Nov 19 - Michelangelo

Today we learned about the painter and sculptor Michelangelo.  We looked at a few pictures of his most famous work, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  We learned that it took him 4 years to complete and that he did the whole thing while lying on his back!  For our activity we drew pictures while lying on our backs.

Nov 12 - John Constable

Today we learned about painter John Constable.  He was one of the best known landscape artists of his time.  Our activity was a cloudscape.  This didn't work out as well as planned and ended up being somewhat of a bust for our short class time.  But they still had fun painting the "clouds".

Nov 5 - Auguste Rodin

Today we learned a little bit about sculptor Auguste Rodin.  Rodin made his statues of metal and carved stone, but we made our masterpieces with clay.  The kids had a good time using their special carving tools on the clay.  They were able to bring home the clay to harden their statues or continue making something new.

10/22 - Marcel Duchamp

Today we learned about artist Marcel Duchamp.  Duchamp was a French painter who enjoyed trying new, wacky, or unusual ideas that others had not tried before.  One of his favorite things to do was to drop pieces of string on paper.

Our activity was similar to Duchamp's favorite art technique.  We dipped string into paint and dropped (and some dragged) it onto papers.  The kids had a lot of fun trying different ways of dropping their string!

10/15 - John James Audubon

Today we learned about John James Audubon.  He is one of the most famous painters of birds in the world.  It was his life's work to paint a picture of every species of bird in America.  He painted 435 watercolors of birds. 

For our activity, we looked at books and pictures of animals and tried to draw them as best we could.

10/08- C.M. Russell

During this class time we learned a little bit about artist C.M. Russell.  He was an American painter and sculptor who loved life in the wild West.  He is famous for his scenes of animals, cowboys, and Indians. 

For our activity we did a western sunset.  First we painted a sunset with watercolor paints.  Next we cut out hills and cactuses from black paper and put that on top of the paints to look like a silhouette. 

10/01 - Gustave Courbet

This week we learned a little about an artist named Gustave Courbet.  Courbet was a Realist, which we learned means that he likes to paint things to look real.  He liked to use thick gobs of paint and may have been the first artist to use a palette knife. 

For our activity we each used plastic knives to spread paint around on our boards.  The kids LOVED trying this new method of painting without brushes.

09/24 - Hans Arp

This week we learned a bit about an artist named Hans Arp.  He believed in the artistic law of chance and invented a new collage technique where he tore paper into pieces and then dropped the pieces onto a paper.  The pieces formed a natural design of chance. 

For our activity, we did what was called a "collage of happy accidents".  We tore different kinds of paper into pieces, dropped them onto our papers, and glued them into place.  The kids were particularly drawn to the "junk mail" pieces of paper!

09/17 - Edgar Degas

For class this week we learned a little about Edgar Degas and his style of artwork.  We read a book on his life and work and looked at some pictures of his artwork.  He liked to make artwork of movement, especially ballet dancers.  So, for our project we attempted to make a crayon resist painting showing movement of a shape across the paper.