A Treasure Hunt for the Lascaux Caves!

A Treasure Hunt for the Lascaux Caves!

On September 8, 1940, 17-year-old Marcel Ravidat and three of his friends were looking for a lost treasure supposedly buried in a secret tunnel in the woods near Montignac, France. His dog Robot ran on ahead and became stuck in a hole. As the boys pulled Robot to safety, they discovered that the hole seemed bottomless.
Marcel Ravidat and his friends were certain that they had found an entrance to the treasure-filled tunnel.  Ravidat first tried to explore the site himself, but without a light, he didn't get far.  On September 13, he and his friends returned, this time prepared with a homemade lantern.Carefully, they made their way down into the cave and across a large room, about 100 feet long and 40 feet wide.  It turned into a narrow passage and as they entered it, they raised their lamp higher and discovered that the walls were filled with the shapes of many animals.    The next day, the boys made another remarkable discovery. Near the back of the cave was a shaft (now called The Pit) that Ravidat decided to explore. As his three friends held a rope, Ravidat climbed sixteen feet to the bottom of The Pit. He took a few steps, quickly realizing that The Pit was a dead end. But when Ravidat turned to retrace his steps, he discovered a painting of a bison knocking down a person: the person had a bird's head and four-fingered hands.    Soon the boys decided to tell their schoolteacher, Leon Laval, about their discovery. They knew Laval was interested in archaeology and would know what to do about their fantastic find.    Monsieur Laval explored the cave and wrote the following description of his adventure:        Once I arrived in the great hall accompanied by my young heroes, I uttered cries of admiration at the magnificent sight that met my eyes.... Thus I visited the galleries and remained just as enthusiastic when confronted with the unexpected revelations which increased as I advanced. I had literally gone mad.    In a short time, word spread about the fantastic paintings of Lascaux.

Link to Lascaux Cave Slidetalk

www.savelascaux.org

Official Lascaux Site, amazing virtual tours!

American Folk Art

American Folk Art- American folk artists were generally self-taught artists who wanted to tell a story, through pictures, about specific events depicting life in rural areas.                The most famous is Grandma Moses- (1860–1961), US painter; full name Anna Mary Robertson Moses. She took up painting as a hobby when widowed in 1927 and produced more than a thousand paintings in a primitive style, mostly of rural life.  see American Folk Art Museum

The Checkered House- Grandma Moses

The kids are going to do a Watercolor and Salt Painting I had seen on a great blog, Art Projects For Kids

Materials needed:
White paper
 Oil pastels, I used dark purple, they just need one to draw with.
pencils

Folk Art Chicken by Devon Roe

Water colors and palettes to put it in. you can use watercolor pans and have them pick and choose what colors they like,  or you can use liquid watercolor which is highly pigmented and limit the colors used. 
salt
brushes




Show them the slideshow below and then,


Demonstrate and have them do the following...


1.The students will first draw a round circle on the upper left for the head.  Then a line is drawn to the right, and curve below to make a large half circle for the body. Two legs are added, curves for the tail, and details on the head.  All these lines are traced with a oil pastel when complete. 

2. have them paint the chickens body first with watercolor.  while the paint is still wet, sprinkle a bit of salt on it.  The salt absorbs the water, making a cool texture, and may be rubbed off when the entire painting is complete.  After the body is filled, the background may be painted in with one or more colors. 

Another fun chicken folk art

3. When it is completely dry, after a day or so, you can wipe off the salt, and take pictures for Artsonia.  The chicken looks great framed in your kitchen!

Link to slideshow

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.