First Annual Art Show!

Saint Ann's first school-wide art show was a success! For a while, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it off. I came in on my day off in order to organize and mat everything. But the issue was hanging all the artwork between the end of the school day and the show - a two hour window! Luckily, I had some great students helpers, who made hundreds of tape loops and helped everything come together just in time for the other students and parents to arrive.

Pre-K students worked together to make colorful, Kandinsky-inspired circles! It was a great way to practice our shapes and coloring, while making something beautiful with our friends.

Kindergarten students talked about changing seasons. These spring cherry blossoms were inspired by Japanese block prints and scroll painting.

As seen in this post, first grade students created their own versions of Van Gogh's Starry Night. We used oil and chalk pastels, and incorporated some of our own observations is our work.

Second grade students study "building bridges" from the Common Core curriculum. It's a great excuse to learn about French artist Claude Monet and his waterlily paintings! Students drew bridges with oil pastels, paying special attention to light and shadow. Next, they used watercolors to create an impressionistic resist painting.

Third grade students examined Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings of flowers. We learned about up-close views and cropping before creating our own flowers in chalk pastels. We even visited some of O'Keeffe's paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Four grade students expressed themselves by creating 'emotion' self-portraits. We looked at three portraits showing different emotions - Frans Hals' Jolly Toper, Edvard Munch's The Scream, and Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist. We discussed how expression and color play a large role in the mood of a painting.Then students created their own watercolor paintings depicting a specific emotion, using the things they had learned.

Fifth grade students created portraits as well, but they focused on a particular style while doing so - Cubism! We looked at examples of Picasso's work and talked about the idea of showing one person or object from many different perspectives at once. We reviewed profile, three-quarter view, and head-on points of view before mixing and match perspectives to create our own portraits using oil pastel and construction paper collage.

Sixth grade students were in for a treat as we looked at Wayne Thiebaud's yummy artwork. We then learned a method of printmaking that uses water-based markers and Styrofoam plates. Each students sketched a type of candy or dessert before making their final impression on a printing plate. We then used bright colors and fun patterns to make every print unique.

Seventh grade students discussed the motif of the Madonna and Child right before Christmas. We looked at examples from many different periods through history, and cultures. Students then created their own version using watercolors and metallic tempera.

Eighth grade students were allowed to pick their favorite piece of work from the entire year. We displayed the work in the main hall. Many of the eighth grade students chose work that had been inspired by our unit on journeys. We discussed external and internal journeys by looking at and comparing the artwork of Paul Gaughin and Frida Kahlo. The students whose work is shown above depicted their own internal journeys. I wish the eighth graders the best of luck as they continue to pursue their own adventures, in high school and beyond!