December 12, 2011 Grade 10

Do you recognize these students? What a great job everyone did on their self portrait. So many new skills were learned and/or further developed. Getting over the "art fear" was the biggest challenge for some students. More finishing touches may be added during our Thursday morning class. Next semester we are moving into The Modern - Twentieth Century Art. We will go from Kandinsky to Pollock.

December 12, 2011 Grade 9

Grade nine students will spend their week studying for and taking semester exams. Thursday we will meet in the art room and take some time to "critique" the work they have done on their Fauvist Landscapes. They will be assessed on this first step of the process and will continue next year in the second semester. They will be adding stylized trees to the land.

December 5, 2011 AP

Last week AP students finished experiments with different drawing materials, drawing with feathers and brushes with sumi-e ink, and coffee.

This week they will begin using the characteristics of the nineteenth-century Romantic Landscapes.

Objectives/Outcomes
Students will:
become familiar with the style of nineteenth-century Romantic landscape painting.
create a painting from direct observation utilizing stylistic devices of nineteenth-century landscape painting.
learn techniques for dramatic landscape composition.
will learn to exploit effects of color and light for expressive results.


Students refer to the handout for more detailed information. Check online for images and information about the artists discussed in the Powerpoint on Friday.

Students will work at home and in the school studio to complete this by Monday December 12.

December 5, Grade 10

What drew the grade ten students to the window Friday morning? A rainbow, hanging low on the hill across from the school and above it was a double rainbow. Could we have asked for anything better to study color with. This was a good omen for students as they look forward to this weeks final sessions on their self portraits.

December 5, 2011 Grade 9

Grade nine students will continue painting like "wild beasts". The color will be flying onto their papers. This week they will also begin adding their forest elements to the landscape backgrounds.

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.