1st Grade:
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Students examine four distinctive landscapes to fuel spontaneous creativity and thoughtful examination. From the starkly beautiful, arid desert-scapes of New Mexico, inspired by artist Georgia O'Keeffe, to the ephemeral mountain-scapes and waterways of China, inspired by artist Cheng Yan, to the bold and electrifying sea-scapes of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, inspired by artists Yayoi Kusama and Bridget Riley, and finally, to the ever-transforming landscapes of Earth, itself— concealing fossilized hidden treasures from ancient civilizations and life forms gone by— the Earth holds many secrets just waiting to be unearthed by the adventurous artist.
Students examine four distinctive landscapes to fuel spontaneous creativity and thoughtful examination. From the starkly beautiful, arid desert-scapes of New Mexico, inspired by artist Georgia O'Keeffe, to the ephemeral mountain-scapes and waterways of China, inspired by artist Cheng Yan, to the bold and electrifying sea-scapes of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, inspired by artists Yayoi Kusama and Bridget Riley, and finally, to the ever-transforming landscapes of Earth, itself— concealing fossilized hidden treasures from ancient civilizations and life forms gone by— the Earth holds many secrets just waiting to be unearthed by the adventurous artist.
1st Grade Projects for this course- Landscapes 1, 2, 3 and 4:
1st Grade Projects for this course- Landscapes 1, 2, 3 and 4:
The creative journey for first graders begins inside the brilliant petals of a wildflower in full bloom--1st landscape. Inspired by artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s red poppies— enlarged to near abstraction— students record the peaks and valleys of their flowers as intimate portraits using white pencils overlaid with glue lines to create zones of space for color. Then with complementary colors in mind for contrasting effects between figure and ground, students use chalk pastels to apply shades of color that bring life, energy and depth to their wildflowers. From the life-energy of the desert-scapes to the waterways of China, students retreat to the tranquility of the waters edge at dusk to capture a dragonfly flitting amongst the river reeds under a watchful moon--2nd landscape. Using bamboo brushes and black tempera paint, students experiment with varying levels of applied pressure with their brushes to create a seamless gradation of dark to light murky water and blurred river reed roots, while using thinner lines to define the reeds above water. Students then use paper collage to affix a water-colored dragonfly within its habitat to portray a Chinese work of art that emphasizes serenity, nature, minimalism, and informal balance all at once. From China to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, students explore the art of camouflage, pattern and silhouetted paper collage to depict an underwater narrative that exposes, yet conceals, a chosen marine animal as it darts to safety within its organically vibrant environment--3rd landscape. Inspired by the colorful, repetitious amorphic shapes of artist, Henri Matisse, students use pencil, white oil pastel, chalk pastels, liquid-metal watercolor paints, and black cardstock paper to assemble layers of collaged artwork to create the illusion of depth visually, and quite literally. The final frontier, 4th landscape, explores the concept of organic life concealed underneath layers of earth in the form of fossils. Once again, the dragonfly becomes the subject for their clay art project— immortalized on Egyptian-painted stone reliefs over 6,000 years ago to acknowledge the dragonfly as a vital part of the ecosystem on the Nile River to control the insect population. Students use the open-hand method, coil method and clay tracing to create their lily pads, dragonfly bodies and majestic wings. Students then place a colored bead in between the wings as a final decadent accent before painting their dragonflies in distinctive colors and patterns— adding accents of metallic watercolor paint to draw attention to fragile wing patterns, eyes and striped tails that elevate their winged-creatures to a jeweled specimen worthy of an Egyptian Queen!
