William H. Johnson Inspired Portraits

Fourth graders are currently studying the work of William H. Johnson. Johnson is well-known for his use of bold colors and simple shapes in his portraits. Students were required to choose a person to be the subject of their artwork. They were allowed to choose themselves, a friend, a family member, or even someone famous. The students also had to choose an object that is important to their person, or that represents their person in some way. Next, we will be mixing paint to create skin tones and painting our portraits with tempera.

Desert Landscapes

Third grade is currently working on desert landscapes. We studied the artwork of Rosa Bonheur and Albrecht Durer (because of their attention to detail and use of implied texture in their artwork) as well as the artwork of Winslow Homer to get a better understanding of perspective. These students are creating the background of their artwork. Next, the students will create rock forms as well as cacti (and position them to show an understanding of foreground, middleground, and background) and desert animals (using lines to create implied texture).

Fifth Grade Clay Masks

Fifth grade has just finished up a lesson inspired by masks created by Georgia artist Kimmy Cantrell. Students were required to create an asymmetrical mask using both additive and subtractive sculpture techniques. In order to correctly add features, students also had to score, slip, and blend the added pieces properly. You can always tell when they don't do this correctly, because you'll find spare pieces in the kiln after a firing!

After the masks were fired, the students colored them with crayons and painted them with watered-down India ink, and then removed the excess ink with a paper towel to get this effect (thanks Kim for the tip!). We added nails and wire as an added interesting touch, but unfortunately, the wire ended up being too thin and disintegrated during the firing. The kids really enjoy adding a nails in such a way that turns their artwork into a weapon, so you always have to be on the lookout for that!

Second Grade Shack Sculptures

Second grade is wrapping up a lesson on three-dimensional shack sculptures, inspired by the drawings and paintings of another Georgia artist, Beverly Buchanan. Students spent the day creating details and objects to decorate their houses out of paper. Students were challenged to use various techniques to create their sculptures including cutting, tearing and folding the paper to create what they wanted.

Funky Folk Art with First Grade

First grade has now moved on to a lesson on Folk art inspired by Georgia Folk Artist, Chris Lewallen. On day one, we discussed the work of Chris Lewallen and the style of Folk Art. Next, students were challenged to choose an animal that they like and draw it on their paper. Emphasis is a vocabulary word that we're working on, so part of their challenge was to draw it as large as they could!

Luck of the Irish

Today, Pre-K is working on creating collaged shamrock necklaces. I have 15 minutes a week with them and no art curriculum for them, so I am always on the lookout for fun and easy projects that I can complete with them. Any and all ideas are much appreciated!

Kindergarten Treasure Chests

Kindergarten is currently working to create an underwater seascape, complete with treasure chest and all! So far, we have looked at several artists who are famour for creating seascapes: Winslow Homer, Georges Seurat, Claude Monet, and Thomas Eakins. We started our project by brainstorming a list of animals that we can find in the ocean, and then the kids chose some of their favorites and drew them on their paper. Next, we created the ocean floor by collaging various colors of torn neutral colored construction paper and gluing them down. We finished the day by using cool colored watercolors to paint the top. Next week, we will be creating our treasure chests. Stay tuned!!

1st Grade Stamped Cityscapes

First grade has just finished up a lesson on architecture and printmaking. We spent some time discussing some famous architects and their work and then we used found objects to create our prints. The next step was to add color and texture. We added texture to our buildings by placing our artwork on top of texture cards and and rubbing them with crayons. Next we used watercolors to paint the sky and create a resist. Next up... Funky Folk Art.

Welcome to Creation Station!

This blog is currently under construction, I am working to get everything up and running as quick as I can. Please be patient, this is my first blog! Everything is trial and error at this point!