Highland View ES Art-Stroll
Art Stroll
Artfully Speaking|Pre-K Studio|Aztec Mexican Mosaic and Motif Masks|Drawing and Design|African Masks|Lighthouse Sketches|Lovely Architectural Lighthouses
Artfully Speaking
by Ms. Gearin
Each year in the Art Studio, all students create a mini project centering on a basic aspect of art. This year the focus is on the process of blending. Beautiful blending is the result of layering with more than one color. The changes which occur by combining colors on paper is the science part of art. Since science and art are friends, the new invented colors are a surprise and an incredible sight to see before our eyes. We added a real twist by beginning on rich colored paper consisting of Solar Yellow, Re-Entry Red, Orbit Orange, Gamma Green and Pulsar Pink. (These colors of paper are located on planet earth at your local Staples Store.) The art works will appear all over the school, especially around or near the outside doorways of each classroom for everyone to enjoy.
The theme of this inventive art stems from the uplifting musical performance the students experienced performed by Mr. Eric Maring. Mr. Maring, who taught at Highland View, now performs his music full time. Through his music, he emphasizes the beauty of the earth which is spelled out as the backdrop to his stage. Just by moving the letters around, which he demonstrates during his show, the word "earth" becomes "heart" and housed within both words is the word "art."
Ask your artists what they created about the earth which lifts their hearts in their art.
Pre-K Studio
In the art studio, the precious Pre-Kindergarten artists of Highland View are blending beautiful bubbling circles of all sizes. The students start out by drawing the circular shapes with drawing pencils. In order to emphasize that circles have a beginning point and an ending point, which happens to be at the same point, we chant the art train song "chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, choo, choo..." all the way around. Since circle shapes are friends, many circles are drawn before the blending of colors occurs. After many circles fill the paper from corner to corner and edge to edge, the students frame their own art work. The number of glue dots they squeeze from the glue bottles onto the frame paper is the number which reflects how old they are. You will see these colorful creations in the lovely lobby of our school.
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Kindergarten Painted Pinch Pots
Students created pinch pots using earthen clay with line designs.
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Aztec Mexican Mosaic and Motif Masks
We, the third grade students of Highland View completed the creation of sculpting Mexican clay in the style of the Aztec culture. Historically speaking, Aztec mosaic design is especially known for the beautiful repetition of geometric tile patterns along with intricate organic line and shape motif designs. Notice the completed creation of the mosaic designs painted on our masks reflected in the rich black patterns. Then, look very closely for the line design which were scraped onto the surface of the clay prior to firing the works of art in the kiln. We hope you enjoy our slideshow of our Mexican Masks.
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Drawing and Design
In the Art Studio, we the fifth grade artists created beautiful design work for the Highland View fundraiser "Art to Remember." As a theme, we selected animals in their environment both realistic and/or imaginary. The first step of the drawing and design process involved combining lovely lines with graphite pencils called sketching. These connected lines lead us to building soft shapes which allowed the image of the animals to slowly appear. Eventually, the shapes were filled with fifty shades of colors from the ink of markers which then allowed us to layer patterns of black line design with calligraphy markers over the many colors. This layering process resulted in the creation of the illusion of three dimensional depth on two dimensional paper. In other words, the drawings make you feel as if you could walk right into the pictures.
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African Masks
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Lighthouse Sketches
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Lovely Architectural Lighthouses
We the fourth grade artists of Highland View ES, are in the process of producing three dimensional lighthouses from recycled materials. Each of us collected metal cans along with plastic covers, bottle caps and marker tops in orders to create a unique design to our structures.
First, the cylindrical shape was constructed by connecting three metal soda cans with glue and tape. Next, the base can was firmly attached to thick chip board which is similar to cardboard, but stronger. In addition, the catwalk was designed by selecting various sizes of plastic lids with complementary wooden toothpicks. Finally, marker tops were positioned on the tippy top of our structure like a cherry.
The next phase of the process called papier-mache involved completely wrapping the core of our structure with newspaper dipped in a mixture of one part glue and two parts water. At this point, our focus had to shift from seeing a realistic lighthouse to designing an architectural sculpture combining geometric and organic shapes.
The generous amounts of colors mixed in plastic tubs were blended with white paint called tints. The idea of creating soft tints of colors allowed us to capture the beautiful rays of light which reflect upon lighthouses as the sun rises and sets along the shore lines throughout the world.
As the art sessions continued, we shared our paint tints with each other. We hope you share in the joy of our colors too!