(G1) For the love of sunflowers (Part II)

Project objective(s):
- Look at pictures of sunflowers
- Discuss the shape and size of petals in sunflowers
- How to use different colors to create depth in your artwork

Demonstrating how to use different colors to create depth.

The before picture of the sunflower.

This student outlined the petals using a red marker.

The same student by adding pastels created a red sunflower.

Using yellow and green water colors. 

Adding yellow and blue pastels.

The direction of petals was important to this student.

The overlapping or not the overlapping of petals.

The red sunflower with seven leaves.

The yellow sunflower with four leaves.

The scale of the petals.

Clean lines for this sunflower.   

(KG) For the love of Sunflowers (Part I)

Project objective(s):
- Create your sunflower by using construction paper, wax paper and poster board paper
- Compare the texture of wax paper with that of water color paper
- Find ways to create textures

Mixing tempera paint with water colors to paint the background paper.

We used printing tools to create original designs.

Working on the background paper.

Include some clay pieces to add texture.

 Shades of blue.

It does feel different painting on wax paper.

Use scissors to create different sizes of petals.

Holding the paper with one hand and painting with the other.

Pink and yellow sunflower.

The concept of scale in art (The roses of Will Ryman) Part I

Project objective(s):
- Discuss the concept of scale as found in Will Ryman's work
- Examine the connection of art and the environment
- The variety of materials in creating large scale works
- Create your own gigantic roses in the style of Will Ryman

Will Ryman is a New York based artist who created 38 large scale sculptures of rose blossoms towering as high as 25 feet. In every cluster of roses he placed a ladybug, beetle, aphid or bee, thus making reference to the viewers' own bug's- eye- view of his gigantic roses.

“With these roses I wanted to do something that was larger than life and site-specific. In my work I always try to combine fantasy with reality. In the case of The Roses, I tried to convey New York City’s larger than life qualities through scale; creating blossoms which are imposing, humorous, and hopefully beautiful,” comments artist Will Ryman.

Beauty "roses", and the Beast " the buildings".

His work forces the viewer to look at things from a bug's -eye- view.

Will Ryman and his gigantic roses in the artist studio.

Since this will be a large scale project I decided to include Kindergarten, second, third and fourth grade students.
This project provides an excellent opportunity for students to understand cooperation and exchange of ideas. The final product will be displayed in our school's library.

Materials for the roses and brunches
Freezer Paper, Plastic Coated, 75ft
Tempera paint
Liquid water color
Masking tape, or glue
Brunches of trees ( fallen from our trees in our school's Nature Trail)
Aluminum foil

The Kindergarten students painting the sheets of the Freezer paper.
We painted the dull side of the paper.

Understanding the problem with scale.
Not enough space on the table for the large pieces of paper.

The paper is dry and ready for folding.

We covered the brunches in aluminium foil.

Third and fourth grade students hard at work.
The involvement of our bodies in completing our task.

Second, third and fourth grade students are folding the paper to create the petals of the roses.
We marked the center of the Plastic Coated side of the freezer paper and pinched it.
We used our fingers to manipulate the folds of the paper to resemble rose petals.

We placed folded masking tape on the center of each sheet of paper and placed the additional pieces of paper on top of each other. The top three pieces of paper were cut progressively smaller.

The first part of this project is accomplished.

Two blooming roses.

(Pre-K) The abstraction of colors

Project objective(s):

- Create an abstract picture by using warm and cool colors

- Use your fingers to blend the colors together

- Create texture by manipulating the plastic wrap

- Give a title to your work

We looked at pictures of the artist Mark Rothko.

We discussed how he often named his pictures after the colors he used.

      We examined his use of color and how he created his "color field" paintings.

Mark Rothko: Red,Orange,Tan and Purple

We used our fingers to blend the different colors.

We observed how colors appeared and disappeared.

We purposely moved our fingers to isolate certain colors.

Yellow, purple, blue  and pink.

Orange and yellow.

Pink, yellow and blue.

Purple and yellow.

Orange, blue and yellow. 

(G3,G4) Celebrating Earth Day /The Land Art of Andrew Rogers (1/2)

Andrew Rogers is an Australian sculptor as well as a creator of large contemporary land art projects. He creates these monumental Geoglyphs  which are part of a chain of 13 cities created around the world. His Geoglyphs can be found in Israel, Chile, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Iceland, China, India, Turkey, Nepal, Slovakia, Kenya and the USA where his land projects were created  in The Mohave Desert that occupies a portion of Southern California and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona.

Ancient Language: A Geoglyph  made in Chile.

Shield: A Geoglyph   made in Kenya

Celebration of Life: A Geoglyph made in Israel

Rhythms of Life: A Geoglyph made in Yucca Valley, California 

His monumental land works are called "The Rhythms of Life", the largest contemporary land art undertaking in the world, forming a chain of 47 massive stone Geoglyphs, around the globe. This project has involved over 6,700 people in 13 countries across seven continents.

Celebrating after the completion of the Geoglyph in Nepal.

People in Kenya participating in the creation of the Geoglyph

Project objective(s):

- Discuss the importance of the environment in the creation of his projects

- What part do people play in the creation of the Geoglyphs?

- Discuss the importance of weather conditions for the completion of the project

- Compare the practice of creating art as part of the environment with that of creating art in the studio?

- Create a Land Art project 

Our school is located in a very woodsy area.

We have a nature trail that includes a lot of sweet Gum Trees . 

We collected the sweet gum Tree balls and created a mini Geoglyph .

We used colored sand to create interesting designs.

The gum balls were the focal point of the composition.

Understanding how patterns add to the beauty of creating Land Art