To Paint or Not to Paint, That is the Question

I am organizing my fall painting classes. If you are interested in taking classes. Please leave a comment on this page letting me know what day and time you are interested in.

Abstract Butterflies-Paint Night

This is not as difficult as it looks. Its difficulty is just 2 out of 5. Come paint it with me on Tuesday, July 28th 7-9:30. The cost is $25.00 all materials supplied.  You can use the colors of your choice. To find out more information and sign up click here. Type the access code 333.

Woodland Path- Paint Night

Come paint this 16 x 20 Woodland Path with me. Click on the link below to sign up for this Paint Night Out on Tuesday, July 7th. Type the access code 333 to register.  Click here to get more information or to sign up.

My Impression of the Sunrise is...

This is the painting that caused the term impressionism to be widely used. It shows recognizable images, but it is obviously painted. The painter was using his brushstrokes to portray his impression of the sunrise over the water. We see loosely defined boats silhouetted in the foreground and background. It was not the first impressionist painting, but since Monet used the term Impression in the title of his work, reporters began to use the term impressionism to describe this style of painting which they thought was "unfinished". It was not initially thought to be a positive thing by the public. Today it is a very popular style of art.

Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet, 1972 , Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris

The Middle School art class's assignment was inspired by this and other similar impressionist paintings. We began with the primary and secondary colors plus white on our palette. We used the rule of thirds and began painting a circle using either yellow or orange to represent the sun. Gradually each student continued painting circles,then ovals moving outwards following the color wheel. Colors went from yellow to orange, red, violet, then blue. We added some white to each color to make the colors more opaque(less see through). Some students only used 3 analogous colors, while some used them all. Some students used pastel colors while some used vivid hues. Students could choose whether they wanted to paint with their canvas horizontally or vertically. This first example is vertical, but the one following it is horizonal.

The next step was to repaint the whole surface using horizontal strokes until the whole surface is covered with paint leaving the texture of the strokes. Tiny globs of paint are okay, it adds to the painting.

The next step is to sketch some silhouettes that you think you would like to use in your painting. This was our homework. Next week we will add the silhouettes to our paintings.

We will use a dark gray to black color to add silhouettes to the paintings. A large silhouette of an object in the foreground and a reduced sized object in the background. And voila, your very own Impressionist Sunrise painting.

Back to the Future

Futurism is a style of art that began in the early 1900's. It often resembles cubism. The key to futurist art is that it deals with the future often showing movement, mechanical items, and powerful things.  Below is a picture with a cubist feel that portrays a horse in motion. Below that is a picture of a dog being walked.

" Elasticity (Elasticità), oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, Museo del Novecento" by Umberto Boccioni 

Giacomo Balla, 1912, Dinamismo di un Cane al Guinzaglio (Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash), Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Our class began our own movement art inspired by futurism. Here is a link to view several examples of our assignment. 

Website with Assignment Examples

We traced our mannequin with pencil, then traced it with watercolor pencils and colored pencils. The last step is to use a damp brush to "paint" areas to enhance the motion.

5 Eyes Wide

The human face is basically 5 eyes wide. This is a standard measurement artists use to draw a portrait. Peoples faces vary slightly from this; some have slightly more than an eye width between their two eyes and some have slightly less space. The middle school class drew a front view line drawing similar to this, first in pencil and then tracing over it in Sharpie.

We divided the paper vertically and horizontally. Next we made tick marks 1/2 inch to each side of the center on the horizontal line. Then we made 2 tick marks on each side 1 inch apart beginning at the 1/2 inch tick. On the vertical line we made tick marks going up and down 4 inches each way. Using those marks we drew an egg shape that was 5 inches by 8 inches with the narrow end down. Using a diagram similar to the one below we added eyes, a nose, mouth and eyebrows.

You Crack Me Up...

When most people think of Cubism they usually think of Picasso and fractured portraits. The portrait below is not by Picasso, but it is a portrait of Picasso by an artist named Juan Gris. Notice the shading and how bland the coloring is. This was typical of early cubist art. 

Juan Gris, Portrait of Picasso, 1912, oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

1914–15, Nature morte au compotier (Still Life with Compote and Glass), oil on canvas, 63.5 × 78.7 cm (25 × 31 in), Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio

Cubism evolved. Bright colors, multiple views, abstract images and geometric shapes are all associated with cubism now. Cezanne, Braque and Picasso are some of the main cubist artists.

To read more about Picasso click here.

From Your Point of View...

Part of creating art that has some hint of realism is learning to create art using perspective. Most students begin with 1 or 2 point perspective. I usually teach 1 point perspective first. There is a great handout available free at Teachers Pay Teachers.      Click here to get your handout.

This is my sample completed with markers.Notice how the trees get smaller just as the buildings do. Also the things closer to the viewer overlap the things farther away.

Below is a simplified version of the above drawing using a corner to corner x across the paper to create the vanishing point and areas for the top, sides and bottom of the landscape. This drawing was inspired by Peter Max, a pop artist who began his career in the 1960's. I'll be finishing it this week in my Elementary Art co-op class.

Click here to visit the online Peter Max art gallery.

In the following 1 point perspective drawing there is no horizon line because we are viewing from a birds eye view. The extra depth is created by using a cascade of balloons of various sizes and darker shading at the base of the buildings.

Art Can Be a Dream...

Next week the co-op art classes will begin working on their dream art work. What I mean is Surreal Art. Surreal Art is a style of art that began in the early 1920's in which the artist expresses himself in a dream like fantasy art work. Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte are two well known surreal artists.

This is the painting, The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali.

The following is a painting by Rene Magritte titled The Son of Man.

Its amazing what my students were able to create with some magazines, glue, scissors, and paper. Here is a surreal collage by one of my middle school students.