OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL 

HOLIDAY CARD DESIGNS

WINTER TREES

If I was only this good with timing, I guess it would be famous.  I wanted to do something with second grade that wasn't holiday-themed, but still felt like winter.  Snowy evergreen trees seemed to be a fun choice.  

I splashed, sponged, slopped and had my way with watercolors to create a snowy look that we would use to represent the ground. I cut the paper into rectangles and each student tore their paper in half and glued both pieces to the bottom of 6" x 12" black paper.  We painted a triangular shape using blobs of blue-green.

Before we got to work on these the second time, it actually SNOWED!  That never happens this early for us.  That weather event made this project much more meaningful to us all.  YAY!  So we added some green and yellow-green on top of our blue-green from our last time together. Yellow-green was added and then white to represent the snow.  Students were amazed at the beauty of this simple project, as was I.

ABOUT TO ROCK SOME 

CIRCULAR WEAVINGS!

STAY TUNED........

Every year I look forward to teaching new clay techniques through the creation of African masks.  As a class, we discuss the features the masks have in common, such as long angular noses, small mouths, eyes.  We also discuss how the materials are found, such as wood, grass, metals.  

This lesson is also a jumping point to another lesson on Modigliani.  He was heavily influenced by these features.  Another major artist, Picasso, was also impressed by African masks.  His friend Matisse gave him a mask as a gift.

PAUL CEZANNE

Here are some facts about Paul Cezanne, the famous French Post-Impressionist painter.

        Paul Cezanne was born on 19th January 1839 in Aix-en-Provence, France.

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       He is often credited with forming the bridge between the dominant style of painting in that late 19th century (Impressionism) and the trend towards Cubism in the early 20th century.

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    Cezanne wanted to represent real life in simple forms. He explored using ‘geometric simplification’ and his work inspired Picasso and Matisse. They referred to Cezanne as ‘the father of us all’.

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·   An exhibition of his work in Paris in 1907, the year after Cezanne’s death, exposed a new generation of artists to his work and techniques.

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·  Cezanne painted a range of different subjects during his career, including: landscapes, still life and portraits.

·  Cezanne painted slowly believing that he needed to truly observe and understand his subject matter before he could capture the moment with a brushstroke. He portrait might take him over 100 working sessions to complete.

PATTERN OWLS

With the arrival of autumn, comes autumn subjects.  Is it me, or do owls seem like an autumn subject?  Maybe it's me.  Anyway.... I love doing the owl drawings.  There are just way too many things you can do with this subject. 

So we drew owls using directed drawing.  After going over those pesky pencil lines with Sharpies,(no, art teachers don't own stock in Sharpie.  I WISH!), students were challenged to add patterns to the various spaces inside the owl. This is where to owls start to differ, which is what we want in art, right?

When students were finished with their patterns, it was time for color.  I stressed repetition and they did it!  YAY!  I'm really loving the Blick Liquid Watercolors right now.  The colors stay bright and transparent.  The sky was added with Do-A-Dot markers.  Love these, too!

Hope you enjoy.

LINE CONTOUR SHOE DRAWING

In the upper grades of elementary school, I try to spend more time helping students to develop their drawing skills.  I usually teach drawing using observation to help instill more confidence at this stage. I say "at this stage" because this is the stage where students' verbal, or left brain, is really on overdrive, i.e. becoming more dominant. 

We used our shoes as our subject.  Luckily we did this drawing before the kids went to PE.  The students carefully observed their shoes and tried to draw exactly what they saw.  For fun and some variety, they added a block of color and pattern.  I think they turned out quite nice.

NAME ALIENS

If you know how to write your name using cursive handwriting, why not try a name alien? Students learn to use cursive as third grade students at here at GV, so this seemed like the perfect back to school project for our fourth grade students.

The process is pretty simple:  
1. Fold a piece of  paper vertically.  
2. Then write your name across the top half of the paper. 
3. Trace over your name using black crayon.
4. Fold the paper over and rub over your name, applying pressure.
5. Trace over your name reflection using black crayon.

Now you're ready to create your alien! Study the shapes, turning your paper different ways. You may add lines, but make sure to draw on one side and rub it to the other side. Symmetry was one of our goals here.  Next add patterns for interest.  Add color, repeating color throughout the artwork.  Enjoy!

WELCOME TO A NEW SCHOOL YEAR!

LOVE

Could these be any sweeter?
I was looking for a simple clay project for our self-contained classroom.  Even though our hands were squirmy, these turned out to be quite nice.

The process was simple. We traced hands onto slabs of clay. The middle two fingers were folded over and supported by a small rolled up paper towels, which disintegrated during firing. A heart was added and tah-dah:  "I LOVE YOU" hands.

SUPERINTENDENT'S STATE ART SHOW

MORE MATISSE!

So that second grade students would gain further understanding of the magnitude of the talent of Henri Matisse, we studied his painting style.  This project followed a collage, in which they were introduced to Matisse. 

We used several types of media to create these marvelous works of art. We also incorporated several elements and principles including: line, shape, color, texture, and space. Balance was discussed, as well as pattern and proportion. Enjoy!

MONOCHROMATIC LANDSCAPES

Creating a monochromatic painting can be challenging, but I believe this projects allowed us to achieve successful results.
This lesson allows for a lot of discussion of art terms and concepts such as monochromatic, spatial relationships and the horizon line.  This also gave us a chance to practice and improve our tree drawing skills-no lollipop trees here!

CENTRAL OFFICE ART EXHIBIT: MARCH

Here in Hoover, we thankfully have a large amount of support for the Arts.  Monthly exhibits are displayed at our central office.  Our students' art is seen and appreciated by community stakeholders. 

ART SHOW/PE DEMO: Next Week!

HENRI MATISSE: DRAWING WITH SCISSORS

Henri Matisse was a revolutionary and influential artist of the early 20th century, best known for the expressive color and form of his Fauvist style.

Henri Matisse was born December 31, 1869, in Le Cateau in northern France. 

Over a six-decade career he worked in all media, from painting to sculpture to printmaking. Although his subjects were traditional— figures in landscapes, portraits, interior views—his revolutionary use of brilliant color and exaggerated form to express emotion made him one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.  He worked extensively with collage.  He called this method "drawing with scissors."

BLUE DOG: GEORGE RODRIQUE