Kindergarten Plays with Line

Kindergarten students are learning all about line this week in art. 

They have learned about different types of line like horizontal, vertical and diagonal. 

They looked at how famous artists used overlapping lines and patterns like in these works of art below:

Here, they are experimenting with overlapping lines and making patterns:

They will also be creating an artwork inspired by Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie (see above).

Stay tuned!

First Graders Inspired by Jasper Johns

First graders have been busy creating letter paintings inspired 

by American artist, Jasper Johns.

They begin by designing letters using crayon, stamps, stickers and stencils. 
After they have the lettering finished, they begin adding paint.

Here are some snapshots of the works in process:

Kindergarten Meets Rauschenberg

Kindergarten art students learned about
Robert Rauschenberg’s
“Red Paintings”.

Just like Rauschenberg, Kindergartners used a variety of fabrics and paper scraps
to create these
MONOCHROMATIC collages.

Fourth Grade Goes Graphic

image courtesy of the GR Press.

Fourth Grade art students studied the art of Stephen Frykholm while creating these “Summer Advertisement” posters.

Steve Frykholm has been Herman Miller’s in-house graphic designer for almost 40 years . From his first year with the furniture company, through 1989, he produced a silk screened poster each year for the company’s summer picnic—20 in all.

Seven of those posters are in the permanent collection of the MOMA.

Fourth graders were given the challenge of creating a poster that advertised their Summer memories without using words.

The requirements were to emphasize simple lines, flat colors and a “zoomed-in” focal point, just as Frykholm uses in his graphic design.

Students used viewfinders to create the same up-close viewpoint in their work.

Here are a few of the fourth grade Summer posters inspired by Frykholm:

Paint+Potatoes=Art?

First graders had a blast making art with potatoes last week.
The focus of this project was pattern, repetition and movement.

Students learned that these three elements are not only important in music and math, but in visual art as well.

To prove this point, I showed them artworks such as "La Gerbe" by Matisse and "Squares with Concentric Circles" by Kandinsky. Everyone agreed that both artworks would not have the same impact without the use of repetition.

For their paintings, students were given various potatoes cut into different shapes. They chose which ones they wanted to use to dip into paint and print on their paper. Their challenge was to create art that showed action, or movement through their repetitive designs.

Below are a few of the results:

Kindergarten Self Portraits

Kindergarten art students have been learning about the art of self-portraiture this week. First, they created a collage for the colorful backgrounds. Then, they focused on contour line and facial proportion when drawing their faces. They looked in mirrors as they drew so they could really "see" what they looked like.

Second Grade Works with Oil Pastels

Second graders at Bradfield can tell you a lot about working with oil pastels. Not only are they are so fun to work with, they can produce amazing textures and big, bold colors. They spent the first couple of weeks in art experimenting with pastels, which resulted in these wonderful little works of art!

First, they created a scribble design on their paper. Then, they began filling in each closed off area, or shape, with a different method of using oil pastels.

They mixed, blended, scratched, rubbed, and brushed over the pastels with watered down paint. The challenge was to think of a different technique for each area.

They've done a great job. Don't you agree?