3rd Grade: Art Lesson A again...

From the Fall of 2003 until the Spring of 2009, Sharon served as the art docent for Jack's class. About once a month, she would spent a couple of hours presenting a lesson on variety of subjects. Once they reach sixth grade that program stops and they have art as a formal elective. Sharon enjoyed doing this so she decided to volunteer to help with some of the younger grades.

She spent the afternoon as the art docent for the third grade class. This class has at least eight siblings of kids who are in Jack's class. The lesson introduced a more in depth look at portraiture. She gave the same lesson to Jack's class a little over three years ago. The Mona Lisa poster that she had brought back from the Louvre and put was still in the art box and she used it. The lesson also looked at four other portraits: American Gothic by Frank Wood; Don Manuel by Francisco de Goya; and George Washington and The Skater by Gilbert Stuart.




For their art projects, the kids created a portrait.

5th Grade: Art Lesson F

This month's art lesson for Jack's class focused on understanding how the brain works. This appreciation can assist students in allowing their mind to do its best work whether the goal is creativity or accuracy in detail. The lesson examined three paintings, including: L’Infante Marguerite by Diego Velasquez; Pinkie By Thomas Lawrence, and; Blue Boy By Thomas Gainsborough.




As part of the lesson, students first made a drawing based on a verbal description (left brain) followed by a second drawing using techniques designed to access the right side of their brain.

5th Grade: Art Lesson E

Sharon spent last Friday afternoon working as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson examined how artists tell stories with art. The class examined the works of several African American artists, including: Banjo Player by Henry Tanner; Domino Players by Horace Pippen; and, Boy with Tire by Hughie Lee-Smith.




The art project focused on creating texture in a picture. Jack drew a picture of two boys playing marbles.

5th Grade: Art Lesson D

Sharon spent Monday afternoon as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson compared how different artists portray the Holy Family. They looked at The Holy Family by Nicolas Poussin, The Alba Madonna by Raphael and The Presentation in the Temple by Hans Memling.




For their art project, the class sketched a live model of Mary holding the baby Jesus and painted it using watercolors.

5th Grade: Art Lesson C

Sharon spent part of the morning as the Art Docent in Jack's class. The lesson covered Georges Seurat and Pointillism. Georges Seurat was French painter who founded a painting style called pointillism or divisionism. He began painting in the style of Impressionism but soon became more interested in scientific color theory. He is famous for using little dabs or points of pure bright color to paint. When viewed from a distance, the eye mixes the colors together.

The lesson looked at three of Seurat's painting, including Bathers at Asnieres, Sunday Afternoon on theIsland of the Grande Jatte and Circus. All three paintings are shown below.




For their art project, the kids each created our own pointillist picture.

5th Grade: Art Lesson B

Sharon spent part of Friday afternoon as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson covered surrealism and the styles of painters Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. The class looked at three paintings: Persistence of Memory by Dali and Voice of Space and The Return by Magritte.





For their art project, the kids created a surreal picture using a pumpkin.

4th Grade: Art Lesson G

Sharon spent part of Tuesday afternoon as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson covered primary and secondary colors. The class looked at three paintings: Poster Jan. 18-Feb. 12 by Ben Shahn; The Cyclist by Richard Lindner; and In the Circus by Louis Moillet. They discussed the artists’ use of color in each of the paintings.






For their art project, they painted our own color wheels.

4th Grade: Art Lesson F

Sharon spent Monday afternoon as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson looked at paintings of horses and how artists like to show its graceful form, its muscles, shiny coat, and its mane and tail. Some artists show the horse in great detail; others want to depict the feeling of movement, color and excitement associated with horses. To illustrate these different styles, the lesson looked at three paintings depicting horses: An Unscheduled Stop by Charles Russell, Fairman Rogers Four In Hand by Thomas Eakins, and Market Preparation by Currier & Ives.




For their art project, the class learned how to use the value of color to produce a charcoal shaded picture of a horse’s head.

4th Grade: Art Lesson D

Sharon recently spent part of the afternoon as the art docent in Jack's class. The lesson compared the art styles of realism and abstract; it used faces to contrast the two styles. Trompe l’oeil, a French phrase meaning to “trick the eye”, was also discussed. It describes a realistic style of painting in which paint on canvas appears to be the real thing.

The class looked at the paintings shown below by Thomas Sully [The Torn Hat], John Peto [Letter Rack] and Joan Miro [Portrait No. 1].




The class spent some time learning the drawing techniques of face proportion and face shapes to draw a realistic portrait. As their art project, they then drew a portrait of their Sutter's Fort character.

4th Grade: Art Lesson C

Sharon was scheduled to serve as the art docent for Jack's class, but at the last minute had to work on a project for one of her clients. One of the other parents covered the lesson. The class examined three landscapes: Flooding at Port Marley by Alfred Sisley; Coryell’s Ferry by Joseph Picket and Ville d’Auray [shown below] by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. The lesson looked at how artists draw landscapes with a foreground, middleground and background.

4th Grade: Art Lesson B

Sharon spent part of the morning as the art docent in Jack's class. The lesson examined how artists use color to set the mood. The class talked about the lives of Vincent Van Gogh and El Greco. Three paintings by these artists were used to illustrate the concepts: Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh; The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night by Van Gogh; and View of Toledo by El Greco.






For their art project, the kids used oil crayons to re-create Van Gogh's Starry Night.

4th Grade: Art Lesson A

Sharon spent part of the afternoon as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson looked at Pop Art and Op Art. Pop Art weaves popular culture into art, often using media, advertising and comic book art styles to bring art closer to real life. Op art, also called optical art is a branch of geometric, abstract art that deals with optical illusion.

The class looked at three examples, including Campell's Soup Can by Andy Warhol, Vega-Kontosh by Victor Vasarely and Three Flags [shown below] by Jasper Johns.


For their art project they colored the American flag in complementary colors to create an afterimage.

3rd Grade: Art Lesson G

Sharon spent the afternoon as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson talked about Impressionism. The word “impressionism” was used for the first time by a French art critic Leroy who was shocked by Monet’s new artistic style, which broke away from traditional, realistic painting.

The class watched a video called Linnea in Monet’s Garden. They looked at three of Monet’s paintings: Tulips in Holland, Tulips at Sassenheim and Artist’s Garden at Vetheuil (all shown below).



For their art project, the class went outside and painted our own impressionism landscape.

3rd Grade: Art Lesson F

Sharon spent the afternoon as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson examined how artists use fantasy as a form of abstract art. They talked about the lives and art of Paul Klee and Marc Chagall. The lesson used three paintings as examples of different styles: Head of Man by Paul Klee; and Feathers in Bloom and I and the Village by Marc Chagall.




For their art project, the kids made their own fantasy picture out of a collage of different materials.

3rd Grade: Art Lesson E

Sharon spent the afternoon working as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson focused on artists depictions of relationships in their art. In particular, the lesson looked at the portrayal of friendship in paintings. The class examined three paintings: Snap the Whip By Winslow Homer; Te Matete By Paul Gauguin [shown below]; and Crispin & Scapin By Honore Daumier [shown below].



For their art project, they drew pictures of their friends playing a game.

3rd Grade: Art Lesson D

Sharon spent the morning as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson expanded the student's ability to identify and discuss the art element line. The kids learned that artists make many different kinds of lines and how artists use lines to show ideas such as motion, mood or emphasis. The class looked at three painting: Jane Avril by Henri Toulouse Lautrec; Lyric (Man on Horse) by Wassily Kandinsky [shown below], and; Purple Robe by Henri Matisse.


Their art project included a worksheet to draw their own interpretation of various types of lines and then creating some squiggle art.

3rd Grade: Art Lesson C

Sharon spent Thursday morning as the Art Docent for Jack's 3rd grade class. The lesson looked at The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci, The Adoration of the Magi [shown below] by Angelico and Lippi and The Journey of the Magi by Sassetta. Each of these were a narrative painting of the events surrounding the birth of Christ.


For the art project, each student illustrated one of their favorite parts of the Christmas story. Jack draw the magi traveling on camels.

3rd Grade: Art Lesson B

Sharon spent Thursday afternoon working as the Art Docent for Jack's class. The lesson plan looked at how artists include trees in a landscape paintings, sometimes making the trees the focal point of the composition. The class looked at Autumn Landscape by Alfred Sisley [shown below], October by Willard Leroy Metcalf and Tree With Crows by Caspar David Friedrich. Each of these paintings were of trees in fall.



For their art project, the kids created a fall tree.

3rd Grade: Art Lesson A

Sharon spent the afternoon as an art docent in Jack's class. The lesson introduced a more in depth look at portraiture. The kids examined a variety of portraits and distinguished them from other art forms. They also discussed why artists make portraits. The class examined and analyzed what visual clues reveal about the people in a variety of portraits.

When we were at the Louvre, Sharon and Jack bought a poster of the Mona Lisa; they planned to use it in one of the art docent lessons. She used it today as part of the lesson on portraits. Jack surprised Sharon by sharing with the class a long description of seeing the Mona Lisa.

The lesson looked at four other portraits: American Gothic by Frank Wood; Don Manuel by Francisco de Goya; and George Washington [shown below] and The Skater by Gilbert Stuart.


For their art projects, the kids created a personalized portrait.

2nd Grade: Art Lesson G

Sharon spent some time serving as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson looked at three genre paintings depicting mothers in art: Grace Before Meal by Jean Chardin; The Pantry by Pieter de Hooch; and In the Garden by Camille Pissarro [shown below].


For their art projects, the kids made mixed media pictures of their mothers.