Let the Sun Shine...

Happy Spring!... well almost.
I took this small window of warmness to do a bright, sunny painting with our Kindergarteners and First Graders inspired by Alma Thomas, and African American abstract painter from Columbus, Georgia.
Alma Thomas' artwork is greatly influenced by nature, especially her painting, "The Eclipse, " which features a near-total solar eclipse that she witnessed in 1970.

Using, construction paper, tempera paints and sponge brushes, we created this:

and this!

SPECIAL THANKS to Deena Sisk, art teacher extraordinaire, at Whitesburg, Williams, and Farley Elementary Schools for sharing this lesson!





Love is in the air....



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So, for totally selfish reasons I decided to teach our Kindergarteners and First Graders a lesson about Jim Dine. I LOVE JIM DINE! Big, wonderful, hearts of love for Jim Dine!

They did a wonderful job creating a crayon resist painting of hearts in the style of Jim Dine. We divided our paper into QUADRANTS (Math buzz word!) and drew four hearts, colored them in and watercolored on top of them.

The result was fantastic and fun....

Aaron Douglas Monochromatic Paintings

Our Fourth and Fifth grade students are perfecting their painting skills with this lesson! After viewing images of Aaron Douglas' paintings, they designed their own nature-inspired artwork, using four hues of ONE COLOR... (big word: MONOCHROMATIC!)
Aaron Douglas was a popular African American painter during the Harlem Renaissance, who settled in Nashville, Tennesseee and became a professor at Fisk University,
Take a lot at what our talented kids can do!