This week students in the upper grades, 6-8th grade, worked with linoleum and lino-cut printing. We learned about safety and using sharp tools. A few finished their carving and printed their work on paper with ink. In the lower grades we learned about the artist, Piet Mondrian. He was an abstract artist and titled many of his works “Composition”(s). Students learned that a composition is the arrangement of objects or shapes in a picture and that abstract art represents an idea or feeling. In kindergarten-1st grade, students made “stained glass” with contact paper and tissue paper inspired by Mondrian in primary colors, red, blue, and yellow. In our drawings students learned about secondary, orange, green, and purple, and primary colors. Students chose one set of colors to use in designing a drawing in the style of Mondrian. Check out the display of the “stained glass” in the church entrance and see how the work of the students, inspired by Mondrian, illuminates the space!
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This week students learned about the primary colors, red, yellow, blue. In our styrofoam prints we used line to make our images. Piet Mondrian used line to make bold divisions in his paintings he called compositions. He used paint he mixed to fill some of the square or rectangular shapes he created in his paintings with primarily primary colors! In this project students will create a grid with strips of black construction paper. I that grid students will choose how to fill the shapes. Keep the colors pure by having one space all red, all yellow, OR all blue. Have fun creating! At the bottom of this lesson there is a bonus project that you may choose to make in addition to the the "stained glass". You will need paper and coloring materials to create a drawing in the style of Mr. Mondrian. Materials
![]() Inspiration Piet Mondrian ( 1872-1944) was a Dutch painter and theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art, as he changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements. Mondrian's art was highly utopian and was concerned with a search for universal values and aesthetics. He proclaimed in 1914: "Art is higher than reality and has no direct relation to reality. To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual. We find ourselves in the presence of an abstract art. Art should be above reality, otherwise it would have no value for man.” His art, however, always remained rooted in nature. This week we revisit the artist Elizabeth Catlett. She was known for her sculpture as well as her printmaking. We are going to create out own prints with our images we make on a styrofoam tray. First practice drawing in your sketchbook with a picture of your choice. We practice in our sketchbook because we want to try first, and get it even better the next time. So once we are confident that we know and have tried our pictures we can make our styrofoam print. (avoid writing/words, if you do it will have to be backward. So if you want to try go for it!) Using a blunt end of a paint brush and using pressure on the styrofoam create your picture. Make sure your dents are deep but you don't break or rip the tray. Once you have completed your "drawing" for your print, have your paper ready you are printing on, brush a layer of paint on your print (careful not to fill the grooves with too much paint), and press onto the paper, gently lift the paper from the styrofoam. Voila! MATERIALS
![]() INSPIRATION Elizabeth Catlett (April 15, 1915 – April 2, 2012) Catlett was an American and Mexican graphic artist and sculptor best known for her images of the African-American experience in the 20th century, which often focused on the female experience. She was born and raised in Washington, D.C. to parents working in education, and was the grandchild of freed slaves. It was difficult for a black woman in this time to pursue a career as a working artist. Catlett devoted much of her career to teaching. However, a fellowship awarded to her in 1946 allowed her to travel to Mexico City, where she worked with the Taller de Gráfica Popular for twenty years and became head of the sculpture department for the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas. In the 1950s, her main means of artistic expression shifted from print to sculpture, though she never gave up printing. |
AuthorI have a passion for the visual arts and love sharing it with others. I have enjoyed teaching all ages and love to incorporate art history and traditional disciplines as well as innovative ideas. Art is vital to who I am as a creator and educator. Archives
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