Tag: art

1st Grade: Symmetry, Asymmetry & Balance with Erik Abel

1st Grade: Symmetry, Asymmetry & Balance with Erik Abel

Description of the Unit – Erik Abel is an American artist whose paintings express an appealing use of geometry and color, and, particularly in his abstracted paintings of animals, clearly express symmetry, asymmetry and balance in ways that are accessible to students as young as 1st grade. Students will observe and discuss his work, as well as other works of art that express the above terms and will then create their own Eric Abel-inspired animal illustration in oil pastel that express symmetry, asymmetry and balance.

The artist Erik Abel standing in front of his work at his studio
The artist Erik Abel standing in front of his work at his studio ©https://jettylife.com
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Kindergarten – Understanding movement with “Giraffes can’t Dance” by Giles Andreae & Guy Parker-Rees

Kindergarten – Understanding movement with “Giraffes can’t Dance” by Giles Andreae & Guy Parker-Rees

Description of the Unit – Inspired by the delightful children’s book Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees, students learned about ways in which movement can be expressed in art, later recreating their own dancing giraffe.

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6th Grade – Chuck Close-inspired Self Portraits

6th Grade – Chuck Close-inspired Self Portraits

Description of the Unit – Students observed and discussed the work of contemporary American painter Chuck Close, a technically innovative artist known particularly for his large-scale photo-realist portraits. Students applied Close’s use of a grid to break down a self-portrait into individually colored squares that together create a cohesive whole.

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8th Grade – Chiaroscuro Drawing with CJ Hendry

8th Grade – Chiaroscuro Drawing with CJ Hendry

Description of the Unit –

We begin by diving into the fascinating art of CJ Hendry. Hendry expresses having no formal art training and considers herself “not very creative.” Yet she’s a dedicated, innovative artist whose works are primarily hyper-realistic, large scale pencil drawings of (mostly) luxury objects that sometimes take 200 hours to complete. Working with pencil on paper her pieces are achieved through layers of what she refers to as scribbles. Watching her work (you can see some fun videos of her at work here: https://youtu.be/KB8vc9M4QWs and https://youtu.be/KixMpzhMS-o) students become awe-struck by the way her tireless pencil strokes beget such lifelike representations of real-life objects.

two images of artist CJ Hendryy working on her drawings, one of a pair of men's Gucci shoes, another of a boxing glove
Artist CJ Hendry at work
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7th Grade – Japanese Notan Designs

7th Grade – Japanese Notan Designs

Description of the Unit –

In this unit, students observed the traditional Japanese art of Notan designs, exploring the relationship between positive and negative space between elaborately cut designs, and how this relationship affects composition, balance and symmetry. Students created their own Notan designs.

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6th Grade – Frank Stella, Protractor Series Designs

6th Grade – Frank Stella, Protractor Series Designs

Description of the Unit – Students will observe and discuss the work of Frank Stella, focusing particularly on his Protractor series, and will themselves use a protractor to create designs inspired by this series.

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Kindergarten – Picasso’s Dog Lump

Kindergarten – Picasso’s Dog Lump

Description of the Unit – It’s a fun experiment to introduce students this young to the concept of multiple perspectives. To approach this concept in a playful way, students created a Picasso-inspired oil pastel illustration of his beloved dog Lump.

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