Camille and the Sunflowers

First and second grade students have been learning about the artist Vincent van Gogh during the first quarter of the school year.

Everyone enjoyed listening to the story of Camille and the Sunflowers which is a story that illustrates the life of  van Gogh for children by the author Laurence Anholt.

Camille is a small boy who meets the artist Vincent van Gogh and brings him some sunflowers to decorate his home.

Students are introduced to the artist and to many of his famous paintings like the sunflowers and van Gogh’s landscapes of the French countryside.

Everyone enjoyed learning about the Starry Night and all of the wonderful images Vincent created thanks to the story of Camille and the Sunflowers.

Lettering

One of our beginning projects each year is lettering.

Lettering is a basic drawing skill that builds the skills of each student.

Students explored block and bubble styles of lettering.

Lettering is the act or process of inscribing with or making letters.  It is a basic way of learning to communicate visually and an important skill for students to develop.

Students will use their skills in our upcoming fire safety poster contest this year.

 

Skeletons again

Third grade students have continued with skeleton drawing.

Students have been using a continuous line method of drawing the skeleton.

Third graders have been focusing more on the skeleton and less on their drawing as they are building their drawing skills.

This project has required the students to really focus their energy on building their visual and drawing skills.

Here are some examples of the students’ drawings:

Katie meets the Impressionists

Kindergarten students recently learned about the impressionist artists.

Students listened to the story of Katie Meets the Impressionists by James Mayhew.

The story opens with Katie celebrating her Grandma’s birthday by visiting an art museum.

During the visit to the museum Katie encounters five impressionist paintings: two each by Monet and Renoir and one by Degas.

Katie closes her eyes in front of one of the paintings and opens them to find she’s a guest in Monet’s The Luncheon. There she gathers flowers for a birthday bouquet to give Grandma, but they don’t fare too well on the crossing back into the museum.

Next Katie’s mission whisks her into three more works of art including Renoir’s Her First Evening Out, where she inadvertently wanders onstage during a performance by, as the artwork soon reveals, Degas’s ballet dancers.

The story is a great way for kindergarteners to be introduced to art history and art museums.

Finally students illustrated their favorite scenes from the story.

Here are some examples of the students’ illustrations.

Painting the sky

Second graders began their winter landscapes recently by beginning with painting the winter sky.

After adding the horizon line to their images everyone enjoyed the process of adding and mixing colors to their winter skies.

Although everyone used the same three colors, they all used different combinations of the colors to create their own unique sky.

All of the second graders did a great job learning to control their brushes while understanding how to use watercolor paint.

I look forward to seeing the next steps in their creative process of making their winter landscapes.

Drawing with ink

Third grade students have continued with their contour line shoe drawings.

Students added ink drawing to their artist toolbox as they drew with pencils and ink this studio session.

Third graders warmed up with pencil drawing before moving to ink.

This drawing session required lots of focus for the students.

Everyone enjoyed exploring the use of this new medium.

Third graders created four ink drawings this class and will review their work next studio session.

Students did a great job using ink and incorporating continuous line drawing into their art skills.

Digital Photography

Fifth grade students have been exploring digital photography this fall at Richmond School.

The elementary art department purchased 18 digital cameras to introduce and teach students how to use this new art medium.

Students have been learning how to use the camera and all of its many features.

Students have been working with a partner as they have been investigating this digital tool.

Students have been learning the history of photography and the development of digital photography.

Students have been photographing indoors and out.

Everyone has enjoyed learning to photograph their friends. Digital photography has been a great addition to the art curriculum.  Look for future posts on the students’ progress.