Art Around The World: Mexican Bark Painting & More



General Art News: We are getting ready for the CHS Auction! Please join us on Saturday, November 10th as we celebrate the CHS community and raise funds for the school. The children's decorations will add a colorful touch and remind you about the purpose of the evening. Don't miss this much anticipated Fiesta!

Registration Information about Winter and Spring Afterschool MOREART Classes, as well as MOREART Summer sessions, will be available in November. Keep your eye out for a notice. It will be in an email and/or in the Thursday Messages.

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School-Wide Study of Art Around the World:

As we continue our study of Art Around the World, we stopped in Mexico to admire the Mexican "Amate" Bark Paintings. We will soon be comparing these to Australian Aboriginal Paintings and additional painting styles from other cultures. When the students looked at images of the Mexican Bark Paintings, they noticed that 
"they were colorful, not realistic, had patterns in them (including white dots), and many had borders". As they created their own bark paintings they incorporated some of these qualities into their work.

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Primary students have been exploring color in art class. Earlier this fall they mixed paint to create new colors, and more recently they have been overlapping colors to see what happens. Soon they will be comparing some different painting styles from various cultures.

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Kindergarteners enjoyed looking at images of Mexican Bark Painting and sharing their observations. After they noticed the patterns, borders, color and dots, they looked at some  leaf shapes and incorporated them into their own Mexican Bark Paintings. They traced the leaves and then created borders before adding color and white dots.

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 First graders have been working on mixed-media fall trees. The first step was to create the backgrounds with overlapping tissue paper. While creating the backgrounds, they had to decide where their horizon line would be (the line created when the sky and ground meet). Some chose to have a lot of ground and a little sky, while others chose the opposite. Soon they will be adding tree trunks, branches, and leaves. Keep your eye out for their fall trees in the main hallway! Several first graders also recently assisted younger students with making tissue paper flowers for the Auction. It is always nice to see how well they can "teach" others. The challenge was to help with words and prompts, but not to actually do it for them. 

 

    

 

 
 

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Second Grade and Third Grade art classes have also been focused on Mexican Bark Painting. They tried it out on handmade paper and also on cork board. 

Third graders also worked on mixing paint colors to create the colors they needed for painting thier very own trees. The variety of their visions is inspiring!

  

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The Therapeutic Value of Art:

There was an interesting entry in a blog that I follow about art and young children. In it, the author compares the creative process to the process involved in therapy and does a great job of highlighting the value of the artistic process in terms of emotional development. I am sharing the link here in case you are interested. In the entry, she also references Studio Habits of Mind, which I also use as a curriculum anchor for art curriculum at CHS. Here is the link:

http://artatthecenterinternship.blogspot.com/2012/04/everyone-can-benefit-from-therapeutic.html

  

Please always feel free to email me with questions and concerns about your child or about the curriculum:

jbennett@concordhill.org

Warmly,

Jan Bennett

CHS Art Teacher



Art Around The World: American Painters/Color Mixing

 

General Art News:

Welcome to my new Art Blog: ARTNOTES @ CHS!  I am trying out this new blog format for my ARTNOTES. Please be patient as I learn the ins and outs of the program, and be generous with feedback so I know how it is working for you! I want you to be able to see and learn about what we do in art at CHS. In addition to the monthly updates, I will also post general art information.

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School-Wide Study of Art Around the World:

We have begun our study of Art Around the World. Our first stop is a familiar country: The United States of America. In all of the art classes (P-3) we have been experimenting with color just as American artists, Josef Albers and Marc Rothko, did years ago. (actually Albers was born in Germany and Rothko was born in Russia, but they both lived in America in their adult life and contributed to the American Art  Culture) We are already learning that different places in the world influence each other!

As you can see, studying art around the world is tricky: Artists are born in one country, move to another to study, and then often continue to explore the world. We live in a "shrinking world", as transportation and technology make it easier for cultures to influence each other's art.  This year we will be studying some of the similarities and differences of art forms around the world: painting, ceramics, three-dimensional/multi-media (masks), and textiles.

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Primary through Third Grade:

Experimenting with color is at the top of the list for student's natural curiosity and desire to create! They love it. After years of watching children mix colors, I decided to create some lessons centered around color mixing. 

These paintings were made with three original paint colors: Red, Yellow, and White. They were created with the goal of mixing as many new colors as possible from the original colors:

Students enjoyed creating buttery yellow, salmon, creamy orange, and shades of pinks. They named many of the colors.

These paintings were made with three original paint colors: Blue, Yellow, and White:

 

These paintings were made after looking at reproductions of Alber's Homage to the Square series, using the primary colors and white:

The students loved mixing the paint, and could do it all year, but we will soon move on to some similarities and differences of painting styles: Traditional Aboriginal Bark Painting from Australia and Mexican Bark Painting, Nature Influenced Watercolor Painting from Japan,  Animal Painting from Kenya, and Indian Mandala Painted designs.

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At Home Idea:

Fall is coming. A perfect time for a family walk around the neighborhood, or in the woods. Keep your eyes open and enjoy the changes around you. Kids love to take the time to look at fall trees and plants and notice the amazing details of the patterns and designs in nature.

Please always feel free to email me with questions and concerns about your child or about the curriculum:   jbennett@concordhill.org

Warmly,
Jan Bennett

CHS Art Teacher

Welcome & Art Around The World Theme

 

Welcome back to CHS & Welcome to New Families!

General Art Information:

It’s so wonderful to see all the children again! I am looking forward to seeing you as well, on Back to School Night: Thursday, September 20^th.  You can visit Special Teachers classes from 6:30 to 7:15 before the formal program begins in the Big Room at 7:30. Until then, here is some basic information about the art program at CHS:

Each year at CHS we have a school-wide art project that pulls us together as a community and gives us a common language, experience, and appreciation of each other. This year our project will focus on Art Around the World. We have some exciting plans for art projects! In addition, the theme will be closely linked with our school’s Multi-Cultural Celebration in May. Watch for more news about this project as it develops.

As the year progresses I will send monthly ARTNOTES via email. There will also be a handout in the Back to School Night folder that describes the art curriculum at CHS in more detail. The class schedules are set up as follows:

*Monday: First Grade

*Tuesday: Preprimary & Primary (Each class will come for half the year: Primary Class from September-January and Preprimary Class from January-June)

*Wednesday: Kindergarten & Second Grade

*Thursday: Third Grade

*Friday: Make-up Art Classes

Please contact me with any questions: jbennett@concordhill.org

Fondly,

Jan

Jan Bennett

Art Teacher

Concord Hill School

Introduction to this Blog

ABOUT THIS BLOG:

Welcome to ARTNOTES @ CHS, where you can find out what's happening in the Art Room, and see examples of the student's artwork. ARTNOTES is maintained by Jan Bennett, the CHS Art Teacher.

Concord Hill School is a private, coeducational, non-denominational school for children three years old through the third grade. We are located in Chevy Chase, Maryland.