Alberto Giacometti Sculptures Using Natural Adhesive and Recycled Paper

Alberto Giacometti was a clay and bronze cast sculptor who created a certain style
of sculptures. He molded tall, thin human - like characters.

Students first used rolled up pieces of newspaper and tape to create the body of the sculpture. To hold the pieces together and give it strength, students covered strips of newspaper with wheat paste, a natural adhesive.

Once dry, we painted the sculptures.

Some were thinkers.

Some wore bright colors.

Some were dancers.

Some looked like they could walk.

Kindergarten Mixed Media - Jasper John's Numbers

Students observed Jasper John's Numbers painting,
then did their own rendition of it.

Using stencils of numbers, students were easily able to paint on large numbers.

Using crayons in a wax resist technique, layering watercolor paint over the crayons helps make the crayon colors more vibrant and noticeable.

We used glue and paint brushes to add on colored pieces of tissue paper.

Pointilism Puzzle Pieces Part One

George Suerat was a pointilist, which means he uses dots to create his paintings.
Students looked at "Sunday morning on the island of Le Grande Jates",
then painted puzzle pieces in that style.

Students used q- tips to help create the dot effect.

Stay tuned for part two, when we put the puzzle pieces together!

Louise Nevelson Style Sculpture - Re-using Recycled Objects.

Louis Nevelson was one of our most famous and most important artists of contemporary times.
She was known as a large scale "found object sculptor", who traveled around
New York City finding objects that were being thrown out to eventually use in her own artowork.

Here is an example of her finished work.

Students used cardboard, pieces of plastic, paper, glue and tempera paint to create these excellent works of art.

Stay tuned for part two of this project.

What Does Your City Look Like? Los Angeles City Scapes with Sunset Background

Students looked at images of city skylines.
One important image was the image of Los Angeles' skyline.

Using a "tap and turn" painting technique, students painted the background sunset
with red, yellow, orange, and white. Each time they dipped their brush in for more paint,
they were tapping the brush in more than one color. This technique makes blending easy, and helps colors mix freely.

Sunset plus some mountains, to model a typical Los Angeles day.

Students rubbed various textures under their paper to create a concrete look, then added geometric shapes to emulate windows on the buildings.

Printmaking With Recycled Materials

Recycled Materials used for this project included leaves, broken egg carton, empty string spools, berries, tree bark, and q-tips.

This student turned the printed paper into a card.

Kindergarten - Recycled Paper Cabins

I read the book "Henry Builds A Cabin", which uses a bear as a cartoon of the writer and conservationist Henry David Thoreau.
The story highlights his ability to build a cabin for only $28.00,
and refers to recycling old parts to build it.

The actual Henry David Thoreau cabin, and sculpture,
made to commemorate his achievement,
located in Concord, Massachusetts.

Students used a natural glue known as wheat paste,
to attach pieces of scrap paper together to form their cabin.
We discussed the conservation aspects to using natural glue as opposed to regular glue.