Water Color Through Still Life

Paola has been reacquainting students with various techniques-watercolor, collage, line drawing. First creating sketches, third grade explored water color through still life. 

Notice how all these artworks look different, have compositional and expressive variety, reveal different approaches to the same problem, and show each child's unique vision in a palpable way. Thank you, Paola for honoring, supporting and providing opportunities for our children to explore and express!

See some artwork you like on the BNS walls? Blog it! Contact the Arts Committee: artscommittee@bns146.org

Fifth and First Grade Visits Kentler: More Mapping!

It seems that mapping and line explorations are in the air! Fifth grade students visited Kentler International Drawing Space to see the work of Rombaldi Seppey ...

...and Hedwig Brouckaert...

...where they deconstructed maps and then used transfer paper to layer lines. Back in the classroom, students explored the concept of "flow" and how it could be applied to drawing. Here's what they made:

First Grade

Fifth Grade

Couple these (near fifth and first grade classrooms) with a tour of the gallery in the basement and you might find your own personal geography shift just a little. Continental drift of the mind? What would you even call that??

Personal Geographies

In conjunction with a 4th grade map study, Paola introduced the children to different elements of map making and to the idea of maps as a form of communication. Combining sensory memory with personal geography classes are working toward a map book with layers. 

As young cartographers, BNS kids can now join the ranks of artists and scientists throughout history who have created maps to communicate "everything from understanding time to ordering the cosmos." Remember the maps from long ago where Pangea's perimeters were filled with groovy-looking sea monsters? If you're interested in learning more about creative mapping you might enjoy Mapping It Out: An Alternative Atlas of Contemporary Cartographies where we are invited to explore the idea that “maps are errors to arrive at truth.” 

Indeed, the individuality expressed by our 4th graders' maps burst with truth: unique to the personal mythologies of each child artist, no one map is even remotely like the others. 

Come see for yourself- these beauties are in the gallery!

Lovin' Loopy, Long, Lilting, Lithe Lines

Paola is teaching our kids about LINES and lines they are a' plenty.

Fast lines, slow lines
lines that holler
whisper or weep
strike and creep
hasten, tarry or scoot
all the way home
to circle, square or fancy dome
All in a tangle
needing a friend
to mangle the mess
and wrangle
a dress or a boat
or ink well or moat
amidst paper bag towers
and fast skittish flowers.

Kindergarten explores straight lines using black construction paper:

First grade explores line and feeling using colored pencil:

4th and 5h grade explore still life through lines...

...creating negative spaces, complex forms and varied textures.

4th

 5th

Enjoy! 

Making is Connecting

Almost 2 months into 2014 there are signs of children, families and teachers connecting with each other through the arts everywhere in our halls! With new classrooms, new routines, new friends and teachers, BNSers are exploring and expressing who they are while getting to know each other and while building community. 

Our families (Tammy's 1st grade class):

Ourselves (Greta's 2nd grade):

Our hopes and dreams (Kori's K):

First grade hopes:

I hope you enjoy our posts! If you see anything that inspires you in the hallways please consider taking a snap or two and jotting a few words and sending it to artscommittee@bns146.org. We'll gladly post it!