James Audubon

John James Audubon (1785-1851). U.S. Naturalist and artist. His most notable work is The Birds of America (1827-38), in which he portrayed even the largest birds life-size and painted them in action.

Link to Audubon slideshow






Our project today requires black paper, white oil pastel, colored art chalk,
Stencils and q-tips.

Have the children take a bird and leaves stencil and draw around them with the white pastel. Afterwards, they will outline with multiple colors of chalk, as thick as they want it, when they are done they will gently blur the edges with a q-tip.

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky: Russian painter and theorist. A pioneer of abstract art, he co-founded the Munich based Blaue Reiter group of artists in 1911.

This a really fun project that I've done in first grade, they learn about basic color mixing, talk to them about the primary colors ( red,blue,yellow) and ask them what colors do they make when they mix.

Link to Kandinsky slideshow

Elements of art covered: Color and Line

Materials for the project:
Bleeding art tissue.

Cut the colored tissue up into squares 2-3". Don't use white, black brown, only the bright colors.
Use a mixture of 50/50 water/glue, or water/mod podge. I mix it in a water bottle as I go so I can pour it easily into their cups of their tables, and refill as necessary.
Paint brushes, or sponge brushes.
Black tempura paint, thin brushes
Do a sample in advance of putting down three primary color tissue paper and gluing them with the mixture, it will show them how the blue yellow and red, primary colors will mix to make the orange, violet, and green secondary colors with the tissue paper.
Pass out a Dixie cup of glue mixture, handful of various colors of tissue squares and the foam brushes.
Don't forget their name on the back of the watercolor paper first.
Working in smaller sections, have them generously apply the glue mixture and start laying and overlapping the tissue paper on top.
**be careful that they don't brush on top of the tissue paper, it will tear when it's wet!!!***
have them completely cover the paper, leaving no white part.
For the black part, sometimes, I wrap up the lesson for the day, and let everything dry overnight, then when I come back for a 20 minute session,
Talk to them about one of the elements of art being line, and how Kandinsky
Would paint to music and feel the music with his brush strokes, not trying to paint specific shapes, but flowing lines etc. I have brought classical music in for this part too.
Pass out their dry projects, they will use thinned black paint and thin brushes. Show them the Kandinsky sample ( you can just show the one slide up on the smart board if needed)
They will paint some simple lines and shapes on their masterpieces. Keep this session very short, give them too much time and they will want to paint stars, moons, puppies, trees etc.
When it's dry take pictures and send them to me for artsonia!

Insects in art

In second grade 1st semester they are learning all about insects! Well, there's really not a lot of famous artists that specialize in bugs. But, there are some really cool art works from really talented artists starring bugs!

I put together a slide show here.....Insects in Art
You can ask the kids what kind of bugs they are? Talk about the fun ways artists differ from creating each insect painting.

Project: the children will create their own bug on a tree stump.
Using water colors and sharpies.






Materials needed:
8 x10 watercolor or thick artists paper, white
Thin brown water color marker
Water color palettes ( for shades of green) brushes,
Small cups for water
Lots of different colored sharpies, NOT REGULAR MARKERS, they won't adhere. Only the permanent sharpies will draw on the plastic.
Black sharpies for outlining insect
(all of the above should be in the art room)
I do like the art paper from hobby lobby, the thick watercolor paper comes in pads of 50 and it's pretty cheap!
You will need those clear plastic Avery type paper holders that go in the kids notebooks. I cut 4 inch circles out of them, you can get 8 (4 double thickness) circles form each page. I would have enough for 2-3 circles per child .








Paintings on wood by Mara Minuzzo


During class, after you give the slide talk,
Pass out white paper, names on back in pencil.
Explain that they will first draw a large tree stump, they will want it as wide as the paper, it looks great if it extends past the edge

1. Take the thin watercolor brown marker and draw a huge circle for the outside of the tree stump, show the example.
This Is an IMPORTANT PART! If the circles are too small, they'll have to start over, make sure to SHOW them how BIG the stump should be.
2. Ok, now they need to find the middle of their stump and start with small circles or spirals, make the rings of the tree.
3. Take out the water colors, they can use yellow/brown water color to fill in the stump, if they used enough brown pencil, this will make a nice wood color.
4. Here's what the kids ask...it's too dark, add water or yellow, too brown add yellow, too yellow add brown, someone added a tiny bit of orange and it looked great.
5. Have them clean and wipe brushes, then generously apply shades of green water color for the grass. Fill it all in.




6. Now they will use the printouts of how to draw bugs, have them choose an insect, then they will draw their insect step by step on the plastic cut out circles. Then they can fill them in with colored sharpies. If the black smears, they can color on the opposite side. Link to bug drawings




7. If there is time, they can do more bugs, when they are done, and the watercolor has dried, put some clear glue stick on the back, and place on the stump where they want their bugs.
8. If you want, you can "frame" them by mounting them on larger black construction paper.