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.