2Nd Grade 1. St. George and the Dragon by Raphael

2nd Grade 1. St. George and the Dragon by Raphael

The Artist Raphael lived in Italy from 1483-1520. He became a success early on during a period of artcalled the Italian Renaissance. Other famous artists at this time…Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Raphael died young at 37. He was a young boy about the time Columbus sailed to America in 1492.

His father was a painter, and so as a small boy he did artwork in his father’s studio. He became an apprentice (helper) to another artist when he was 10 years old. He had lots of chances to paint on large canvasses. He learned a lot about painting from his “boss,” Perugino, a very popular artist.

When he was 21 he went to Florence and Rome and became a famous artist. People paid him to paint their portraits and to design cloth tapestries to hang on the walls. He was very popular at the time of his death and had many apprentices working for him.

The Art St. George and The Dragon was commissioned by the Duke of Urbino and given as a gift to Henry VII of England. It was handed down to various English royalty and eventually given to Catherine II of Russia where it was displayed in a museum. Eventually an American art collector bought it and it is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

St George is a tiny picture only about 11x 8 (the size of this paper). It is done with oils on wood. This painting is recognized as a master work of its time, but not considered so great by today’s standards. There is a lot of detail in the picture, and the brushstrokes are not visible – it’s smooth – like the wood it’s painted on.

It tells the story of St. George, the saint of soldiers, who slays the dragon and saves the princess. Can you name some details that shows this picture was painted in the 1500’s and not in the 300’s when St. George actually lived? (Armor, clothing, Italian town.) No such pictures back then, only religious statues and paintings. This is a combination of fantasy and real-looking landscape. Was the painting made at the scene of the action or in the artist’s studio? How does he show depth, or distance? What parts might he have drawn from real models and what parts are from his imagination? Can you see where he divided the “action” and the calm background?

Art Project: Clothespin Dragon

Materials Needed: Clothespins, green paint, paint brushes, green paper, googly eyes, red paper, glue

Directions: Have children paint clothespins with a thin layer of green paint. Ask them to cut zig-zag cut outs from the green paper, fold the cut outs, and glue onto the sides of the clothes pins. Then they glue on 2 googly eyes on either side of the front face of the clothespin. Finally they cut red paper in ‘fire’ shape and stick inside the ‘mouth’ of the

clothespin by pressing down to open it. Now they have their very own animated DRAGON!

2nd Grade 2. Cosmic Eye by Merida

The Artist Born in 1891 in Guatemala. Died in 1984 at age of 93. Merida was a descendant of the Mayan Indians. At first he wanted to be a jazz musician, but his hearing was bad. He always loved jazz music as a hobby and sometimes it comes out of his artwork. He began painting at age 12 and studied art in Guatemala. Then he lived in Paris for 4 years and traveled around Europe. He studied with Pablo Picasso. He moved to Mexico and lived there until he died. He is best known for murals (wall paintings) done on public buildings in Mexico and Guatemala. His murals show scenes of Indian culture and Mexican themes. At age 36 he started to do abstract work. First in Mexico to paint abstract style. He also added things to make it 3D. (stones, tiles, glass)

The Art Done in 1980 when he was 89 years old. It is a type of print called a serigraph. It’s not very big: 24” x 43”. Serigraph: It is a print made by “squeegeeing” paint through a cloth screen that has some parts blocked to create a stencil. So paint goes through some parts and not others. Colors are applied one at a time with several screens as the paint builds up on the paper. Prints are made in editions, meaning that more than one is created. Each one is numbered and signed by the artist. This one had 100 created of it, then the screens were destroyed. So there are 100 originals. Usually, prints with lower numbers are a bit more valuable because the colors are clearer and the screens are sharper before a lot of use. This one is #40.

What kind of shapes does it show? Are the lines straight? Do the lines seem to be in front of or behind the colors? Where do you look first at the picture? (most of the time you look at the center and then your eyes move outward.) Can you find the “eye” shape that the title suggests? (upper left) Even with the Cosmic Eye title, the artwork is not meant to be a picture of an eye. Merida thought that a work of art should be valued for its pleasing artistic qualities alone, without having to being a picture of something.

He showed powerful geometric shapes; many believe this picture shows his love of jazz and intrigue – that it looks like “the sound” of jazz musicians or looks like a puzzle or a maze of black line. Meant to be representational – not “look” like anything specific.

Art Project:Abstract paper art

Materials: Colored construction paper, black and colored paper strips, glue stick (optional: sponge brushes and paint)

Pre-cut strips and different shapes of black and colored paper. Have kids create an abstract design on large construction paper.

Optional: Have kids paint background piece of construction paper by dabbing sponges over surface (resembling the screenprinting process), then cover in strips and/or shapes of pre-cut paper.

2nd Grade3.Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Seurat

The Artist Born in Paris in 1859. Seurat died suddenly at age 31 of Meningitis (infection in brain). Studiedatartschool there and became an established artist. He led a movement called neo-impressionism about 120 years ago. Impressionism was a type of art that was begun when artists first left their studios to paint what they saw outdoors. They tried to capture light and movement and a “moment in time.”

He was an art scientist who studied optics and spent a lot of time searching for how different colors and effects would change the look of a picture. Seurat developed a technique called Pointillism. He created it using small dots of unmixed color. Instead of green, he would place tiny dots of blue and yellow next to each other and when you see these small dots from a distance it looks green. When you don’t mix the colors together they appear brighter. This technique took a long time. One large painting took him a whole year.

The Art This is a famous masterpiece done in oils that hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. It is very large, 7 x 10 feet. The picture is framed with 2 frames…one, a painted dot frame, and the other a pure white painted wood frame. The picture shows a park on an island in the Seine River (nw of Paris). It was fashionable to go there for picnics, walks, or sailing. Seurat visited it every day for 6 months to do drawings/sketches. It took 2 years to complete this painting. He did 200 oil sketches for it and 23 pencil drawings.

His painting shows that he liked order and structure. He gives it a classic sculpture quality. Arrangement of all the figures is well thought out, posed and balanced. The trees and people are all vertical and the shadows are all horizontal.

When Grand Jatte was first exhibited, people didn’t like it, they thought it was comical. But as time went on, they realized his ideas about color were ahead of their time. He used some of the same ideas that are the basis of digital technology today (TV projection, for example)

Do you notice the detail of the people/objects that are closer to you? Can you tell how the shape of the curved umbrella is repeated throughout the painting?

(continued…)

Where else do you see curves? Did he convey the mood of a Sunday in the park? What season do you think it is? If you go to the Art Institute you can see this painting.

Art Project:Pointillism color wheel and landscape dot art

Materials: Paper plates; red, yellow, blue, and brown tempera paints; q-tips; pencils; white paper

Pointillism color wheel: Have students draw lines to divide their plates into 6 pie-like sections. Ask them to fill the “pie” sections with dots using q-tips and paints to create a color wheel. Only allow them to use primary colors (dots of red, blue, yellow, red+blue for purple, red+yellow for orange, and yellow+blue for green).

If time allows, have them sketch a basic landscape and cover/fill-in the sketch with q-tip dots of paint using dots for primary and secondary colors. They can use brown as well for the paintings.

2nd Grade 4a. Blue Mountain by Kandinsky

The Artist Born in 1866 in Russia, his early ambition was to become a musician, but his parents insisted that he go to school and study law. At school, he saw lots of paintings and he loved the rich colors in them. He practiced law for 2 years , but then made up his mind to become a painter. He studied in an art school in Germany for 3 years, then traveled around Europe looking for colorful subjects to paint. He didn’t try to capture actual things, he said he worked better from memory – he wanted to create “art of the imagination.” He became one of the creators of the first totally abstract art. These paintings showed only his feelings about form and color. He used many geometric forms like lines, circles and triangles and this non representational art was called Abstract Expressionism. This is what he is most known for and it was very shocking at the time. (you can show printed examples from web site His art became more and more abstract as he wanted to eliminate actual objects and show the qualities and essences of things, in much the same way that music does. Not long after he painted The Blue Mountain, Kandinsky stopped making recognizable figures and objects altogether and began to show only color and shapes.

The ArtThe painting is done in oils with brushes. You can see some brush strokes clearly in the painting. There are a lot of bright colors. The artist is more interested in painting with color than with telling a story. This doesn’t show what the landscape and figures actually looked like, but instead, the way that he felt about his world of color. Can you see an area of contrast? (light against dark color) Kandinsky wanted us to see the horses first, so he made them white against the dark blue background of the mountain. Do you think the painting would feel bumpy or smooth if you touched it? Is there any depth in this painting? Does anything look far away? (No, it looks flat and the artist felt that a painting should not look like you’re looking through a window at a view.) Are there any colors that are repeated? Can you tell if the horses are moving? Does your eye go to one area, or is it always moving? How do you feel when you look at this painting? Kandinsky got the idea for this painting from a fairy tale that he heard. Artists usually get ideas for their artwork from experiences they have had or places they’ve seen.

2nd Grade 4b. Phenomena Royal Violet Visitation by Jenkins

The Artist Born in 1923 in Missouri, he studied acting, theater and dance before becoming a painter in New York. His paintings show how his studies influenced him in their colors and motion. His paintings show the more recent look of Abstract Art in America. It’s called non-objective, just color and shape in different arrangements. He used no brushes. Got his fame from a process of carefully controlled paint pouring and then tilting the canvas in different directions allowing the paint to spread. He is known for doing very large paintings - as big as the width of a classroom. He uses rich, bright colors in his works.

The Art This is part of a series called Phenomena, which means “happenings.” He didn’t paint with ideas ahead of time, but let his feelings guide him. This is a flowing, fan like painting that is a study in color and motion. At first, you might think that he began at the bottom center of the canvas and brushed the paint up and out towards the sides. But, he poured paint directly onto the primed (sealed) unstretched canvas and tilted it – in this case, inward and down where it dripped off the bottom edge and into a pan. He used acrylic paints because they could be mixed with water – to make the paint flow better. His style has been associated with other famous artists – Jackson Pollock, Morris Louis, and Helen Frankenthaler. The painting is HUGE -5x14 feet. It hangs at one end of a large room in a museum and can be seen from the stairs. It is not meant to show anything in particular – just to suggest things. You can make up your own mind as to what it looks like to you….feathers, bird, butterfly?

Comparison You can show these two paintings side by side and talk about the use of color, shape, movement, music, and technique. Mention that they are both abstract art, but shown in different ways. One uses acrylic and one uses oil paint. One is a large work and one is relatively small, etc…

Art Project: Mirror image abstract art

Materials: paper, tempera paint, brushes, music/cd player

Kids can paint their own abstract art and explore with paint while classical music of your choice plays. (music is optional) This is about experimenting with color & creating something that is pleasing to each child.

Fold paper in half. Open up the paper so that it is full size. Paint one half of the paper with drips of paint, or with brush strokes. Fold over paper and flatten with your hands. Open paper up and see what you have made. Notice how both sides of the paper are mirror images of each other - symmetry

Kids should not necessarily paint something that we would recognize. Encourage them to paint what they’re feeling – listen to the music, how does it make you feel, does it cause you to use certain colors to convey your mood?

2nd Grade 5. Untitled IV by Hiroshige

The Artist Hiroshige, a famous Japanese artist, lived in Tokyo 1797-1858. He received professional training, but most of his learning was through self-study, practice, and intuition. He made over 5,000 prints. He is considered to be one of the last great masters who created color woodblock prints of ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating word). He was influenced by the delicate and refined style of his teacher, the master artist Toyohiro. Hiroshige developed a new genre of landscape composition. He was talented in capturing the simplistic beauty of nature, particularly during rain, snow, or mist. He used unusual vantage points and striking colors. He was first recognized as an international master artists by the Impressionists. These artist of Europe were defining a new genre as well.

At the young age of 12, Hiroshige inherited the position of warden for firefighters of the royal Edo Castle when his father became ill. Like his father, Hiroshige used his free time on the job, to work on his sketching. Father and son shared an interest and desire to learn. While maintaining his day job, Hiroshige decided to enroll in the school of the ukiyo-e master Utagawa Toyohiro. By 15 years old, he received his degree, but was not considered to be a child prodigy. He did simple painting work for pay. He spent his free time studying Chinese-influenced Kano style and the impressionistic Shijo style. At 21 years old, his work was published. At 33 years old, and after the death of his mentor, that his ideal of landscape and bird-and-flower prints (which we will re-create during our project today) garnered interest and popularity.

In order to focus on his art career, Hiroshige passed on the fire warden position to his brother. When he was 35 years old he took a long trip on the famous highway called the Tokaido, which had 53 overnight stations. He sketched everything he saw. He published 55 landscape prints of the countryside, cities, harbors, bridges, and personalities of people he experienced, which made him an overnight success.