This is the art blog for Fayston Elementary School, located in the Mad River Valley in Central Vermont. This blog is updated frequently to showcase the artwork of Fayston's students and celebrate all things creative!
We worked collaboratively to create these two large murals in the style of Kandinsky's abstract expressionist work. We used shapes and themes from his paintings and worked with warm colors first, then added cool colors.
Fayston students have become very familiar with the book Wonder, by R.J. Palacio. We discussed the themes in this book, including not judging others by their appearances and being kind to all people. We drew self portraits in the style of the book cover that show our inner character traits, which may not be visible from the outside.
Kindergarten artists created gumball machines inspired by Wayne Thiebaud's famous paintings. We will be revisiting his other delicious pieces of artwork.
Wassily Kandinsky was born in Russia in 1866. In his early years as an artist, he explored a variety of media but stayed with a traditional, realistic style. Upon traveling through Europe and viewing art by artists such as Matisse and Gauguin, Kandinsky was influenced to bring vibrant colors into his art. When he became a professor a the Bauhaus School in Germany, his art became less objective and contained lines, circles and other geometric shapes.
Kandinsky has been called a "pioneer of modern art." He believed that art should reach the audience though sight, sound and emotion or spiritual connection. He wanted to create art that let the audience decide on the meaning, much like music brings images into the listener's head.
One of Kandinsky's most well known paintings is "Squares with Concentric Circle" (1913).
Kandinsky loved including circles in his work. Here are some other pieces comprised of circles.
What do you notice about Kandinsky's work?
What guesses can you make about the artist?
What do you like?
What don't you like?
Is there anything that you can take from Kandinsky's artwork to inspire your own work?
How is looking at artwork like listening to music? How is it different?
First and second grade artists competed two piece inspired by the work of Wassily Kandinsky.
For the first project, each student created on square with concentric circles, inspired by Kandinsky's famous painting. We used oil pastels, then observed the watercolor resist technique by painting over our circles with liquid watercolors. We will put these squares together to form a collaborative display.
For the second project, students worked collaboratively to paint a mural inspired by Kandinsky's use of shape, line and color. We started with black paint, then added warm colors, then cool colors.
You can imagine the comments I heard when students entered the art room and saw THIS on the board. We made a lot of observations and guesses about this piece. Here are a few:
It's a portrait, it's made of vegetables, it's a painting, it looks like it was painted a long time ago, the ear is an ear of corn, it looks like it is someone specific, there's a lot of detail, it is colorful, it's funny, the vegetables look real even though the face does not....
Lucky for Arcimboldo, Rudolf had a sense of humor. And he had probably grown accustomed to the artist’s visual wit. Arcimboldo served the Hapsburg family for more than 25 years, creating oddball “composite heads” made of sea creatures, flowers, dinner roasts and other materials. from www.smithsonianmag.com
Click here to play a game inspired by Arcimboldo's faces
First and second graders read "The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County," by Janice Harrington. We looked at the illustrations and noticed how illustrator Shelley Jackson used many different types of arts media, including paint and collage, to create the pictures in the book.
While we watched a video of the this story, artists sketched as many different chickens as they could. Then we collected different textures to use to make painted paper for our collage chickens.
Join us to celebrate Diwali, The Festival of Lights! Next Wednesday, October 18th, we will gather as a whole school to enjoy a special Diwali luncheon. Students at all levels have learned about this festival and created artwork and helped prepare food for this festival.
Here's some information about Diwali from kidzworld.com : Many people immediately think of Halloween and Christmaswhen it comes to winter holidays, but in Hindu culture there’s another major winter holiday that can’t be missed – Diwali. Diwali is also known as the festival of lights, and is celebrated by millions of people around the world. This year it falls on October 19th 2017. Find out more in All About Diwali! Diwali originated in India as a celebration of light, in fact the world Diwali comes from “deepavali”, meaning “row of lamps.” It is traditionally celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs, although over the years it has been incorporated into many different cultures around the world. It is known as the festival of lights because in celebration people light many small claylampscalled "diyas" around their homes to represent the victory of good over evil and to invite good luck and prosperity from the Hindu Goddess Lakshmi and the God Ganesh, who represents good luck, wealth and enlightenment. Kindergarten and first grade artists are making "Diyas," the small clay candle holders that are placed around homes during Diwali to celebrate the triumph of light over darkness.
Third and fourth grade artists created sand Rangoli designs. Rangolis are generally circular mandala designs that are created using colored sand, rice or chalk on the ground outside of homes as a sign of welcoming. We also painted large Rangoli designs on paper with watercolor paints. We learned about radial symmetry.
Fifth and sixth grade artists looked specifically at Rangoli designs that feature peacocks. The Peacock is a symbol of beauty, glory and refinement. We used chalk and oil pastels on construction paper.
