art in action

just recently i became an art docent at Ls elementary school and yesterday i taught my first art class in grade 1.

i had volunteered all through last year and know many of the kids but i still was very nervous about actually teaching art to 7 year olds.

luckily our school invited the help of an amazing art program art in action.

with the help of their tutorials, materials and their wonderful online class room it was easy to get ready.

I prepped all night before, went over the artist, the time period and the artist style over and over again.

i tried to come up with an easy way to relay information like "automatic drawing", "negative space" and "abstract" to 7 year olds.

the objective was to draw a continues line with your eyes CLOSED and then find shapes and objects and create a painting out of it, filling in spaces with colors and other shapes.

the result ... was simply amazing!!!

the most fun i have had working in class.

the kids made their own masterpieces based on the original by Miro and then had an art show to talk about their piece of art.

i walked out of the class, 1 1/2 hours later, just in awe of how creative and artistic these little people are.

how refreshing to see their point of view and how wonderful to listen to their way of explaining their own art and the thoughts behind it.

here are a few of the masterpieces. 

enjoy a view into the abstract world of 7 year olds!!!

project: color doodles

artist: Joan Miro

Masterpiece: People and Dog in the Sun

student work

this is big L's masterpiece!

i LOVE the fish!

this is a future inventor or engineer!

this is amazing work!

an ice cream with a cherry on top created out of one single line!

as an art exercise, try it! 

close your eyes and draw curvy lines all over your paper.

open your eyes and let your imagination take off!

it's FUN, believe me!

when i asked big L at night what she remembered from the class she said "the guy with the mirror drew pictures with his eyes closed and didn't even have an iPhone" :)

(i had explained that the artist was born a VERY long time ago when they didn't even have phones yet)

two weeks from now i'll have fun with 100 kindergarten kids and another 1st grade group.

the upper elementary grades will follow soon.

stay tuned, i'll keep sharing these creations with you ... just to brighten up your day.

~be well