Ketchup Time!

Georgetown’s fifth grade artists are completing two different art pieces this week. We’ve gotten a little behind due to snow days and winter break, so we’ve been playing “Catch Up”…or as we say in the art room, Ketchup Time!

These fun and colorful villages are inspired by the work of Austrian architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Take a peek at this fun video to see Hundertwasser’s work….my 5th graders are still asking to watch the video, but I suspect it is partly because of the music that goes along with it!

Fifth graders have also been getting a kick out of their Salvadore Dali “Vase or Face” pieces. Which is it…vase or face?

This famous optical illusion became the basis for their own surreal vase/face pieces, complete with symbols often used by Salvador Dali himself – ants, eyes, and floating watches. It has been fun to see how my students interpret the Surrealist art movement and integrate the dreamlike, slightly uncomfortable images of Surrealism into their own pieces.

See more Hundertwasser and Vase/Face pieces at our ARTSONIA online art gallery!

Learning Goals: *Identify the work of Hundertwasser and Dali *Name two facts about both artists *Create an architectural drawing in the style of Hundertwasser *Identify elements of Surrealism including transformation and juxtaposition *Create a Surreal drawing in the style of Dali

January 27, 2015 by josettebrouwer

Picasso Portraits

First Grade artists have been exploring the abstract work of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. They learned that Picasso worked in a style called Cubism. After looking at lots of cubist art pieces, our smart first graders decided that cubism is when an artist uses lots of shapes and shows details from different views in the same picture – like their practice drawings here:

Next they discovered that when Picasso was sad, he used lots of blue paint during his “Blue Period”. Picasso’s work changed when he became happier and he used more oranges and pinks during his “Rose Period”.

They chose their own blue or rose color period to create their Picasso portrait collages. See more of our awesome Picassos at our Artsonia on-line gallery!

Learning Goals:

I can tell two facts about Pablo Picasso; I can explain cubism; I can create a portrait in the cubist style of Pablo Picasso

December 9, 2014 by josettebrouwer

Kindergarten Winter Shapes

Kindergarten artists have been busy cutting and gluing shapes to create these beautiful winter scenes. After painting the background sky, the artists cut common shapes to build trees and houses. These projects have brightened up our hallways on our gloomy December days.

See more of these Kindergarten Winter Shapes at our ARTSONIA site!

November 30, 2014 by josettebrouwer

Looking For A Special Holiday Gift?

Check out our student artwork on Artsonia, our on-line art gallery! We are busy uploading winter and holiday themed student artwork – perfect for a special holiday gift! Your child’s artwork can be printed on a variety of items – from mugs to holiday cards. And…20% of your purchase goes directly to our Georgetown Art Department.

Here’s Sara14000’s poinsettia piece – visit our gallery for more gift ideas!

November 29, 2014 by josettebrouwer

Fourth Grade Figure Studies

Georgetown Fourth Grade artists recently finished a huge figure drawing unit. They began by looking at the art of Edgar Degas, who was a master at drawing the human figure and known for his pastel drawings of ballerinas.

Then they tried their own figure drawings…modeling for each other and doing a series of quick gesture drawings in their sketchbooks.

Next we moved on to drawing wooden mannequin figures!

Finally – they created a background by straw blowing paint and outlining their beautiful blotches…and adding their figure drawings and other practice forms on their background. Magnificent!

I CAN:

* Identify the work of Edgar Degas

* Capture movement in a figure by gesture drawing

* Draw a mannequin figure in correct proportion

See more 4th Grade figure drawings at our ARTSONIA on-line gallery!

November 11, 2014 by josettebrouwer

2nd Grade Tigers

After learning about the life and art of Henri Rousseau, 2nd graders at Georgetown created these ferocious tigers in the style of Rousseau. They learned that Rousseau liked to paint jungle scenes with wild animals even though he had never been to the jungle or had ever seen a wild animal. First the artists drew the tiger and painted it. Then they painted and cut out flowers and leaves to create a jungle scene. These tigers turned out great even though none of these artists had ever been to the jungle either!

See more of our ferocious tigers at our Artsonia On-Line Art Gallery!

There are lots of tiger projects out there on art blogs – we’d like to thank Alum Creek Elementary School’s Artsonia page for our project inspiration! See their page here.

October 29, 2014 by josettebrouwer

Kindergarten Secondary Pumpkins

Kindergarten artists are learning about Primary and Secondary colors. Students were given play dough in Primary colors and found out that Primary colors can mix together to form new colors we call Secondary colors. Students then drew pumpkins on paper and were given paint in Primary colors. They mixed the yellow and red paint on the paper to make orange for their pumpkins. They mixed yellow and blue on their paper to make green for their leaves. After the pumpkins dried, they cut them out and glued them on purple paper. All three secondary colors are represented on their final project; orange, green and purple. Way to go Kindergarteners! Your pumpkins turned out great.

See more cute pumpkins at our ARTSONIA Art Gallery!

October 25, 2014 by josettebrouwer

O’Keeffe Flowers

Georgetown’s 5th Grade artists have finished up their O’Keeffe flowers, and their completed pieces are stunning! We focused on the art elements for this project, and the 5th graders were amazed to see how many important art elements were included in their flower paintings.

Art Elements we used!

O’Keeffe “Red Poppy”

After viewing O’Keeffe’s “Red Poppy”, 5th graders filled their picture space just like O’Keeffe did, and used a warm/cool color palette to paint their flowers. Their final step – adding black glue lines – really made these beauties POP!

See more of our O’Keeffe flowers at our Artsonia Gallery!

October 21, 2014 by josettebrouwer

Kindergarten Mini Mondrians

At Hudsonville Public Schools, each elementary grade has at least three artists they are required to be introduced to. Kindergarten students learn about the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. Mondrian is such a great artist for Kindergarteners to learn about because he painted with Primary colors and straight lines. He really liked horizontal and vertical lines. Kindergarteners at Georgetown Elementary created “Mini Mondrians” by using small squares of paper and gluing on strips of Primary colored construction paper. They glued four mini squares onto their large black square to create their project. Students were allowed to make an extra mini square to take home to show their family.

See more Mini Mondrians at our ARTSONIA on-line Art Gallery!

May 28, 2014 by josettebrouwer

Amazon Rain Forest Birds

Georgetown’s Fourth Grade artists created these beautiful Amazon rainforest birds to wrap up their study of Mexico, Central America, and South America. See more rainforest birds in our on-line Artsonia gallery here!

This project was inspired by Denise M. Logan’s book, “Dynamic Art Projects For Children”.