Art at Hosmer

Friday, March 2, 2018

Delicious Desserts, Inspired by Wayne Thiebaud

After exploring color mixing by creating new colors and naming them, 3rd grade artists looked at and discussed the work of American painter Wayne Thiebaud. Thiebaud (pronounced "tee-bow") is known for his paintings of everyday objects, like food, and still makes art today.

Wayne Thiebaud, Four Cupcakes (1971)

We looked at his paintings of different kinds of desserts and noticed his use of bright colors and dramatic, colorful shadows. Looking at several examples made us hungry! To begin our own paintings of desserts, we looked at the geometric shapes and forms that make up a lot of our favorite desserts.

We noticed that many desserts are either a cylinder, like a cake or pie; a cone shape, like an ice cream cone; a sphere, like the scoop of ice cream; or a triangular prism, like a slice of cake. We brainstormed and drew a few sketches of our favorite desserts before selecting one to sketch out on larger paper, focusing on the shapes.

The following class, we used our recent experience with mixing colors to paint our favorite desserts! We thought about how we could mix a variety of colors, thinking about the bright colors that Thiebaud uses in his painting, as well as using white to create lighter tints of a color. Students painted their desserts, incorporating tints, and the following week, they added additional details on top, now that the first layer of paint had dried.

Students thought about how they could decorate their cakes, ice cream cones, sundaes and doughnuts with creative details like frosting, sprinkles, flowers, candles and hot fudge.

During the next class, students painted the background, considering the use of a complementary colors and colors that would help their desserts to stand out. Since Thiebaud is also known for his use of strong shadows, we looked at cast shadows and how the shape of the object changes the shape of the shadow. Students added a colorful shadow to their dessert, and many students actually chose to add a window in their background to show a light source.

For our last class, students participated in a gallery walk to see everyone's artwork and also a turn and talk to share their work with a partner. Here are some colorful examples of our delectable Wayne Thiebaud inspired desserts:

Isabella, 3rd Grade (Fletcher)

Nicolle, 3rd Grade (Fletcher)

Anna, 3rd Grade (Fletcher)

Joey, 3rd Grade (DeBaie Nickl)

Morgen, 3rd Grade (DeBaie Nickl)

Boran, 3rd Grade (DeBaie Nickl)

Daniel, 3rd Grade (Fletcher)

Jehangeer, 3rd Grade (Fletcher)

Audrina, 3rd Grade (Donato)

Camryn, 3rd Grade (Donato)

Katie, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Luanna, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Amanda, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Warm and Cool Color Hands & Mittens

PK and Kindergarten artists recently learned about warm and cool colors. We learned that warm colors, like red, orange, and yellow, remind us of warm things like fire and the sun. Cool colors, like green, blue and violet, remind us of cool things like water and the sky. We looked at pictures of different objects and identified whether they were cool or warm colors. Then we used warm and cool colors in our artwork.

Kindergarten students used their hand to create a mitten shape and outline it on their paper. PK students traced the shape of their hand. Then, if they sat at a warm color table, they used oil pastels in warm colors to color in their mitten and if they sat at a cool color table, they used cool colors. Kindergarten students used a variety of different lines and shapes to add patterns and designs to their mitten to make them colorful and interesting. PK students focused on coloring and covering all of the white paper inside their hand.

The following class, Kindergarten students added snowflakes around their mitten, using white oil pastel, which was a little hard to see but would be revealed during the next step! Then students who had used warm color oil pastels used watercolor paint in cool colors to paint over and around their mitten or hand. For Kindergarten students, the paint also helped reveal their snowflakes!

The oil pastel and watercolor paint do not mix together so you can still see what you drew with the oil pastel, even after you add paint on top. This effect is called resist, since the two materials do not mix together but move apart. Here are a few examples of our warm and cool color mittens:

Andrew S., Kindergarten (Martignetti)

Clara, Kindergarten (Bolton)

Miguel, Kindergarten (Beatty)

Caroline, Kindergarten (Beatty)

Sorayah, Kindergarten (Blackwood)

Beatrix, Kindergarten (Blackwood)

Alejandro, Kindergarten (Martignetti)

Emily B., Kindergarten (Bolton)

Astrid, Kindergarten (Segreve)

Emily B., Kindergarten (Segreve)

Cristina, Kindergarten (Tan)

David, Kindergarten (Beatty)

Friday, February 9, 2018

Family Traditions Mixed Media Collage, Inspired by Carmen Lomas Garza

Recently 1st grade artists finished their mixed media collage artworks that tell the story of a family memory or tradition. This project took us a few weeks! We began by looking at two paintings by the Mexican American artist, Carmen Lomas Garza. Students were asked to look at the artwork carefully and then think about what is happening and what supports their thinking.

Carmen Lomas Garza, Barbacoa Para Cumpleaños (1993)

Students noticed that there is a girl hitting a piñata, a cake on a table, and many people of different ages gathered together, so it might be a birthday party, a backyard BBQ or a family reunion. Our observations helped us to "read" the painting and understand the story visually, without words. We noticed that the artist paints the story, using a lot of details to help us understand what is happening. Carmen Lomas Garza is a Mexican American artist who was born in Texas. She paints about her experiences as a Mexican American and her paintings feature her family. Students thought about a time they have spent with their family and family traditions they have experienced. They tried to remember who was there, where it took place, and what people were doing.

Then they made their own sketches and drawings of this memory. For many students, it was a family tradition or annual event such as Christmas, Hanukkah, or Thanksgiving. For others, they remembered their birthday or a sibling's birthday. Some students drew about a family summer vacation to the beach or a long roadtrip, while others drew about playing in the park, weekend picnics, and building snowmen.

The following week, students used their sketches and created a painted background for their artwork. Removing the details, students painted paper with solid colors for their background, whether it was yellow sand, blue sky or white snow.

We let the painted paper dry and the next class, students began adding the people and details in their foreground using a variety of different materials. Students cut and tore shapes from colored paper, tissue paper, fabric, felt, and yarn and put them together to created a mixed media collage of their family memory. Students thought carefully about how the colors, patterns and textures of the materials would help tell their visual story.

They tried to make the setting clear, whether it was indoors or outdoors, daytime or nighttime. Students worked very hard on these mixed media collages, and wrote a sentence on the back about their work, describing the memory or tradition. We participated in our first gallery walk, which is when we walk around the room to observe everyone's artwork. During a gallery walk we make sure not to touch the artwork, just like at a museum. We also did our first turn and talk, where we picked a partner and shared our artwork with them.

Students took turns talking about their work and asking questions, considering what their work was about, what they were proudest of in their work, and what was the most challenging part of creating it. At the end of class, we shared them with class on the rug so that everyone could take a look at the finished work, and we could learn more about each student's story. Below are some examples of our work, with a description written by the student.