Modern Art...

To continue our lesson on Frank Stella, I decided that if I gave the students the whole hour to work on their paintings they would chatter incessantly.  So, what better way to focus their attention then have them watch a video on Modern Art while they are making Modern Art????  I'm a genius, I know :)  This is a great video showing artists, such as Chuck Close in his element, expressing his talent and demonstrating his painting skills:

Here is my teacher sample of my own version of a Frank Stella painting from his protractor series:

Now keep in mind, that while I love to study the "Masters" in art, I rarely encourage copying artists' work.  I introduce the students to famous works of art & art movements and share some of the artist's ideas about the art they created but I encourage them to take some of the same ideas & create their own masterpieces.

Here are some of the paintings that are in mid-progress (these are 16x20 paintings)...

These is one 4th grade painting.  They finished these because they were on 12x12 paper - much smaller than the 5th and 6th grade paintings.  And, we used white crayon with watercolor and I thought I'd like these better, but I'm not so sure anymore...the watercolors don't seem to fit with this particular artist.  It's all trial and error, isn't it?