Tempera Paintings

Still trying to wrap up writing about last year's artwork. It takes longer with choice art if you want to have some sort of theme. Besides clay, liquid tempera is probably my students' overall favorite. I think they feel more like their idea of "real" artists when using liquid paint. The paintings in this post were by last year's 5th graders and there are things I really like about each of them.

I love the simplicity and colors in this landscape. It really reminds me of the flint hills and was painted from the student's memory. The student was pretty proud of mixing the colors in his sky. I think this landscape showed a mature sense of restraint!

This student painted her catfish during our "art of conservation" unit for the State Fish Art Contest, but didn't end up entering it. I like the composition, the color mixing, and the realistic looking aquatic plants.

1. The sky comes ALL THE WAY down to the ground. This is an accomplishment, people!

2. The clouds look fluffy.

3. White highlights on the petals instead of black outlines.

This is getting me so excited to move on to more choice this year. So far we've been working on projects for our Cultural Heritage focus of India. The "India" projects are wrapping up and the painting center will be open soon.

4th-6th Grade Choice Paintings

I'm starting to see some really cool ideas and deep thinking in my intermediate students' paintings. Some are doing simple paintings, but wow, some are really pushing themselves. The first painting in this post really impressed me. I need to find her artist statement and read how she came up with the idea. Obviously the reflection in the tear drop shows why the girl is crying. The student worked really hard on getting her skin and nose painted correctly. I also really love her composition. It's nice to see something zoomed in when it's usually so hard to get students to fill the space. Just ignore the anatomical error of the tear coming out of the iris instead of the tear duct. :)

I'll admit it. When I walked by and caught a glimpse of the painting above, and the student who was painting it, I thought he was just being sloppy. I didn't say anything and instead decided to wait and see what happened. I came back by later and totally changed my perception of the artwork. Look at the energy! I think the colors and the way in which they were applied really match the subject of the painting- someone jumping to shoot a basketball.

An experiment in mixing colors. 

Oil Pastel wax resist is a fun technique. I really like the expressive lines.