A Roving Parent and The Very Busy, Hungry, Lonely, Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

Great author/illustrator + great stories + great teachers=great art made by kids. 

Need more be said? Hooot.

Seen any great art in the hallways lately? Send a snap or two to bnsartalive@gmail and blog it!

Keep on Looking: Third Grade Takes on Bamboo

Visiting the China Museum each year is one of the most inspiring experiences for everyone in the BNS community.  The bold and bright reds in the artwork, the strength of the brush marks in the calligraphy, the dynamic projects with warriors, silk patterns and materials to teach of the vivid culture of Ancient China leave us in awe.

An equally inspiring, subtle, and discreet study takes place in the art room, where third graders learn how to "look at" bamboo.  They explore line, form, and "chiaroscuro:" the darks and lights of the forms. Then, using pencils and shading techniques students create three dimensional appearances.  One can not get bored looking at these dozens of drawings of the same scene.  Bamboo, in all it's loveliness, is so appealing to the viewer, but also to the artist.  Discovering it's distinctive markings, soft and hard lines and it's unique compositional structure is thrilling.  

Savor these drawings and look at how each artist's study differs from the next. The power of the drawing lies in the eye and hand of our third graders.

By Janine Sopp

Which side are YOU on? Dream and Reality in the Gallery

BNS 5th graders held center stage in the art gallery next to the art room last fall.

Art and social issues have gone hand and hand for centuries, and at BNS, our fifth graders continued the tradition of spreading their message through creativity.  After viewing the video, "Which Side are You On," by Rebel Diaz, they created peace posters expressing their own interpretations of war and peace.

The fifth grade also had an exhibit of their own watercolor/collage mixed media pieces based on their study of the Surrealists paintings of Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. The aim of Surrealism was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Our fifth graders have responded to this through their magical, mystical and often paradoxical renditions of works that feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur.

Thank you 5th grade teachers for keepin' it real!

Janine Sopp

From Cypriot to Clemente: Portrait Artists in the Making

I stumbled on these portraits outside of Andrew's class one day.

His students are expert portrait artists, I thought. I asked Andrew about their process. It started simply. Looking in the mirror, students explored their own features then made portraits in clay concentrating on getting the texture of their hair just right.

Next they travelled, physically and conceptually, back and forth in time, to focus on figurative sculpture from ancient Cyprus to modernist and contemporary painting and photography. At the Met they saw Cypriot sculptures and Chuck Close's work. (He used photographs as the beginning of a painted portrait).

They also studied the portraits of painters like Kirchner, Matisse and Picasso.

Once students grasped some different approaches to making portraits they practiced taking photos of themselves and then traced them to learn more about the lines and shapes in their own face. This led to another portrait using oil pastel. 

Francesco Clemente's watercolor portraits provided stylistic and technical inspiration for the final version. Students again took original photographs, enlarged them on the copy machine and

traced over them to get the lines right. They transferred their tracings to large watercolor paper

and used Clemente's wet-on-wet techniques to add dimension and expression.

Working hard, taking time, using culture for inspiration and...voila! Thank you, Andrew, for your words, your photos and your ingenuity!

Have you ever tried to make a self portrait? Tell us about it- post a comment below.

The Roving Parent: Nature and Books Inspire

The first grade learned about and visited Prospect Park as part of

the 1st grade green space study. The kids from Jenny's class made oil pastel landscapes:

Here's another from Jenny's 1st grade class: They combined their study of Eric Carle with a study of squirrels. They each painted their own watercolors and then cut out their own squirrel patterns.  This is how they came out! 

Thanks, Ann Marie Matava, for these great pics!

Do you have favorite author/illustrator who inspires you to create? Tell us! 

The Roving Parent: Hallway Snaps

BNS always has interesting things on the walls. So much of the time I'm busy rushing from here to there and I forget to register the wonderful things I see. I'm trying to pay more attention. These are a few things that caught my eye:

Found outside K classrooms:

Found outside Ann's art room:

Where do you see creativity at BNS?

The Roving Parent: What inspires you?

Recent examples of our children's beautiful artwork spotted in the BNS hallways. Have you seen anything on the BNS walls that inspires you? 

Arbo's Class Collages

Add caption

 Third Grade Mulberry Leaf Drawings with Ann:

 Fifth Grade Prints:

First Grade:

Thank you, Lynn Groveman, for taking these pics!

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