Middle School Artists at Work

This week in 7th Grade art we are studying Early Christian and Byzantine art.  In class, they have started a three week painting project.  They will be working on icon paintings based on the work of Early Christian and Byzantine artists.

Here are some photos of them working in class on the icon paintings.
We hope to have them finished and ready to hang up for the Christmas season. 

The students are using painting references from Early Christian Art. They are encouraged to make changes to their painting and to only use the references for inspiration and an overall idea of what iconography paintings look like.  I can't wait to see how they all turn out.  The sketches and the beginning stages of their paintings look great so far.  Not one student was heard a saying, " I can't paint people."  Instead, they all began to draw with confidence their interpretations of Early Christian Art.

One interesting detail that we learned in class today was that HUMAN HEADS ARE NOT ROUND!!!

The End of the 1st Quarter

Middle School students have been working so hard in art class.   We have had a few interuptions for special activities, but will be all caught up soon!

We closed out the 1st Quarter with some watercolor paintings of fish.

Thank you to Mr. Farlow for letting us paint fish in his science room while high school students tested in our building.

Both 7th and 8th grade students did the watercolor fish paintings.

This week 7th Grade art students finally had the chance to complete the African Mask paintings.  We studied Ancient African Art in class and then they created their own African Mask paintings based off the masks they viewed in class.

The African Mask paintings are a project that I do every year with the 7th grade classes.  They always turn out to be outstanding original works.  Sometimes I think that I can see the students in their masks!!!

Coming soon.....

8th grade-Autumn Daydream Designs

7th Grade-Early Christian and Byzantine Iconography

Mountain Streams and Falling Leaves

Mountain Streams and Falling Leaves

7th Grade Art

The seventh graders finished up their paintings this week.  They turned out to be bright, colorful works of art!  I hope you enjoy seeing their work.

Procedure:  We drew leaves in pencil first, then we painted the leaves and the background in contrasting colors.  The final step was to outline and add details to the painted leaves.