My Grade 6 classes have been learning about the work of Takashi Murakami and went to visit the exhibition of his work, “The Octopus Eats its own Leg” at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Murakami is a fascinating artist who revisited his cultural roots after the 2011 earthquake that hit Japan. His super-flat style harks back to the work of Itō Jakuchū who was creating work in the Edo period (1603 – 1868). Murakami connects the flatness of his work to Japanese art as a whole and contrasts it with the western ideas of perspective and depth.

It was wonderful to see how excited the students were to experience the art ‘in the flesh’! Having researched Murakami for a couple of weeks,  they approached the exhibition well prepared and equipped some depth of knowledge. I felt so proud to see them all engrossed in the work and disappointed to leave after 90 minutes in the exhibition.

It can be tricky to balance appreciation of an artist and not to stifle a student’s creativity. (See #11 Classroom Creativity). At the exhibition, students sketched some of the arhats (enlightened Buddhist healers), but will move forward on their own creative journey.  Now that they have understood Murakami’s ideas of super-flat images, they are going to explore cultural symbols of their own and create their own super-flat collage.

Students are often asked to illustrate their work and this can be intimidating for those who feel that they ‘can’t draw’ or as one student said to me yesterday, ” I get mad because my drawing never matches what’s in my head”.

Creating parameters for their drawing can offer the scaffolding that some students need. The UK newspaper, The Guardian,  remembered the 81st birthday of illustrator Raymond Briggs with these suggestions:

Quentin Blake is one of the best-loved illustrators of children’s fiction. This lesson by Access Art uses Blake’s work to inspire pupils to experiment with a variety of drawing techniques. There are three simple exercises for students to try: using continuous line drawing to create a picture without lifting their pen from the paper; building a picture from a series of separate, straight lines; using a watercolour wash. The aim is to get pupils taking risks with their drawings and trying new ways of working, as well as widening their experience of drawing and getting them away from the idea that a particular way of drawing is right or wrong.

At the end of the session, encourage students to evaluate their work by putting a sign that reads “Playing it safe’”at one end of the room and another that says “Taking a risk’”at the other. Pupils can put their drawings between the two signs, depending on the level of risk they have taken. You will find lots of other ideas on the Access Art website, including warm-up exercises and interesting activities, such as drawing to the beat of a metronome.

Art consultant Paul Carney has developed some resources for teachers to help them introduce students to a range of drawing styles such as realism, abstract, technical and graphic. These are designed to combat low confidence among students by helping them to develop a style that suits them. He has created a set of drawing lessons using all of these methods and more. They contain instructions for pupils and teachers, as well as links to information on well-known artists. This sample lesson, suitable for students aged between eight and 10 years old, focuses on creating a drawing using “one point perspective”.

In etymology lessons, with my Grade 6 students, they learn about root words such as auto = self, bio = life, cise = to cut. They illustrate their written work with drawings that are a visual exploration of the root words. They use mixed media with an emphasis on layering colour for added intensity. Not only do they produce beautiful and interesting illustrations, they find that creating a visual helps them to remember and conceptualise the words.

We are so lucky to have had Goh ballet student, Marsha Kwan with us today. In her beautiful Sugar Plum Fairy tutu, she held a series of poses for the students to sketch with careful observation drawing.

Students who are not accustomed to observation drawing can be nervous to begin. Once started, there is often a tendency to erase multiple times and want to restart. For some students it is difficult to commit to work that does not seem ‘perfect’. For that reason we used charcoal pencils which cannot be erased and long sheets of paper (20x60cms) to record a number of poses. We discussed the importance of observation and process and minimised the importance of the finished piece.

Marsha held her positions for 10 – 15mins and then moved a quarter turn and adapted her pose.

The students were able to maintain careful (and silent!) observation for over an hour, with ease. Their work shows a fluidity of line and sense of movement.

We will move forward with an introduction to Degas’ work and may further develop their sketches with some watercolour for emphasis

Working Title/Artist: Dancers, Pink and Green Department: European Paintings Culture/Period/Location: HB/TOA Date Code: Working Date: ca. 1890 scanned for collections

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Movement is one of the principles of art that expresses the path our eyes follow when we look at a work of art. Without movement, artwork becomes stagnant. In the early 20^th Century there was a great focus on ways to suggest movement. The camera had revolutionised the way that artists understood movement and artists felt the need to express movement in expressive ways.

How can we help students to express movement in their work?

• Look at the ways that artists suggest a sense of movement with line and repetition. They also experiment with ways of applying paint by using the action of the paint hitting the surface to show movement (see action painting, Jackson Pollock).
• Futurist artists experimented with abstracting reality. They worked with dynamic shapes and lines in order to suggest movement. Giacomo Ballà was a leading figure in the group. He believed that the power and speed of machines like cars were the outstanding features of the modern age. He aimed to express this idea in works such as Abstract Speed – The Car has Passed 1913.
• Some artists (Jackson Pollock, Wassily Kandinsky, Damien Hirst) listened to music while they worked and that influenced their mark making.
• Read about gestural art for inspiration.
• Graphic artists and cartoonists use specific shorthand marks to suggest movement. During the pop art era, Roy Lichtenstein took these ideas into the realm of ‘fine art’. Students can use cartoon style marks, lines and repeated overlapping images to add movement and dynamism to their artwork.
• Another way to think about movement is op art (see Bridget Riley) to investigate how shape, line and composition can create optical illusion and suggest movement.
• Mobiles (see Alexander Calder) are a simple way of creating kinetic art that explores the movement of forms and lines in space.
• Experiment with an acrylic pour https://youtu.be/rwgeOJbDjZ0 and record experiments with an iPad.

(adapted from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/student-resource/dynamism-and-movement-exam-help)

When asked to talk about a work of art, students often gravitate towards representational images because they are familiar and conform to their ideas of “good” art.  When visiting an art gallery or looking at famous works of art, students need help to see beyond what they immediately understand.

The first step is to look at the work – really look. Be patient. Although discussion is important, this close observation should be in silence.

After a period of observation ask students what they would like to say about the piece. This has to be a “no fail zone” students need to to be able to speak freely (but adhere to the dos and don’ts below)

Ask students to avoid:

1. Discussion of whether the work is “good’ or “bad”: are any of us qualified to comment?
2. Discussion of whether we like or dislike the work – this is not relevant to appreciation of a work and can create a  mindset that “blocks” exploration of ideas.

Ask students to focus on:

1. What emotion is evoked with this work? What do you feel? What was the artist’s intention?
2. Be a detective! Is there a story to be revealed? What visual clues lead you to your ideas?
3. What are the elements and principles of design that stand out in this work. (ask students to be specific – nearly every painting has form and colour, but what is particularly important about the colour or form?)

My Grade 6 students were sharing their thoughts about Mondrian’s Composition No. 12 with Blue (see below). Analysis of abstract art can be daunting for students (and adults) But my students had a lot to say:

“The black grid is like the days of the week. It’s regular and it’s a schedule, but the blue square is like the weekend”

“It about structure and getting out of structure”

“The blue square is about freedom and getting away from a  prison”

“The blue square has a door that opens”

” The more I look, it all moves. The lines look 3D”

“When I look carefully, the rectangles are all different sizes. The only one that’s a perfect square is the blue square. maybe that’s important”

Many agree that using complex words with young children helps them to stretch their capabilities to build a vocabulary that can serve as a reservoir for conceptual understanding.

Even so, art vocabulary is often as tricky for adults as it is for kids!

I just found this website that has a wealth of vocabulary (linked to elements of design) Click here

Three small steps would be:

• avoid value judgments such as “good” or “bad”. Does it really matter if you like it? Ask kids to focus on what they see and use the elements of design to help, “that’s a really interesting use of line/colour/ form”
• describe orientation as portrait or landscape, not hamburger and hot-dog!
• discuss emotional impact – how does this piece make you feel?

Watching the documentary Beyond the Folds with my class today, reminded me how much I loved making paper cranes. Origami enthusiast Christian Marianciuc has been creating paper cranes everyday for a year.

His creations are inspired by his emotions and they involve a plethora of different techniques.  He documents his collection documented on his instagram page.

This is a great reminder that we can take something generic and transform it through personal creativity. The key is inspiring that creativity and giving enough breadth to fan the flames of individual expression.

This term, we are focusing on colour in all grades PreK – Gr 12. this is such a broad area that it can be tricky to know where to begin. Developing a sense of colour literacy can really help young artists to find their way. Using photography to seek out examples of colour combinations can be a great inspiration. Sometimes these can be found in the environment or can be created and recorded in different ways. Looking at the full spectrum is the colour alphabet. From there the vowels and consonants are the primary and secondary colours. When these are mastered, there are so many ways to explore analogous, triadic and split complementary palettes. Children will group colours instinctively, but can also be lead into new and exciting discoveries with some guidance. The dialogue that can result from justifying colour choices is especially valuable.

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