Experiment Paintings

This spring I thought it would be fun to loosen up and do some "experiment paintings" with my 5th and 6th grade students. They're naturally in the stages of artistic development where children become critical of their work and can get very hung up on things looking realistic. We went a totally different direction with some non-objective paintings. Almost every student tried out this style of painting by the end of the school year.

We could've gone old school to learn about non-objective painting with some nonobjective paintings from Art History (de Kooning, Pollock, Kandinsky, Rothko, etc.) but since they were really starting to get squirrely at that point in the school year, I decided to show a video that Alisa Burke put together on some everyday objects she likes to use in her paintings. You can see the video here: http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-favorite-everyday-things-for-painting.html

 At the conclusion of the video, I asked students to name tools they noticed. After the students listed what they had noticed from the video, I showed what unusual tools we had in the art room- bubble wrap, tubes for stamping, tin cans, foam brushes for stamping, brayers, etc. 

 I filled egg cartons with tempera paint but suggested that students not try to use EVERY color. We talked about the color wheel- which colors might blend nicely together and which would likely result in mud. I did a demo and showed how to "dip the tip" of the brush into the paint and how I could switch colors without water by trying to use all the paint on my brush first, and then not stirring the new color. I think if the students had used water, the paintings would not be as vibrant. I set out all of our tools on a table and the students just picked what they wanted to use.

 I told the students these were "experiment paintings" for a reason- I wanted them to explore the qualities of the paint, try out different color combinations, textures, etc. without being afraid of making a mistake. The end result was a lot of awesome paintings. Some looked like finished pieces, while other needed more attention in later classes. 

 One way to use the painted papers is to add solid colored strips for a paper weaving project.

 Other uses for the papers are

• drawing on top of the painted paper
• painting on top of it
• collage- background
• collage- cut it apart and glue onto something else
• journaling on top

Next year I may do this before opening up the collage center. I'm thinking about getting rid of my magazine stash as the students K-6 relied too heavily on magazine images instead of making their own. I think it may be helpful to show the students how to make their own papers first.

4th Grade Jazz Paintings

Source: kbraunweb.com via Katie on Pinterest

I discovered Ray Berman's paintings when I was researching art from southern Africa. Ray Berman grew up in South Africa but moved to Swaziland during Apartheid. He makes colorful abstract paintings that show the influence of the urban jazz music he grew up listening to. My 4th grade students  viewed images of Berman's paintings, like the picture above and compared them to Wassily Kandinsky's Composition VII below.

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Katie on Pinterest

My district's Art curriculum focuses mostly on the Elements of Art but with this project I wanted the students to think more about the Principles with this lesson and what they have in common with music. The students were able to identify rhythm and harmony as being music and art words. It was pretty easy for them to figure out that "rhythm" in Art is  like a visual beat but it took a little more prompting for them to get the definition of harmony. I'm about to tell you a little story of embarrassing myself for the sake of education. I asked the students what it means if people are singing in harmony. One answered "singing the same song". I knew that wasn't quite going deep enough so I asked the student to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and to keep singing no matter what I did. I let him get about half a verse out before I started singing from the beginning in my very best horrible opera voice. The students laughed and then understood when I pointed out that they would have to be singing together, not just the same thing. So "harmony" in Art is the elements working together and looking good together.

And in the next part of the lesson, technology failed me, and later the music teacher saved me. I had found some videos of South African Jazz on YouTube as well as another website that would play South African Jazz music. I tested the link the week before and when I went to play the music for my first class, my district's internet filters had changed and YouTube was blocked. Then the music on my backup website would not play. So instead of listening to jazz while creating abstract paintings, my students painted to REM. Good music, but not quite the same. I talked to our music teacher and she hooked me up for my classes the next week. She brought a bunch of jazz music VHS tapes and showed me how to run the audio from the VCR through the speakers in my classroom. I just had to fast forward through a few speaking parts to get to the music. I can't remember the titles of some of the songs but let's just saw there was some laughter. I had enough paint out at each table* that I didn't need to refill any and was able to paint along with the students (when I wasn't fast forwarding) and we all enjoyed it. It's not uncommon for me to play music while the students paint, but this was one of the first times I had asked the students to paint the music.

*I've found that my students get better results with abstract painting when they are given only the primary colors and white. They can mix any color they want without you having to refill or waste supplies and it keeps everything unified.

The schedule ended up being uneven again so only one class finished the project how I had originally planned. I played music again in the second class period and the students were to draw, cut, and glue an instrument then add lines with oil pastels that showed the beat of the music. I'm kind of glad that the other classes' projects remained abstract paintings because in most of the pieces, I felt the instruments actually took away from the project. I invite you to check out some of the other results below or see more in our Artsonia gallery.

Camryn363 says this about his/her art...

This is a saxaphone. We listened to music while makeing this. The lines are to the beat to the music.

Peighton14 says this about his/her art...

In this picture I made an instrument to go on top of my design. The notes are coming out of the instrument.