Friday, September 10, 2010

Abstract Emotion

This lesson is inspired by Vasily Kandinsky, and the book "Express Yourself! Activities and Adventures in Expressionism" by Joyce Raimondo. This entire series is excellent! We looked at paintings by Kandinsky and discussed the idea of expressing an emotion through color and shape. The children started by choosing what emotion they wanted to express, and then used colored paper to cut and paste various shapes. Then paint was applied onto and around their paper shapes. Lastly, after the paint was dry, they could use black and white cray pas to add even more detail to their works.  Their paintings were so expressive, and full of emotion, a successful lesson for sure!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Recycled Quilt Collages

Okay, one more recycled art project before I mix things up again. The children and I discussed Faith Ringgold, who is well known for her fabric story quilts. I provided lots of fabric scraps from my sewing cabinet and the children cut and pasted their collages onto recycled chipboard-- save the backs of those paper pads! You could also use cereal boxes or corrugated cardboard. As a little reward, they could also add some glitter glue to the collages as a last step.