Welcome to a New School Year!

I am so excited to welcome you to a new school year at CTA. We have so many amazing projects planned this year! Right now, students are just beginning their art classes and are reviewing the expectations & procedures in the Art Room.

Picasso Musical Instruments by the Third Grade

Third Grade students studied all about Pablo Picasso and the art of Cubism this winter. Using the artist's "Three Musicians" painting as inspiration, students investigated various types of musical instruments while exploring the concept of dividing up an image in to multiple planes. It's a tough idea to understand, but the Third Grade did an excellent job!

Here are some examples of student work:

Shylee D.

Basya B.

Dovid E.

Gillian H.

Jane S.

It's Been A Long Winter

It might seem like the blog has been hibernating these past few months, but in the Art Room, we've been busier than ever!

Here's what we've been up to in the Lower School:

Kindergarten - Gumball Machine project (key concepts: Pop Art & the Color Wheel)

First Grade - Pattern Fish (key concepts: pattern & ocean life); Aboriginal Dot Paintings (key concepts: symbols, new painting techniques)

Second Grade - Snowy Day Collage (key concepts: inspiration for literature & illustration, foreground/middle ground/background)

Third Grade - Picasso Musical Instrument Paintings (key concepts: cubism, multiple perspectives, overlapping shapes); Cityscape Collages (key concepts: elements of a city, layering, overlapping)

Fourth Grade - My Community Paintings (key concepts: personal connections, community, the art of Aminah Robinson)

Fifth Grade - Kente Cloth Weavings (key concepts: color symbolism & pattern meanings)

Sixth Grade - Op Art Drawings (key concepts: color relationships, optical illusions)

Unfortunately, because of days off of school and special programs, the 7th Grade had missed several of their Thursday art classes, but now they're back on track, exploring color schemes & relationships and portraiture.

The 10th Grade has completed their semester of Art - they created projects based on Art Historym like ancient Egyptian masks, Classical architecture building designs, Radial Design Mandalas, Perspective hallway drawings, and as a grand finale, an individual project exploring a movement in modern Art History from Impressionism to the present.

Now it's time for the 11th and 12th Graders to get re-acquainted with their creative sides in Art II. In Art II, students explore "Big Ideas" such as Identity, Relationships, and The Environment.

4th Grade Art Students Featured in This Week's Dateline!

Make sure to check out this week's CTA DATELINE for an awesome article about the 4th Grade's incredible adventures with comics, forcusing on the work of artist Roy Lichtenstein!

7th Grade Assignment

Due Thursday, October 14th:

Please bring in 3 objects (somewhere between the size of an eraser and a popcorn bucket) to draw. These objects should have some significance or importance to you - they should not be random things you found lying in your locker or stuck to the bottom of your backpack :)

You will be using these objects to create a still-life drawing on October 14th.
If you forget your objects on October 14th, you will be counted as "unprepared" - so write it in your planner!

4th Grade Assignment

Fourth Graders:

Please bring in a comic (either form a comic book or the newspaper) to your next art class. It should be a comic that you don't mind cutting out and drawing on.
Monday Class: We do not have school on Monday, September 6th - so please make sure you have your comic by Monday, September 13.
Tuesday Class: Please bring your comic on Tuesday, September 6th.

Thank you!

Upper School Sketchbooks

Students in Grades 7 & 10:
You are required to purchase a sketchbook for art class. Your sketchbook should be around 8x10 inches, spiral-bound, with heavyweight paper (but not watercolor paper!). Your sketchbook should have at least 50 pages, but 100 are preferable.

Make sure to read the cover of the sketchbook to make sure that you're purchasing the right type of book!

Please have your sketchbooks by next week and bring them to class when you have art.

Welcome Back!

Happy 2010-2011 everyone!

I am pleased to start another fun-filled and exciting year of art at CTA. 10th Grade students began their art classes today, while other grades begin on Thursday. I look forward to seeing everyone in the art room in the coming week.