November 28, Grade 10

Grade 10 students are moving toward the final stages of their self portraits. Some have reached completion. Transfering their original drawings to pastel or drawing paper and adding the tonal rendering. Their work goes beyond the representational, we are beginning to see their personalities shining through their featues.

November 28, 2011 Grade 9

Grade nine students are learning to paint like "Wild Beasts" - the Fauves! As Matisse said, "Fauvism isn't everything, only the beginning of everything. Fauvism was the first major avant-garde art movement of the twentieth century and kicked the modern era with a bang!" (From The Annotated Mona Lisa).

The Hallmarks of Fauvism were: Intense, bright, clashing colors. Distorted Forms and perspective, vigorous brushstrokes. Critics refered to these artists as wild beasts.They used color with no restraint skies could be green and grass could be purple.

Our students are creating a landscape with trees in the tradition of the Fauves artists, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Dufy, Rouault and Braque. We will use acrylic paint on sulfit paper. Wach for these non-traditional landscapes.

November 14, 2011 Advanced Placement - Drawing

HELP! Grade 11 students! We need your masks and Logo Designs from last year! This Friday and Saturday November 18 and 19, I will be presenting a workshop about some of the great things you have done in art class. If you still have your mask and/or your Logo Design, please bring it to the art room this week. We will return them the following week. You did great work and we want to share it!

We will continue gestural drawing exercises in class. Please be sure you bring your sketchbooks Monday. We will take time out for a mid quarter self evaluation on Monday.

November 14, 2011 Grade 10

Everyone is making very good progress on the unit on portraiture! On Monday we will complete a mid quarter self evaluation on the hand study and on Participation, Respect and Responsibility.

November 14, 2011 Grade 9

Tuesday - Time for mid quarter self evaluation. If you did not complete your sketchbook color studies in class, please plan to come to the art room to complete them, before school 7:15, morning recess, lunch time or after school Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday this week.

Please bring your favorite T shirt to class Tuesday so that we can begin drapery studies in preparation for still life painting.

October 31, 2011 Advanced Placement (AP)

This week students continue to work on their multi-media compositions from life. We will also look at the steps involved in working with acrylic, with and without moulding paste, on various "grounds". Students will need to decide on materials and mediums for their concentration and for the breadth section so that they can purchase them before they are needed in the studio. The school can provide basic materials but AP students must provide their own canvas, water color paper, and additional acrylic paint depending on their useage.

Time is flying by and there is a lot of work to do before you submit your portfolios on April 20.
The studio will be OPEN this Saturday November 5, from 9:00 am until 2:00 pm. Please sign up before Friday if you plan to attend.

October 31, 2011 Grade 10

Grade 10 students are finishing their drawing of the hand this week. We will start a unit on portraits and will do two exercises. The first one will be drawing the human head/face in proportion. We will look at Da Vinci's drawings as well as Durer's. The second drawing will be a self portrait. I will be taking pictures of students this week to prepare for the second exercise.