Your K-8 students can create stunning works of art by following these secrets to success for using oil pastels. Kids love the clear, bright colors of oil pastels and their creamy consistency. They can cover a large area quickly, which makes them ideal for the shorter attention spans of early elementary students. Parents and teachers love that oil pastels are … [Read more...]
Musee d’Orsay vs. the Louvre
My visit to the Musee d'Orsay was a completely different experience from my time at the Louvre. At the d'Orsay, I saw lots more quiet contemplation of the art (Renoir, Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh and more).... and far fewer selfies! I was filled with awe as I explored the Van Gogh room, and completely taken aback when I came to the painting of Van Gogh's bedroom.... … [Read more...]
New! Artist Birthdays Calendar
Kids love to celebrate birthdays, so what better time to introduce a new artist than on that artist's birthday? I've created a new page on my site to help you plan your artist birthday celebrations! Just click on the "Artist Birthdays" link on my menu bar for a list of birthdays by month, complete with links to lesson plans and wikipedia pages for more helpful info. (Artists … [Read more...]
Masterpiece Mosaics: a Collaborative Art Project for Grades K – 8
These colorful projects, which I call "Masterpiece Mosaics", were a collaborative effort by my students in grades K through middle school. Each grade level created their own copy of a famous painting - six masterpieces in all, on display now through Christmas at our local art store. These were really pretty easy to do, and super FUN! We're hoping they'll command a high price at … [Read more...]
Cezanne-Inspired Still Life – a Step Further!
I was so happy with the results that my Kinders had with our Cezanne-inspired still life paintings, that I wanted to take it a step further with my 1st grade classes.... As I showed my 1st graders some of Cezanne's still life paintings, we noticed that you could often see a dark edge around many of his shapes. So, this time after we finished "hiding the white paper" we used … [Read more...]
Cezanne-Inspired Still Life for K and Beyond
Today my Kinders learned about Impressionist artist Paul Cezanne, and painted a still life inspired by him. This lesson was so successful on so many levels! First, we talked about how Cezanne's father didn't encourage him in his art (he wanted him to be a banker or a lawyer), but he had a friend named Emil Zola who encouraged him to keep painting. Emil was a writer so the … [Read more...]