Self Portraits

Self portraits by artists in grades 3-6

Inspired by Miroco Machiko

Thank you to Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists for the introduction to Miroco Machiko.  I love her bold, stylized artwork.  The students can really relate to her sense of design and colorful images.  We looked at her picture of vegetables, then used crayon and watercolor resist to create fruit and vegetable pictures.

Here is artwork inspired by Miroco Machiko by first and second graders. This is the piece of artwork that artists in grades one and two will use for their Original Works fundraiser.  

Kindergarten Spiderwebs

This was a two day art project. On the first day, we used glue to draw spiderwebs on large pieces of black construction paper. The following art class we used chalk pastels to color the webs with bright colors. I kept a damp rag in the center of each table for artists to wipe their fingers off between colors. We read a Spider book and sang the Eensy Weensy Spider in English and Spanish.

My example: 

Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy

Third and fourth grade students looked at the art of Andy Goldsworthy. He is an artist from the UK who makes his work using all natural materials. We watched portions of the beautiful film "Rivers and Tides," about Goldsworthy's work. Students were in awe of Andy Goldsworthy's work and his patience. They loved the opportunity to get outside and work with sticks and leaves and rocks. We talked about how this type of art made us aware and appreciative of the natural beauty of where we live.

Inspired by Jasper Johns

First and second grade artists looked at the work of pop artist Jasper Johns. We learned that Johns makes artwork that shows everyday symbols and objects, like letters and numbers. We made artwork in the style of Jasper Johns by using letters and numbers and bright colors.