Second Grade Explores Dale Chihuly!

Although the BES Art has not been busy on the blog lately (I am sorry!), we sure have been busy in the art room!  I am so excited to finally debut a huge unit that second grade has been knee deep in for the past 2 months.  As some of you might know, the contemporary glass artist Dale Chihuly had a special large exhibit of his work at our very own Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  As a Beaverdam native myself, I know how far away Richmond City seems from our small little town... BUT we are so lucky to have such a wonderful resource less than an hour away where we can see art up close and personal.  This is why I thought it was so important to introduce students to the artist Dale Chihuly and his artwork and try to spark the student's interest in going to visit the VMFA.  I hope some of you were able to go!!  If not, the students sure did learn a lot anyways right here at BES!

We started the unit just like Chihuly starts his glass work... by creating a painting!  Chihuly explains that he does not think about his paintings while he is doing them and that is what makes them so special and interesting.  Students had a great time experimenting with this way of art making.  THe results were MAGNIFICENT!!!

 

The next Chihuly series of work we looked at was his Ikebanas.  Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement and you can see the corelation when you look at his glass Ikebana series.  Students created their own on a much smaller scale using clay and glazes.  The clay medium made them fragile like glass and the glaze made them smooth, shiny, and reflective like the surface of the glass medium.  Take a look!

 

 

In between the clay handbuilding and glazing of the Ikebanas, students explored Chihuly's Maccia glass series.  Students experimented with creating their own Maccia like form using washable markers on coffee filters and spraying them with liquid startch to make the colors run together.  The startch also helped them keep a cup shape by letting them dry while slumped over a cup.  The finished result was translucent and similar to Chihuly's Maccias.  We displayed them as a whole grade installation and people really oohhed and awwed over them!

 

 

 

The last series we studied had the biggest WOW factor... the chandelier series!!  Students were able to use plastic soda bottles to paint the inside and cut into different lines to create the second grade collaborative chandeleir that now hangs in the main office here at school.  It is amazing discovering kid safe materials that show a similar surface quality to glass.

 

 

Weaver T. Beaver is all sorts of excited with this new art addition to his habitat!

 

This unit was so much fun!  I want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated plastic bottles!  I also want to thank the VMFA for having this amazing exhibit and offering the teacher workshop that I went to to learn more about bringing Dale Chihuly into the elementary art room.  Please ask your second grader about their "Chihuly-Smarts" because I know they would be happy to share their knowledge. :)

 

 

 

 

 



 

A New Look At BES!

The 2013 year as has been very productive in the BES art room!  If you have visited lately, you may have noticed a new look in our main office.  With some of our fundraiser money that we earned at last spring's Art Extravaganza, we purchased poster frames to display student artwork in the office.  Now our beloved Weaver T. Beaver has some beautiful artwork to admire each and every day!  Isn't he lucky to be able to view the artwork of such a talented group of elementary school artists?  I'd say so!  I certainly know how lucky I am to see our students grow in their artistic talents and minds each and every week!  Take a look at the work that is in the office right now.

What is great about using poster frames is that I can change up the artwork and many different students can have the chance to be on display in the office.  And it keeps things interesting for Weaver T. Beaver :)

We have some different artwork on display in the main hallway, too!  Like I said, our students have kicked off 2013 with an artistic BANG!  Take a look at some of the masterpieces that have been compelted since we have returned from winter break.

First grade finished their wild animal masks and here are some that are on display.  They had the choice to create a lion or an elephant but most of them wanted to make a lion mask.  These turned out so wonderful!  You might call me crazy, but these were done with paper mache!  Yes, thats right... first graders doing paper mache!  But let me just say, they did a wonderful job and had so much fun doing it that I would not hesitate to do it again!  

Below are fourth grade ceramic suns.  In the previous post, you saw these in progress and now look how gorgeous they are!  Full of color and emotion just like the Metapec suns of Mexico that we were learning about during this unit. 

To the right, you can see the fifth grader's one-point perspective drawings.  These are absolutely stunning and especially in person.  Fifth graders learned the skill of creating depth on a 2D surface using the steps of one-point perspective.  Once they were done with their drawing, they used their creative minds to add colors and details.  So much talent right here!  And they are so proud of their ability to draw in perspective, it makes me extremely proud!

Our kindergarteners just finished learning the B is for butterfly!  We learned about the characteristics of a monarch butterfly and created symmetrical butterflies by folding our paper in half, opening it up, painting on one side, and then folding it to transfer the paint to the other side.  This was a great lesson on symmetry and mono prints!  The next day, students used cool colors to finger paint their background sky and the third day they added details to their backgrounds.  Take a look! :)

And last but not least, first grade! They learned about tints and shades and complimentary colors when they created these hearts.  They decorated the office just in time for Valentines Day and our Valentines dance here at BES!

I hope you get the opportunity to swing by and see the new look at BES in person!  It's like an art museum around here! :)