Denton Artists Inspired by Love of Books

Second grade artists observed and discussed artwork by Red Grooms. Over several art classes the children applied what they learned by creating3-dimensional self-portraits showing themselves reading a variety of wonderful books. Red Grooms coined a technique called sculpto-pictorama, a synthesis of painting, sculpture, and panoramas constructed to resemble movie sets. To work in a style similar to Red Grooms, second graders experimented with using paper in new ways to create three-dimensional forms. Using mirrors, paper, scissors, and glue, the children became aware of spatial relationships created by the shape and placement of their facial features on their heads. In 1978, the Hudson River Museum commissioned Red Grooms to create a 200 square foot sculpto-pictorama. This work was called the Book Store and was inspired by the artist’s special love of libraries and bookstores. At the Denton Avenue library, the children found many beautifully illustrated books and featured them in
their self-portraits to visually celebrate the value of books and reading
in their own lives. Ms. Friedlander and all of our second grade artists thank Mrs. Allen for her collaboration in helping to find so many great book jackets to incorporate into our artwork.

Before drawing a still life with fruit, 2nd grade artists were asked what color they would choose to render an apple, pear, or orange. Generally, they noted one color for each fruit. They were then given the opportunity to look at these fruits and were able to observe a variety of colors rather than just one. The children looked at Cezanne paintings of fruit and discussed the bold shapes and colors he used in his still life paintings. The children then chose one fruit and used oil pastels to created bright and bold drawings. The background and foreground were done with crayon rubbings and finally shadows were added to emphasize form and space. Every child who has done this lesson has been proud of his or her efforts. This is an excellent project to start out a new school year.

Third grade artists were involved in learning about and making Op Art. Op art uses line and shape to create designs that fool the eye. After looking at Op Art paintings by Vasarely, students used cut paper lines and complementary color combinations to create their own amazing Op Art!

Surrealism meets technology! In this lesson, 3rd grade students enlarged the shapes of art studio bottles and containers to create a cityscape. They decided how to pose and then their pictures were digitally printed so they could add themselves into their multimedia creations. The first time I tried this lesson, the digital component was not included. The children responded with so much enthusiasm and took great ownership of their work when they could literally put themselves into their work!

This study of Van Gogh's sunflower paintings was done in conjunction with a school-wide interdisciplinary unit on sunflowers. Among some of the activities the children were involved in were planting sunflowers in the school courtyard, observing and tracking growth, and estimating the number of seeds per flower. In making these still life paintings, 4th grade artists were challenged to think about how light and shadow affected the flowers. These paintings also reflect the bright and impressionistic use of color and space. This lesson was modified to use with 1st grade artists and helped to introduce the concepts of background and foreground and mixing secondary colors. The success of this Van Gogh study was due to the effort of all the teachers to make the sunflower a part of learning in every subject area.

These paper collages were done by first grade artists after learning about Claude Monet and his many paintings of water lilies. Children were very enthusiastic about choosing warm and cool colors and enjoyed mixing colors by overlapping pieces of tissue paper. This lesson inspired conversation about how warm and cool colors related to warm and cool weather and how warm and cool colors also can be used to describe our feelings and emotions.