Artists that Inspire Us

Welcome to the first of my monthly posts as a member of the new Art Ed Blogger Network!  A group of bloggers have all gotten together to post on the same day each month all on the same topic.  You can find links to all the other blogs in the network at the bottom of this post.  Have fun checking them all out!   

 For our first month, we've selected the topic "Artists That Inspire Us"  I've chosen three artists to talk about today: Henri Matisse, Laurel Burch, and Dan Reeder.  I hope you'll join us all each month!

HENRI MATISSE
On Facebook, I recently shared a pic of a new painting I was working on, and a friend told me it reminded him of a Matisse.  To me, that was the ultimate comment; it's no secret I'm a huge fan.  I am always smitten by artwork with vibrant,cheerful, and rich color, and the playful use of patterns and shapes.  Matisse just has it all for me, along with a joyousness of spirit that makes me happy.  Which is why, I suppose, I've used his work as inspiration for so many art lessons over my years of teaching, a number of which I've posted about on the blog and will link for you in this post.

First up is one of my favorites Matisse lessons: 3rd grade "Fauve Fauves" - wild beasts (we used African animals as our inspiration) painted in wild 'fauve' colors!  Ive blogged about versions of the project HERE and HERE.  And my 2nd graders made inventive collages of 'fauve fauves' using various scrap materials.  I posted about them HERE.

And Matisse was the inspiration for my 4th graders' wonderful still life paintings (example above) that I shared HERE, and my second graders' still life work (below) posted HERE. 

And first graders used Matisse's 'painting with scissors' process as inspiration for the colorful and textural pieces that I shared HERE. 

You can find a link to another 'painting with scissors' project that I developed, for Pacon, HERE. You'll have to go there to see what it is!

LAUREL BURCH

It is many of the same characteristics found in Matisse's work, the rich joyous colors and use of decorative pattern, that excite me in Laurel Burch's work.  I love that her work is so commercially accessible, too. And just as Matisse faced physical adversity (we know his physical limitations, due to his health, are what inspired the 'painting with scissors' body of work), so did Laurel Burch.  She lived a life of pain, with a disease that caused her to have fragile bones that broke easily.  Yet the pain is never visible in her vibrant and joyous artwork.  We looked at her Fantastic Felines as inspiration for these gorgeous papier-mache cats, made by my 5th graders. I blogged about them a few times, including HERE and HERE. 

Her Celestial Dreams were the inspiration for these works by grade 2.  I posted about them HERE. 

DAN REEDER
When I first began teaching elementary school, after 8 years teaching high school, I was terrified.  What do elementary art students do?  I thought "they make stuff out of papier-mache, of course!"  Unfortunately, I'd never used papier-mache in my life.  While at a state art ed convention, I came across a book named The Simple Screamer, that outlined the process for making a goofy-looking papier-mache monster.  The book was by Dan Reeder ("Dan the Monster Man"), and I was hooked.  A couple of students and I worked together to build a silly 'screamer' using his instructions.  Dan's hints on the process really got me going and helped me be successful.  When I discovered that Dan was actually a teacher (he's now retired; he taught 5th grade), and had a passion for making papier-mache dragons, it excited me even more.  You can find out more about his and his work on his website, Gourmet Paper Mache.  Here's another one of Dan's books. Many of you have probably seen his work, in particular his time lapse videos of the construction of his dragons.   

Since that time, papier-mache has definitely become one of my passions, both to do myself, and to teach.  Over the years, from time to time I've touched base with Dan via his blog. I contacted him a couple of days ago.  Knowing he lives in Seattle, I thought maybe there'd be a way to tour his studio while I'm in the city for the NAEA convention. But his studio is in his basement, and since he retired from teaching, he no longer lets people tour his studio.  I'm disappointed but I'm retired too, so I understand.  I'm hoping there's some places in the city where I can actually get to see one of his dragons or other creations.  By the way, while my process wasn't identical to his, he inspired me to build Lucy, the dragon in my art room!  Yes, there was really a dragon!  Here she is, relaxing on an art room table while her wings were undergoing repair. 

 I used Dan's 'cloth-mache' process to build her.  Because she's about 5' long, I had to work on her in my backyard over the summer, and it took me about 3 years to finish her (it was weather-dependent, and I'm easily distracted)!  Then she went to live in my art room, where my students loved her.  She is named Lucy (in the Sky) after the Beatles song, of course. For the complete story on Lucy and her construction and life, check out this old post, HERE.  In the pic below, she's under construction.

Nowadays, Lucy is, like me, retired.  She resides at our 'camp' in the Adirondacks.  Most of her time is spent snoozing on the bunk bed, but sometimes she gets out and suns herself on the rocks.  

I hope you'll come back on the first Tuesday of each month to see what the Art Ed Blogger Network has in store to read! (also in between, because I have lots of other posts planned, too!)

This post is a part of The Art Ed Blogger's Network: Monthly Tips and Inspiration from Art Teacher Blogs. On the first Tuesday each month, each of these art teacher blogs will post their best ideas on the same topic.

Participating Art Teacher Blogs:

• Art Class Curator
• Art Ed Guru
• Art is Basic
• Art Room Blog
• Artful Artsy Amy
• Capitol of Creativity
• Cassie Stephens
• Create Art with ME
• MiniMatisse
• Mr. Calvert's Art Room Happenings
• Mrs. T's Art Room
• Party in the Art Room
• shine brite zamorano
• Tales from the Traveling Art Teacher
• There's a Dragon in my Art Room

Wild beasts, wild patterns, wild colors!

Cheetah by Sylvia, grade 2

My DragonWing Arts students were introduced to Henri Matisse, and his use of both bright colors and repeating patterns in his paintings.  We talked about how he and his contemporaries were criticized for their wild use of color, and were nicknamed "fauves" which means "wild beasts".

Zebra by Mackenzie, grade 4

So, my students drew and painted wild beasts!  To be specific, they selected from the wild animals of Africa, and incorporated both bright colors and repeating patterns in their paintings.

To begin, students examined pictures of their selected animal, looked for the basic shapes in their bodies, and practiced drawing them in their sketchbooks.  Once they had practiced, the animals were drawn with yellow chalk on white sulphite paper that had been cut to 15"x 21", Chalk was used for three reasons: to encourage the kids to draw large, to make it easy to wipe off (erase) and adjust the lines, and to eliminate having pencil lines that would show through the paints.

The animals were painted with fluorescent tempera paints.  When dry, black Sharpie was used to outline the patterns on their bodies, and also any details of the painting.  The elephant below is not quite complete, as the artist was absent for one class.  The ear, eye, and mouth will be outlined, which will help define the animal.

Elephant by Joe, grade 3

Meanwhile, on a sheet of 18"x 24" white paper, a 1-1/2" border was marked off with pencil. The borders were left white, and inside the border, the rest of the paper was painted with black tempera. When the black paint was totally dry, white patterns were added by stamping various items, including the ends of cardboard rolls, dowels, and pencil erasers; also the edges of cardboard squares, and pipe cleaners shaped into zigzags. As you can tell, this was a fun activity!

The animals were cut out and glued onto the black and white paper.  The white border was decorated with animal print paper, and, in the case of the zebra, also turquoise metallic paper.  Finally, the projects were glued onto sheets of 20"x 26" fluorescent poster board!

Giraffe, by Forrest, grade 3

By the way, the animal print paper, the colored metallic paper, and the fluorescent poster board all came from Pacon.  I had developed a lesson for Pacon using their new plastic poster board, and to thank me, I was given the opportunity to select $100 value of any products in the Pacon catalog!  These papers were among the materials that I selected.  Thank you, Pacon!  A small business like DragonWing Arts can't always afford purchases of these niche products.  By the way, I wrote about the plastic poster board, here and here on the blog, and one of the lessons I developed using the poster board will be distributed at the Pacon booth in the vendor area at the upcoming NAEA convention in Chicago.

Coming soon, here on the blog, more wild and wacky fauve wild beasts, this time made from papier-mache!  Here's a little teaser for you!

DragonWing Arts is back and we celebrated Silly Walks Day!

My business, DragonWing Arts, has been touch-and-go.  I don't like dealing with advertising and all the PR, so I guess I don't do it very well.  I had some great repeat students, but this year they were headed to 5th grade, which is in the  middle school, and their parents were worried that with the big change, they'd by too stressed (I know, that totally doesn't make sense; art class should is de-stressing!)  But luckily, I now have three new students and one repeater - all together, a second grader, two third graders, and one fourth grader.  All very sweet kids, it seems!  Look how cute they are!

Their first class was on Thursday, and I explained that it was International Silly Walks Day (courtesy of Monty Python, of course) and that we had to celebrate.  And they were willing participants!  Every time they had to walk somewhere - to wash up, to the bathroom, and so on, they silly-walked all the way!  When their parents picked them up after class, they must have been wondering what the heck was up when they saw their happy kids silly-walking to the cars!

These pictures, below, are for their licenses.  Licenses, you ask??  Well, they are obviously too young for a driver's license, so...  They will each have an Artistic License!  (Or a Creative License.  I'm still trying to decide which name I prefer.  Which do you  think is the better choice?) I've done a version of this before, but it was before I retired, and thus needs a DragonWing Arts update.

The licenses will be the size of a driver's license, laminated, and will have their photo on it.  It will give them permission to use their imaginations and powers of invention to represent things in original ways, and will encourage creative thinking.  I'll be putting them on key chains, if they want.

Meanwhile, we did a warm-up project and started another in our first class.  I run the classes in seasonal sessions of between 6 to 8 classes per session.  Each session's projects revolve around a specific theme.  My winter session is called "Matisse meets the Jungle - Bright Colors & Wild Beasts!"  Ironically, I've discovered that usually the parents haven't mentioned what the theme is at all.  The kids are happy to make absolutely anything!  But we are going to be doing a version of the "Fauve Fauve" project I posted about a few years ago, with some major variations, plus we are going to build papier-mache wild beasts, and much more, depending on time.  The 8 classes will go by really fast!

For our warm-up project, we used animal skin patterns or scales as a loose inspiration, and used a variation on a favorite unusual use of a common material.  You've read about us using pastel chalks on wet paper here.  This time, though, we used black acrylic paint to draw lines, and then used a paintbrush dipped in water to wet sections of the paper one at a time.  We used pastel chalk on the wet sections, to create a paint-like look.  (Thank you to Ginger, who blogs at Paintbrush Rocket, for the inspiration for brushing on the water rather than soaking the paper.)  Next time, we'll cover them with Mod Podge to seal the chalk and give the papers an overall gloss.  

 Remember, the animal skins or scales or fur were just a vague inspiration.  Then we used fauve inspiration for our color choices!  Above left, fish scales; right, snake skin.  Directly below, a combination of snake skin (diamonds), feathers, and spots!  And lastly, more snake skin!

Next week we'll start building our armatures for papier-mache wild beasts.  Who can imagine what they might be???  After all, we'll all have creative license! 

A 'fauve-rite' art project: the Fauve Fauves revisited!

The images in this post mostly all first appeared on this blog about four years ago.  After the charcoal images of  my last post, and the white/gray world outside (the sky had a patch of blue for like three minutes this morning - and then was white/gray again), I felt it was time for some color.  Below, by the way, is the way it looks outside.  While the snow is not too deep (we got about 5"), the heavy wet snow is clinging to every tree, and it's really quite spectacular, though devoid of color. 

Anyhow, back to the color!

My classroom that year was decorated based on the theme "Wild about Art'.   

Here's how my bulletin board and door were decorated. 

 

The theme came about because my son had just returned from an internship and travel in South Africa.  My son had concluded his trip with a safari, and came back with incredible photos, such as the one below. A couple of other bloggers had hung 'wild' bulletin boards and I was doubly inspired.  Here is one of my son's safari photos.   

My 3rd grade students had been learning about Matisse, and the fauves, and learned that the word 'fauve' meant 'wild beast.  The connection seemed perfect to me.   So my students practiced drawing African animals, using a variety of resources (photos in books & magazines, a slide-show of my son's photos, plus some drawing books in the classroom).  After a bunch of sketching and practicing, each student selected an animal for their 'fauve fauve' (in other words, a wild beast painted like a fauve!). 

 On a piece of 16"x20" white paper, students drew a frame of about 1-1/2".  Inside the frame they drew their selected animal.  The drawing was done with a piece of yellow chalkboard chalk; we did this for two reasons - first, to encourage large drawings, and second, so that the line drawing would easily disappear when painted.  The animals were drawn large to fill the space, and basic landscape features were added as desired. 

 All negative space was be painted, as well as the animal.  All painting was done with vibrant colors of tempera, and many animals were filled with brightly colored patterns in homage to the work of my favorite artist, Henri Matisse.  When the paintings were dry, students used animal print tissue paper that I had cut into strips to decorate the frame.  The tissue paper was adhered using a brush and liquid starch.  Above and below are bulletin boards showing some of the completed work.

By the way, the work shown is all that of 3rd graders.  On the bulletin board in the photo below, the sign says '2nd grade'.  I corrected the sign after I had taken the photo, and before the kids saw the bulletin board!

 I know this month everyone else is posting winter and holiday lessons.  But I thought this would be a fun change.  I hope you enjoy this cheerful escape from snowy trees! 

Cartoons and clippings

pulled from a Reader's Digest magazine, years ago

  I was cleaning out an old box of 'stuff' today and found these items.  I thought I'd share them with you.

The two quotes above both remind me of very specific things.  The first, reminds me of the time, after carefully telling a 2nd class who had drawn cats in preparation for painting, that we were going to begin our paintings by painting the background.  In our next class we would paint the cats.  I circulated the room and found one student, on the autism spectrum, who had painted a whole side of his paper brown.  I asked where the cat was and he flipped his paper over and there it was!  I had told him to paint the background, and he took that literally and without knowing why, he painted the BACK of his paper.  It was a good lesson for me, reminding how I had to choose my words, demonstrate, and make sure my instructions were clear even to the most literal of my students. 

one of the cats from this project

The second quote above reminds me of the wonderful 'fauve fauves' that my 3rd graders painted when we were learning about Matisse.  They had learned that the word 'fauve' means wild beast. 

And now for a couple of cartoons....
Keep in mind that the two pieces below are just old cartoons and not meant to represent any particular point of view.  I'm sharing them with you just for fun!