Description of the Unit – Students will observe Henri Rousseau’s paintings of tigers in the jungle with the objective of understanding foreground and background.
Continue reading “3rd Grade – Tigers in the Jungle, inspired by Henri Rousseau”Tag: visual arts
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.
Continue reading “6th Grade – Chuck Close-inspired Self Portraits”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.
Continue reading “8th Grade – Chiaroscuro Drawing with CJ Hendry”8th grade – watercolor & mixed media
Description of the Unit – This is a purely technical unit that allows students to explore combining watercolor painting techniques with other media.

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.
Continue reading “7th Grade – Japanese Notan Designs”4th Grade Surrealist Collage
Description of the Unit – Observing the work of several Surrealist collage artists, like Julien Pacaud, students will learn about the meaning of the term Surrealism, and how it is used in collage art. They will then go on to create their own weird, wild and wonderful collages, using varied sources such as books, magazines, and hand-made paper, while also including an image of themselves within the composition.
Continue reading “4th Grade Surrealist Collage”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.
Continue reading “6th Grade – Frank Stella, Protractor Series Designs”5th Grade – Found Art Assemblage Inspired by the Art of Louise Nevelson
Description of the Unit – Students will explore the monochromatic, found-art assemblages of Louise Nevelson, and create their own in small groups.
Continue reading “5th Grade – Found Art Assemblage Inspired by the Art of Louise Nevelson”2nd Grade – Recreating Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers
Description of the Unit – Second grade students explored Vincent van Gogh’s unique style of painting by observing and then recreating his famous Sunflowers still life.
Continue reading “2nd Grade – Recreating Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers”7th & 8th grade – famous painting halloween costumes
Description of the Unit – To celebrate Halloween, students chose a famous painting featuring any kind of portrait, such as one of Vincent van Gogh’s or Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits. They recreated the painting onto posterboard, cutting out the area with the face so that they could ultimately “wear” the painting as a Halloween costume!
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