Last week, I read "Drawing with Scissors" to the first graders, a book about the later artwork of Henri Matisse. The students made keen observations after looking at images of some of his cut outs and I explained that these free form "loosey-goosey" type shapes have a special name: organic shapes. I gave the first graders very few restrictions and told them that they could create anything as long as it had organic shapes. Their artwork could be abstract, or have figures and animals in it like some of Matisse's work (if they could make a free form version of them). They all began with embellishing their background, and they created their first layer of their work.
0 Comments
Last class, the first graders did as Kandsinsky has said, and "started with a dot." While some students were still wrapping up their Kandinsky inspired color studies, other students took the opportunity to make their own abstract art. I showed students more examples of Kandinsky's paintings that are more geometric and free flowing, full of lies and movement and they made great observations about what the painting looked like to them. Focusing on the elements of art- lines, shape, texture, color, they set out to create their own works of art. In one class, they began collaging the scrap papers to create an abstract piece.
Last week, I introduced the first graders to one of the fathers of abstract art- Vassily Kandinsky. Students listened to Mozart as they worked, just like Kandinsky, who was inspired by music and often named his paintings like song titles "Composition V." For our project, students practiced cutting circles and experimenting with color combinations to make their own unique color study, a la Kandinsky. Some students chose to use only cool colors or warm colors, while others are almost monochromatic, or a balance of both. Well done!
There's nothing like the apparent magic of watercolor on top of crayon. Last week, the first graders added extra texture and a variety of colors to their personal versions of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." they then painted over the crayon with water color to fill in the white spaces.
I love how these turned out! |
Archives
May 2017
Categories |