Vermont Farms and Barns

In Vermont, spring has sprung for the fourth grade artists painting these spring landscapes.  Fourth grade artists work to capture the various greens of the Green Mountain State in springtime and to create the illusion of space by developing a foreground, middle ground and background.  After painting these artists returned with brush and black paint to freshen up the outlines.  I love the bold color and lines.

Vermont Farms and Barns

Artists are off to a good start drawing Vermont Landscapes.  I think they did a great job, perhaps because it's a subject near and dear to our hearts.  This lesson was inspired by Josette Brower at  Georgetown Elementary Art.  Our learning objective was to practice drawing 3-D shapes, cubes and cylinders, and to draw a barn and silo in perspective.  We practiced once and then kids started their paintings.  No under drawing was necessary.     The only rule I gave the kids about the project was that the barn could be placed anywhere on the page except the very bottom of the paper.  We talked about leaving room for the animals to get in and out of the barn, and I wanted my youngest artists to experience creating space in their landscapes. 

Josette's students placed their barns in a winter landscape, but I think we'll go for spring so we can put the green in the Green Mountain State. Here are some examples of first, second, and third grade work.  Can you tell which is which...hmmmm.

Kids love learning to draw basic forms using perspective.  It's so exciting and this project was a big hit....Thanks Josette Brower!  Can't wait to add color.

  

Russian Landscape

Link to Russian miniature painting on lacquer box.

And here is a link to A Brief Overview of the Major Movements in Russian Art After 1850
More boxes:  http://sacredartpilgrim.com/schools/view/14

More Inspired by Grandma Moses

With repeating house shapes, this artist leads the viewers eye up the path and into the space she created in her painting. 

More work-in-progress landscapes inspired by Grandma Moses.  The first two are Currier sixth grade examples.We're really working the watercolors.  This artist's work demonstrates careful planning in the sequence in which she applied her paints. Working slowly and with a plan is key to avoiding color bleeds. 

With repeating house shapes, this artist leads the viewers eye up the path and into the space she created in her painting.

Rhythm and movement are created by combining flowing lines and repeating sets of shapes in this fourth grade artist's landscape.

Kids will be putting the finishing touches on these this week.  Nice job Currier!

Anna Mary Robertson Moses

grade 2 work in progress

We analyze the work of Grandma Moses in terms of subject, space, and style.  We work out the rules of simple perspective (size, placement, overlap) and identify examples.
 

We brainstorm a familiar scene and complete a rough draft.  We begin work on our folk art painting.