Remembrance Day Art – so much more than a red thumbprint!

There are some amazing art experiences to be had around this time of year, and it’s always inspiring to see work that incorporates some skills based learning.

This website link shows the work of some students in Year 3 &4 from a private school in Norfolk. They were looking at the poppy painting of Georgia O’Keefe:

http://hohs-blog.com/2014/11/22/years-3-and-4-study-poppies-by-the-artist-georgia-o-keefe-for-remembrance-day/

Poppies can also be an interesting way of discussing space (background, foreground, middle distance) How do the shapes and colours change to show that the poppies are far away, or close by?

Poppies can also be abstracted to become part of an extension of a focus on line.

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Stone dots

As my class pursue their line project on ocean stones, I found this work by Elspeth McLean. She is from Australia, but is now based on Salt Spring Island B.C. The link to  Australian aboriginal dot art is clear, but she has expanded the traditional colour palette and uses ocean stones as her canvas.  stone-art-mandala-elspeth-mclean-canada-13-605x605 stone-art-mandala-elspeth-mclean-canada-14-605x605 stone-art-mandala-elspeth-mclean-canada-18-605x605 stone-art-mandala-elspeth-mclean-canada-20-605x605 stone-art-mandala-elspeth-mclean-canada-21 stone-art-mandala-elspeth-mclean-canada-1-605x605 stone-art-mandala-elspeth-mclean-canada-3-605x605 stone-art-mandala-elspeth-mclean-canada-9

Van Gogh’s Life in Flowers

In Zundert, Holland there is an annual parade of amazing floats created with millions of dahlia flowers. This year the parade was inspired by the life of Vincent Van Gogh (look at the attached YouTube clip for how to pronounce that name!)  He was born in Zundert 162 years ago. Some of the floats were articulated; you can see details of one where Van Gogh’s head opened into an array of sunflowers. Regardless of the fact that these floats are created with flowers,  the designs are amazing.

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Pointillist Fast Food

The line between craft and art is sometimes blurred, especially when it comes to traditional crafts, but this textile work by Ed Bing Lee is undoubtedly ART. Starting as a commercial fabric designer in New York and Philadelphia, he works with coloured thread and thousands upon thousands of knots. Lee was inspired by the master pointillism George Seurat. Rather than emulating the great master, he has taken his work and reinvented it: “I continually return to art history for visual and conceptual stimulation. For me, it is the perfect jumping off point for work in a technique that knows no boundaries.”

Pointillism- is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism.

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Line Project

On Monday October 19th, we are aiming to display art from Kindergarten to Grade 12 that highlights the use of LINE! It is going to be fascinating to see how students’ appreciation of line develops through the grades and it’s a great opportunity to showcase students’ work from the whole school. Here are some images that might kick start some ideas and also some websites that I have found useful:

http://curkovicartunits.pbworks.com/w/page/11306896/%22Make%20You%20Mark%22%20-%20Line%20Drawings

http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.ca/2012/02/elements-of-art-and-principles-of.html

http://www.studentartguide.com/articles/line-drawings

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Silver Birch Trees

Students???? were asked to research silver birch trees and to experiment with impasto acrylic and a palette knife to create texture for the bark. Each student developed their own composition and studied the idiosyncrasies of this type of tree: small brown upward tilted branches, foliage very high on tree and small oval leaves with serrated edges.

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Doll’s House Bliss

June 7th 2015 – visited the Doll’s House and Miniatures Fair in Burnaby with Jessica. What a treat for the eye! Two doll’s houses in particular were just spectacular. The creativity and attention to detail was breathtaking. I have a very sad and unloved doll’s house that I salvaged to renovate. I’ll track its transformation here.2015-06-07 15.24.112015-06-07 15.31.41 2015-06-07 15.31.24 2015-06-07 15.31.04 2015-06-07 15.26.38 2015-06-07 15.24.37 2015-06-07 15.24.33

The purpose of art is washing the daily dust off our souls – Pablo Picasso

At the risk of sounding clichéd, art makes my life worthwhile- it truly does dust off my soul. Happiness comes in the form of unexpected permutations of colour, line, shape, form and texture. This blog is an attempt to communicate what I find beautiful, unexpected and worthy of attention. Please feel free to add to and discuss my choices. Any comment that is productive and thought-provoking is wholeheartedly welcome!