Initial Artist (2010)

My High School Art 1 class studied movements from the 20th Century. Students chose an artist from one of those movements to recreate one of their famous paintings. They designed a letter of the artist's initial and built a box using cardboard and paper mache. Next students painted a layer of gesso and sketched the painting to wrap all the way around the letter. Finally students painted their letter using acrylic paint trying to replicate the colors and style of the original artist. Final projects were on display in the Spring Art Show. Students were so proud of their artwork and they did a fantastic job! The nice thing about these projects are that they're super light weight and you can hang them with fishing line from the ceiling.

 

 Edgar Degas

                                                               Vincent Van Gogh

                                                                    Henri Matisse

                                                                       Paul Cezanne

                                                                    Rene Magritte

                                                                    Norman Rockwell

                                                                    Roy Lichtenstein

                                                                      Roy Lichtenstein

                                                                  Wayne Theibaud

                                                               Wassily Kandinsky

                                                                      Edward Hopper

Bites of History (2008)

My High School Art 2 class was challenged to create a painting or series of paintings inspired from famous artist. They could take 3 different paintings and combine them into one image. Here is my teacher example of combining 3 different Rene Magritte images into one.

Their other option was to create a series of 3 painting by recreating 2 famous paintings and then designing their own painting in a similar style.

Student Paintings   

**As with any art project I post please email me if you have questions about materials used, processes, or if you would like lesson plans. splattersandsmudges@gmail.com You can also ask questions in the comment section below each post.**

Initial Artist (2009)

My High School Art 1 class studied movements from the 20th Century. Students chose an artist from one of those movements to recreate one of their famous paintings. They designed a letter of the artist's initial and build box using cardboard and paper mache. Next students painted a layer of gesso and sketched the painting to wrap all the way around the letter. Finally students painted their letter using acrylic paint trying to replicate the colors and style of the original artist. Final projects were on display in the Spring Art Show. Students were so proud of their artwork and they did a fantastic job! The nice thing about these projects are that they're super light weight and you can hang them with fishing line from the ceiling.

                                                                    Andy Warhol

                                                                  Vincent Van Gogh

                                                                   Norman Rockwell

                                                                     Andy Warhol

                                                                       Edgar Degas

                                                                    Frank Stella

                                                                   Wayne Thiebaud

                                                                     Jasper Johns

                                                              Georges Seraut

                                                              2009 Spring Art Show

**As with any art project I post please email me if you have questions about materials used, processes, or if you would like lesson plans. splattersandsmudges@gmail.com You can also ask questions in the comment section below each post.**

Student Teaching (part 2)

The second half of my student teaching took place teaching 10th graders in San Diego. This was a very ambitious art project I planned and my master teacher trusted that I could handle it (thanks Shani!)

United States Mural Project (2007)
This project took a lot of hours to plan the logistics of making a huge mural! I projected a map of the US on heavy duty banner paper and traced each state. I then cut out the states for the students to paint. This was the students art history unit covering 20th century art movements (I love the 20th century and teach it every year). 

Students were assigned a state based upon their artistic ability and responsible behavior. I wanted every student to be successful so kids that really didn't like art or ones that I knew were lazy were given the smallest states. Students were given the larger states (Texas, California, Alaska) because I knew they would do an awesome job and could handle that much surface space.

Students were given a brief overview of about ten 20th Century art movements. (Ok...I did let them do Impressionism and Post Impressionism even though they technically weren't in the 20th Century). Students then researched specific topics about their assigned state to help brainstorm ideas for their painting. Topics included: famous landmarks, historical people, historical events, professional sports teams, state bird, flower, tree, animal). Students then chose an art movement to design their painting in the style of...and a lot chose Pop Art!

A couple parent volunteers came and helped cut plywood for the mural to be mounted on and then bolted the wood to the wall. Students were so proud of their mural and love that their artwork became a permanent fixture in the school building. (Last I knew it was still hung). I think I was a little nuts planning such a complex art project but I love the final outcome!

                                                                         Texas: Pop Art

                                                                 North Dakota: Pop Art

                                                              Colorado: Surrealism

                                                                  Montana: Post Impressionism

                                                               Kentucky: Pop Art

**As with any art project I post please email me if you have questions about materials used, processes, or if you would like lesson plans. splattersandsmudges@gmail.com You can also ask questions in the comment section below each post.**

Student Teaching Days

I'm beginning to upload photos of art projects I've taught over the last 6 years. I guess it makes sense to me to start back in the beginning...the days of student teaching. I was very blessed to have great master teachers that really mentored me in my teacher training and bravely relinquished their classrooms to me. (I'm not sure that I could ever have a student teacher because I'm too much of a control freak in my classroom).

My first art project that I completely planned and taught on my own was with 8th graders. I saw this idea from another teacher and adjusted it to fit the level of my students and turned it into an art history project. I must say that this project would have never been successful without the help of my master teacher (thank you Andrea!) There definitely needed to be two adults on hand to supervise and keep the students on task.

Initial Artists (2006)
The premise of this project was to teach the kids about 20th century art history. They were given a brief introduction to about 30 different artists and their artwork. (Students selected one of those artist to research and choose a piece of art to recreate. They began by drawing the letter of the artist's initial (first or last name) and cut it out of cardboard. Next they constructed the letter into a box and paper mached the surface. They then painted gesso, sketched the painting to wrap around the box and finally painted it with acrylic paint. Students also created a web page with the research on their artist and then presented their Initial Artist to the class.

The projects turned out fantastic and were on display for the school's art show. The students loved it, parents loved it, teachers loved it. It took about a month to create with the help of two art teachers. I have sense made this project two more times with high school students.

                                                        This was my teacher example

**As with any art project I post please email me if you have questions about materials used, processes, or if you would like lesson plans.   splattersandsmudges@gmail.com    You can also ask questions in the comment section below each post.**