Georgia O'Keefe Flowers

First and second grade artists studied Georgia O'Keefe.  Here are a couple of videos that we watched about O'Keefe and her work. 

We drew flowers in the style of Georgia O'Keefe.  For the flower, artists chose two colors that are analogous.  They drew their flowers with oil pastels and used tissues to blend the colors. Then the artists added black details to the center of the flowers.  For the background of the pictures, artists chose complementary colors and blended them. Beautiful results!  

Your Best

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." ~ Steve Prefontaine

Artists in Residence - Jeh Kulu West African Dancing and Drumming

My Artful Vacation

Since I am reluctantly taking this season off from skiing, my husband and I were looking for a winter get-away during my February vacation.  We decided to take a quick trip to New York City.  As an art teacher, this visit turned out to be incredibly inspirational.   It was a thrill to see so many works of art that I teach about up close and personal!  

We visited the Metrolopolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art,  and The Scandinavia House 

Visit my Google Art Project collection from the Met and the MoMA - click here

If you can't make it to a museum, www.googleartproject.com is a really neat way to explore the collections from your computer at home.  

Blind Artist featured on CBS Evening News.... Amazing!

West African Adinkra Symbols

This year's Artist-in-Residence was Jeh Kulu, a West African dance troupe.  They worked with all students at our school to teach West African drumming and dancing.  

Fifth and sixth grade artists learned about the Adinkra symbols found in West African art, particularly in textiles from Ghana.  Students chose a symbols with a meaning that spoke to them.  We used foam paper to make stamps, then used traditional print-making techniques print the stamps. 

West African Drums

This year's Artist-in-Residence was Jeh Kulu, as dance group from West Africa.  All students had a chance to work with the drummers and dancers to learn rhythms and dances.  In celebration of these fabulous guests, artists drew djembe drums.  We focused on adding lots of pattern to the drums and painting them with  bright colors. 

Snow People Collage

We read Snowballs by Louise Ehlert and were inspired by her creative collages to create snow men and women.  We used scrap paper from our Eric Carle collage project.