What We've Been Up To Lately

Kindergarten:

• German Expressionist Landscapes

The German Expressionists used thick, dark outlines and vibrant colors. Examples by the artsists Max Pechstein (left) and Erich Heckle (below).

These are paintings by our students. They learned about foreground, middleground and background. They were challenged to experiment with color mixing without letting their colors turn "muddy."

• Jasper Johns: Pop Art & Abstract Expressionism

Jasper Johns chose "boring" subjects for his paintings so that they could be appreciated for their style rather than their content. 

Students learned about monochromatic painting. They learned how to create tints (a color + white) and shades (a color + black) to create areas of light and dark. They painted using a number of methods: with a brush, with a sponge, and with a spray bottle. 

First Grade:

• Wayne Thiebaud (pronounced: TEE-bo, I think)

Above are examples of Wayne Thiebaud's paintings of cakes. His style was partially based on the advertising of his time, which used heavy shadows and bright colors. To the left and right are examples by CES students.

For this project, students learned how to draw a 3-D shape (a cylinder) in a 2-D picture. After drawing their cylinders they were challenged to create a gradual change from light to dark along the sides to create the impression light striking from one direction. The top of their cylinder was designed to make the cylinders look like cakes. Finally, the cylinders were cut-out and glued on a separate sheet of paper on which students drew a cast shadow. They had to figure out how to make the cast shadow agree with the shading on the cake.

• Adolph Gottlieb Pictographs

Above are paintings by the artist Adolph Gottlieb from a series called Pictographs. For our versions (examples below) we created a grid and colored it with "muted" colors. To created muted colors, students consulted our classroom color wheel and combined colors that were across from each other (purple-yellow, red-green, blue-orange). Over these squares students drew symbols taken from astronomy, ancient language, modern language, mathematics and music.