Parthein Parasols

Our next stop around the world is Burma, now known as Myanmar.  Fifth graders made radial balanced designs reminiscent of the hand-painted parasols sold in Burmese markets.

Sweet Treats

Third graders, just before winter break, made little sculptures of cupcakes.  They also learned about American artist, Wayne Thiebeaux, whose art was influenced by his daily walk to work past a bakery window. He is well-known for making paintings of pies, cakes and other sweet treats.

Gingerbread People and Architecture

Kindergarten made gingerbread people or figures out of paper.  First graders learned a bit about architecture when they created paper collages depicting gingerbread houses.  They look almost good enough to eat!

Lucha Libre Mask Portraits

Fifth graders created paintings of Mexican lucha libre wrestlers.  This was a lesson I developed several years ago and had published in the magazine Arts and Activities last year!

Scarecrows

Second graders learned about directional lines and the use of space in art.  They created a crop field with the three different directional lines painted on paper, then created a sense of distance or space with the placement and size of the objects in the picture.

Photo Backdrop

This is my contribution to the Fall Festival.  It's a photo backdrop of a scary path to a haunted house.

Mexican Art

Illustrations on Display

In October, I had my two recent book illustrations on display in the Fall Art Show of the Northeast Florida Art Educators Association.  The pictures are from the "If Picasso..." book series. 

Scary Pumpkins

First graders enjoyed creating painted paper scary pumpkin collages for the fall season.

Mexican Sombreros

First graders LOVED creating their sombreros!

More from Mexico

We are traveling the world in art class this year.  Here are more works from 3rd and 4th graders.  It is their version of Amate Bark Painting, using crumpled up brown bags instead of bark.  The student learned how the craftsmen made the bark paper to paint on and the characteristic images they painted. The students used handouts of sample images to inspire them.  They first drew on the paper with white chalk a simple outline of their chosed image.  Then, they they filled in the image with white tempera paint. This way, the colors would be more vibrant over the brown bag.  I think they turned out magnifico!

First Stop-Mexico!

In kindergarten, they learned about warm colors and created a wet collage with bleeding tissue paper. Once the tissue paper dried, it peeled right off, revealing the colors reminiscent of watercolors. 

Students then traced a large circle and with black tempera paint, created an Aztec sun face.