Art at Munson
by Deb Heidebrecht
Egyptian Cats
Cats were an animal of high importance in the ancient Egyptian culture as many believed they possessed special powers. After looking at images of statues and paintings of ancient Egyptian cats, first grade students drew and painted cats using colors reflecting royalty and embellishing with patterns and buttons.
Sunflowers
One of the many subjects depicted by the Impressionist painter, Vincent Van Gogh was the sunflower. Students viewed and discussed many of his paintings comparing them to a live arrangement of sunflowers set up in the classroom. Each then drew his/her own interpretation of a vase of sunflowers. The medium chosen for completing the painting was tempera batik. This process begins with the student tracing their pencil lines with a thick line of white chalk. Tempera paint was applied thickly to fill the spaces in between the chalk lines. When the paint was totally dry, black India ink was applied in a wash over the entire picture. Finally the painting was washed in the sink very gently resulting in the “batik” look. The finished results were striking and each student was thrilled with their painting.
LibertyCollages
Second graders gained an understanding of what liberty, freedom and friendship means through this project. They enjoyed learning fun facts about the statue while creating their liberty collages. The statue of liberty was the main feature. Backgrounds were created with markers and construction paper while the statue of liberty was made out of newspaper and sprayed green to simulate the green patina on copper.
Amate Drawings
Mexican artists drew or painted on amate paper or bark paper. Their pictures often told stories. Kindergarteners made pictures telling a story about an animal in the style of Mexican amate paintings. Their stories told where the animal lives, what it eats and even about the weather. They created a decorative frame around their picture by using repetition to create patterns. The colors were limited to only white and black on brown paper emphasizing the line drawings.
Chinese Scrolls
Calligraphic or decorative writing is always fun for children to try…especially when it is in a different language. First grade students gave the Chinese ink painting a try along with writing their initials in Chinese as they made Chinese inspired scrolls. They began by making a crayon batik similar to the batik dyed fabric often found in Asian cultures. Following a demonstration on how images of animals, flowers and birds were made using decorative lines and shapes they tried their hand at the ink paintings. Finally….the assemblage of their scrolls took place.
