Welcome to our ES Art blog at ASB. This blog includes photos of artists at work, reflections from students on their learning, and updates regarding the projects and happenings in grade 1-5 art.
Really, I am nearly speechless after seeing the incredible art from these two artists recently. I've seen their photos and stories being shared online through different news and social media sites, and thought I must share! I know some of you have seen these artists too- what do you think!? I am amazed by their unique idea to create such large but temporary art. Would you spend that much time planning, designing and creating something only to have it destroyed by the next wave or snowfall? It certainly take a special passion and drive and a deep love for creating. Kudos to these artists who are creating breathtakingly beautiful designs with essentially the world around us!
Click on the hyperlinked text below to find their websites and more information about them!
Simon Beck: Snow Artist
Creates giant drawings using his snowshoes, a compass, a brilliant plan and a good sense of direction. Originally a map-maker, he loves creating temporary designs in the fresh snows that fall in France during ski season. You can find his photos of his art and learn more about him through interviews on social media sites and news outlets. He was even asked by Disney to create an image for the recent film, Frozen!
Creates designs by raking sand on beaches, exposing the wet sand which looks darker and creates the lines for his drawings. Originally from California USA he loves spending time at the beach- this style of art is also known as playa paintings or beach art. Here's a time lapse of him creating a work:
There's even an entire community of beach artists like Andres! Check out a video from BBC on their competitions:
Imagine you were going to try to make a piece of art inspired by these artists? What type of weather, terrain, geography would you look for? Imagine large and small ways you can do this around you in your every day life.... growing up I used to draw in the frost on the glass of windows on my bus ride home :) Share your thoughts!
Grade 5 got their creative juices flowing this week with an art game suggested by Dominik! The game is called: Add On.... Everyone started with their sketchbook and a pencil, ready to draw! But what to draw you might be wondering? Well... Each person came up with one part to add to our "Creative Creatures". One by one we went around the class and added in each idea to our drawing. They got pretty crazy and certainly creative! This is a fun game any group of artists can try anytime to warm up imaginations and stir up creativity!
Here's our complete list of Add Ons as well as some of the resulting drawings:
At the end we even took some time to draw good friends for our crazy creatures. What a fun day of wacky ideas, unusual combinations, and plenty of laughter :)
How do you wake your creativity up after a long holiday or break from making?
Grade three celebrated their successful completion of each class crest this week. You can see them hanging around ASB soon! Well done grade three artists on an impressive show of collaborations and commitment to craftsmanship.
Here's a peak into the process:
(3C Mural now on display at the ES Campus Entry!)
The grade 3
students worked together to create this collaborative mural of the ASB
Crest.Each group started with a
two-foot square image of the crest, and used a grid process to transfer and
enlarge the image to create six-foot square murals of the crest.
They each worked on
small sections (grid boxes) of the drawing to enlarge the image one piece at a
time. Once all of the pieces were drawn out, the pieces were fit together like
a puzzle and the mural went through a process of revision and refining. After
the sketches were ready, the marker outline set the drawing in place. The last
step was to add color.Inspired by the
use of the grid drawing process, small grid squares were drawn in the background
and filled in with shades of colors determined by the class through a
thoughtful reflection of color theory.
Ultimately each
student played an important role throughout each step of this process and they
have created something as a group that would have been overwhelming as
individuals. Collaboration was the key to this successful mural project. We are
happy to share this process and beautiful product, which represents who we are
at ASB.
Grade four just finished a unit exploring expressive lines. They added line quality to their drawings by using descriptive, unique lines to draw scenes inspired by their study and visit to mangrove biomes. An added challenge of creating the entire drawing with one continuous line added a creative effect to the artwork. Look for these pieces to on display in the ES soon!
Google is an extremely creative company. From the way they design their work spaces, to their products and ideas, google is known for being innovative and unique. Google search is used millions of times every day to help people find information- as a result the google search home page is one of the most highly viewed webpages in the world. With such a great audience, I love the way Google uses their artistic creativity to share knowledge on their homepage in the form of google doodles. Since 1998 when they first had the idea to doodle up their search page, google has created over 1000 google doodles on display for certain events and celebrations such as holidays and birthday of famous people including many artists. Pretty cool way to slip some creativity into an ordinary google search!
Google Doodle Archive
You can learn more about Google doodles HERE, see their archive of doodles HERE (is there a special doodle on your birthday?), or even buy Google doodle designs HERE. Notice how they celebrate a variety of cultures, people, and types of events... Google doodles usually grab my attention and either teach me a new fact (like independence days or globally celebrated holidays) or intrigue me enough to do a new google search of people or places I don't know very much about to learn more!
A google doodle that caught my eye and caused me to google search the person's name- an Australian aboriginal poet and artist! Learned something new from this google doodle :)
5C brought up the doodle in class today (without even seeing the blog!) and so we explored the process of making organic blobs using black Ink and recycled paper. Super simple and easy to make- a great way for an artist to develop their creativity by coming up with as many ideas as possible for one "blob"/blot!
Way to go Google for getting the world to think like artists even during simple tasks like searching for information or ideas! I'd be interested to see what Google doodles ASB artists come up with!
Last week a group of 10 creative KG-Grade 2 students explored the art of Andy Goldsworthy. He is a well known sculpture artist who used mainly natural elements and nature itself to create stunning and simple yet interesting artwork. We talked about the patterns we noticed (simple shapes, using the thing such as rocks or leaves repeated over and over again, sometimes adding color but usually keeping the natural color of the natural object).
We wondered:
What would it be like to find one of his artworks in nature? surprising, awesome, funny, weird
How does this art make us feel?...and Why? calm, peaceful, curious, excited, happy... the environment and music also help us feel this way
How could we get or give that same effect using materials we found naturally around us at school? naturally found objects at school might be markers, pencils, crayons etc...
How would it feel to make a piece of art that is temporary, or will not last forever? sometimes just making art can make us happy, it's ok to break or remove a piece of artwork after we have shared it with others, not all art has to be perfect and in place forever
Where would we choose to build pieces like this to inspire people around us? in our home, in our private room/bedroom, at lunch, in school where lots of people will see it...
Using the most natural objects we can round up in school (without harming any plants or living things), we assembled designs on the ground using office supplies, rocks, sea shells, pencils, rubber bands, gems, and assorted wood blocks. While these elements were not the same as those Andy Goldsworthy would use, they are easily found, simple and common, and can be used to create surprising and interesting designs. As a group they created an amazing collage of items that really wowed the people passing by. We also tried using ordinary objects in drawings and in cards we could give to other people to inspire and surprise them with creative beauty. What a fun day using our imaginations and putting our creativity on display!
