First Grade Abstract Kandinsky Painting

   In First Grade, we finished discussing the Artwork of Kandinsky.  We learned that he loved to put shapes in his Artwork and felt that Art did not have to show one specific thing, it could be Abstract. We discussed what Abstract means in Artworks as well as how colors can be used to show emotion within the Art. 

 After looking at some of Kandinsky's works, we began creating our own Abstract Art inspired by his paintings.  First Graders selected one shape or a variety of shapes and then outlined them with Oil Pastels.  We then learned about Watercolor and how it is different than other paints, it needs to be light in appearance and needs to be made wet to work with.  The Oil Pastel resists the paint and allows the different colors to show through. 

Here are some of our Abstract paintings:

Fourth Grade Picasso Portrait

   In fourth grade, we looked at the many portraits of Pablo Picasso and discussed his technique used to create them.  We also discussed personal symbols that sometimes artists put in to portraits to give a hint of themselves being in the image. 

    Students created an outline of a head, they were instructed to create an organic shape so both sides were not equal.  They then drew a line down the center and created a face, different on each side.  The students then filled in their portrait with watercolor pencils and painted over with a wet brush so the colors blended together.  Once dry, the portraits were outlined with sharpie so the pencil could be seen through the paint.  Students also added symbols into their artwork that represented themselves as an individual.

Third Grade Georgia O'Keeffe Flowers

One of the last projects of the year for third grade was inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe.  We read a book about her life and journey as an artist and we discussed how she used her surroundings to create her art.  We talked about how her some of her art is abstracted, larger than real life or slightly altered.  We then began creating our very own flowers.  First, students created a stencil to use for their flower's petals.  The stencil could be whatever shape they wanted, just as long as it was fairly large.  Then, students were instructed to overlap the stencil and trace it around an already pre-cut flower center stencil.  This created their basic flower outline. 

     Once the flower was on paper, students filled the interior with multiple colors of watercolor.  We referenced Georgia's works and how she really looked and identified/amplified the colors within her subjects.  The students then selected a color to fill the background space that was showing.  The petals were outlined with oil pastel to help them stand out.  Third grade really enjoyed working on this project, the freedom they had with the shapes and the design really allowed them to take ownership of their creativity.