EXHIBIT REFLECTIONS

Once the work is all hung in the hallway, small groups from each class go to look at the exhibit. They find their own, sketch it and find another's work to sketch.

They sketch in the appropriate box for a vertical or horizontal art work. I'll get more photos..

from the Artists Workshop

 EKES Student Art Exhibit will be open on October 19th. These pieces were selected by students (grades 1-5) from their 2105-16 portfolios and will be on display in the halls for all to enjoy.    They represent various media and interests. Students will go into the hallway, find a piece of work they like, and their own, and sketch both pieces as a way of sharing and observing art work.

               

Now that sketchbook cover art and portfolios have been completed, classes are adding work to their portfolios.  They sketch oak leaves then acorns on thumbnail papers. As they finish sketching, they move to the tables to work.  I have a template for a giant oak leaf. I trace it for the kindies to color; first and second graders trace their own. Both beeswax crayons and Slick Stix are used. Some like oil pastels.

Arranging various texture plates under a paper to rub to make an interesting composition extends the work around leaves . A pumpkin/jack-o’lantern can also be either traced or used as a texture to keep in touch with the season. Colored pencils, color sticks, crayons or bees wax crayons work especially well. Classes conclude with brief conversations about what worked, or didn’t, what they liked or didn’t like about the project.

We continue the topic with chestnuts, hickory nuts, and pine cones for observing, then sketching. These ideas are used for creating still life art. Water colors will now become a choice following a review/ introduction to how to use them.

I hope you can get in to see the art work in the hall over the next few  weeks. I am in the building with classes on Tuesdays and Fridays, if you would like to visit an art class. I can be reached best by email msansouce@sau16.org to share, and set a date to meet. 

Artist Workshop....
We talk of the first month of school- and for Artist Workshop it's only four classes- having flown by.
All classes have finished their 2016-17 Portfolios, and most have created their Cover Art for their sketchbooks,
 In fact, both KG and KD learned about" Museum Share ". They met the challenge, and adapted this first experience with putting post-its on a page and circulating through their classmates' art, and making smaller-than-thumbnail sketches of each other's work.  It is fascinating to watch  each respond to this challenge.
It may be the counting and arranging of post-its on the page that occupies, or the creating of undecipherable doodles, or it may be the precise following of directions to sketch all 16 pieces of art work on display, and even add the names of the artist, after asking each classmate how to spell his/her name !
Ahh, the satisfactions, and challenges, of the kindies!!!  And the clear message of how this age "meets the standards"  varies from student to student, assignment to assignment.

 For a wonderful , real Museum experience, consider visiting

the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. New Hampshire scenery is in the limelight

http://pem.org/exhibitions/192-american_impressionist_childe_hassam_and_the_isles_of_shoals

or NH's Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, where the new exhibit  Mount Washington:Crown of New England  opened on
October 1.

EKES Student Art Exhibit will be open on October 19th. These pieces were selected by students (grades 1-5) from their 2105-16 portfolios and will be on display in the halls for all to enjoy.   The art from KG & KD was done with a study of shapes, and the art of Josef Albers' "Homage to a Square".

The final Art Work To Go Home with the report cards is  a year's work in the portfolios being distributed to classroom teachers this week, and sent home as convenient. One side of the portfolio was done in June of 2015 – for grades 2-5.  I remind students  as these are created that these are the first piece of art work that will be seen at home. I present some options and let them then express themselves. The same procedure is now underway for 2016-17.

 Portfolios contain artwork done from September of 2015 to May of 2016.  There is also a collection of papers with planning  ideas or sharing thoughts on them. Each portfolio uniquely reflects the interests, and efforts of its creator. You may see some “Blue Dog” work. An annual favorite across the grades is using bright markers on glossy paper creating abstract designs, portraits or landscapes.  In portfolios of 2-5 graders, the work selected in June 2105 for the fall’s Art Show at EKES is coming home. And each student from K-4^th grade has chosen a piece to be included in the exhibit for the fall of 2016.

Sketchbooks are also in the portfolios. These for the most part contain a year’s worth of ideas and efforts of expressing oneself visually. They are rough drafts, sometimes in the early  years, they are really rough by adult standards. Choosing an image and putting it on paper is a slowly developing skill and it takes practice, and patience, to represent a 3-d object in a 2-d medium. I encourage students to express their own ideas, and I offer tips to work toward a successful outcome individually. There are times when pulling an idea out of one’s head to sketch is the challenge.  Suggestions or models are provided. Visual art is about the process at this stage and it is also about practice. Just as in baseball, you don’t start out hitting every ball; and sometimes one strikes out and the next time up could be a home run. Gains are made by continuing to step up to the plate, getting ready and swinging the bat. Patience, practice and encouragement get us to the plate.

Collating art work and getting into the correct portfolio takes time and can be hectic when done as a class. The fifth graders have been generously helping sort  the younger students’ work and filing it in  the correct  portfolios.  

Have a great time looking at the work coming home.

Thank You for another great year with the children of EK, Mrs. San Soucie

It continues to be a busy time in the Workshop. We can wind things up for the year and keep working on projects.To wind things up, finishing touches are made to work as we prepare the portfolios to go home. This includes mounting small pieces, and collecting all share/ planning papers in folders. Once in a while an artist will decide to work more on a piece.

To generate continued learning, third, fourth and fifth grades are adding some geometric designs to their portfolios. Someone asks,”What is a design?”. According to my American Heritage dictionary, meaning 4 under noun is “A visual composition or pattern”. We used the geometry templates for the shapes for the “disposition of forms…” Individual conversations and questions arise during this exercise. Considerable thought went into tracing the shapes then adding to them to hold the plan together visually, with more shapes, or color. 

Considerable enthusiasm arises as the kindies and first graders meet George Rodrigue’s Blue Dog, and find out why he’s blue. When he’s not blue what are some colors he can be; salmon proved to be popular.  Each interprets the dog in his or her own way.https://georgerodrigue.com/
 

Winding down means the gears in the hall will be coming down over the next weeks, so the  individual gears  can go home in portfolios. Third, fourth and fifth graders went into the hall, chose a “machine” and completed a reflection paper for the Gears. How to scale down a large work in a small space was the challenge. These pages  also will be included in the folders coming home in June.

One of the final decisions for K- 4 th graders will be  selecting  a piece of work from the portfolios to leave at school. These will be mounted and displayed In the halls in fall of 2016. The selections  from 2015 will be in portfolios in June.

It’s been another great year in the ARTISTS WORKSHOP. We bring 2015-16 to a close and we look to next year. Kindies through fourth graders will be planning their portfolios for 2016-17.

from the Artists Workshop
                                                                 STEAM !!!!

Gearing Up   

When you visit the school to shop the book fair or to meet with a teacher, you will find the walls near the ramp going to fifth grade or kindergarten and the walls near the library have been decorated with some interesting art. These are the gears all the students have decorated, cut out, glued to another piece of oaktag and cutout again. They do spin and some even will turn their neighbors. I know they will be touched, please be careful. Some have designs, some have favorite imagery and some have abstract coloring. Together they make  fabulous, magical machines.

GEARS! GEARS! GEARS!                               STEAM
In keeping with the year's theme we've been doing art on a gear shaped canvas using paint or

sharpies . This project has included cutting and pasting! After the gears have been cut out and laminated, they will be arranged as a single machine and hung for display in the hall. These  machines will be up during the May parent conferences and  book fair.

As part of this project art classes have been building with blocks and gears. Working in 3-d is always fun. Some classes have been sketching the sculptures. Another art word we have been using is perspective.

Here are some structures built by the 5th graders