.

Each student was given a large cardboard circle.

They created a grid in pencil using VERTICAL and HORIZONTAL LINES.

Next, they lightly marked out a pattern by putting a small 'x' in every other shape.

(Look hard at the circle above and see if you can find them!)

The fun really began when the paint and brushes came out!

Each student chose one color to paint over the marks on their grid.

They worked hard to stay within the lines of these small shapes.

This was no easy task, but they were very focused!

When it was time for the second color, the students chose the

COMPLEMENTARY COLOR

to the color they started with.

You can find out more about Complementary Colors in our previous post.

They painted and painted until every last bit of white was covered.

Phew!

Here is a sampling of their fiinished Op Art paintings.

Stop by the Kindergarten Wing to see more!

SCULPTURES and COMPLEMENTARY COLORS!

The Kindergarten art students are continuing to explore the workings of the

COLOR WHEEL.

Along with their knowledge about

 Primary and Secondary Colors,

 they are also learning about

COMPLEMENTARY COLORS.

Each color on the color wheel has a COMPLEMENTARY COLOR

which is located directly across from (opposite) that color on the wheel.

These colors "say nice things" about each other and "work well together".

You can see the different combinations of

COMPLEMENTARY COLORS

 on the color wheels belows...

RED and GREEN

PURPLE and YELLOW

BLUE and ORANGE

With this color theory in mind, the students were asked to create a

PAPER SCULPTURE

(interesting to look at from ALL sides)

using strips of one color, along with a base of its Complementary Color.

They had to come up with ways to make the strips pop up off the paper when gluing them such as

 twisting, folding, rolling, crumpling or bending.

They also worked the strips

under, over, around, and through each other.

The finished sculptures were hung side by side...

to create one LARGE SCULPTURE!

WOW!

Artist: PIET MONDRIAN

The Kindergarten art students

 have been learning the names and uses of five types of

 LINES: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, zigzag, and wavy.

They have also been discovering things about the

 PRIMARY COLORS (red, blue, yellow)

 such as where they are located on the color wheel,

and how they can be mixed together to make other colors.

Piet Mondrian

(1872-1944)

was a Dutch artist

who worked exclusively with vertical and horizontal lines,

 and primary colors in his paintings.

In fact, it is said that he painted for thirty years and never made a curved line!

Of course we had to give this a try!

*Composition (Blue, Red, and Yellow), 1930, Oil on canvas

Each student

began by gluing strips of black paper both vertically and horizontally on the paper.

The ends of the strips had to go either to the edge of the paper, or stop when they reached another strip.

Overlapping their lines in this way created squares and rectangles.

These shapes were perfect for painting,

which they did using only the primary colors.

Like Mondrian, they balanced their paintings by leaving some shapes white throughout.

Artist: HANS HOFMANN

The Kindergarten students studied the artwork of German born artist

HANS HOFMANN.

(1880-1966)

This artist liked to explore colors in what he called his

"push-pull" theory 

using WARM and COOL colors.

The painted shapes in Hofmann's paintings show how

cool colors seem to recede into the background

while warm colors work their way forward in a painting.

We began our Hans Hofmann studies by painting 9x11 papers a variety of warm and cool colors.

Those papers were then cut into random size rectangles

and arranged and glued onto individual papers filling them to the edges.

Care was taken in placing warm colors and cool colors together.

Once dried, each students work of art was place side by side

on the round wall in the Kindergarten wing...

to create one large masterpiece!

WOW!