Klimt's Cozy Quilts

In Model Masters we explored the ornamental art of Gustav Klimt.  Klimt was an Austrian artist whose work is inspired by his gold engraving background.  He's considered to be part of the Art Nouveau movement, which was popular from around 1880 to 1915.  

 The Art Nouveau style is characterized by:

•  organic, mostly floral and plant inspired motifs
•  highly stylized swirling forms
•  spirals
•  metallic elements
•  curling scrolls

This style became popular in paintings, sculptures, architecture, furniture, fabrics, and jewelry.  We were especially inspired by Klimt's "Cradle" painting, which features a baby wrapped in warm colorful quilts with lots of patterns.

Supplies:

Tube Watercolors

11"x15" watercolor paper

Styrofoam plates for palettes

Metallic paint markers-I like Sakura

Fine Point Black Sharpie

I began this Art Nouveau art project having student take turns coming up to the white board and filling a square with different patterns and designs.  This part of the project was especially fun as students were given the chance to brainstorm and come up with a unique design to add to our "line and pattern vocabulary"

1. We then began our art projects by drawing a simplified self-portrait at the top of watercolor paper.  We add a variety of curvy lines that reached out to all of the edges of our papers to create the "cozy quilt" around our bodies.  Some students even chose to put a sibling or favorite bedtime stuffed animal snuggled into their quilts.
2.  Next, we filled each space of the quilt with a different pattern.
3. We continued this project the following week by using watercolor palettes to paint each quilt shape.  Students were shown how to glaze with a light color, and then once the area dried, to go back over it with a darker color to create the patterns. 
4. When all the areas were painted and dried, we used black sharpies and gold and silver paint pens to embellish the patterns, add stitching, and sewn on patches. The metallic elements were added to eccentuate Klimt's use of gold leaf.**Make sure paintings are completely dry before using markers and pens, wet paint ruins these expensive tools!

I think these projects turned out fabulous and the students are extremely happy with them.  Many would not give them up to hang in the on-site gallery at the school!

            Adam                                     Camille

          Gaia                                          Heather W.

          Jake                                      Josh

            Yula

          Stephan

     Maggie                                    Miss Vanessa

                   Megan

     Kenna                                     Heather S.

                 Andrew

Fall Harvest Bean Mosaics!

In The Sights and Sounds of the Season we welcomed the fall harvest by paying homage to all the colorful foods that could be used to create mosaics. I began by explaining that the history of mosaic art goes back some 4,000 years or more.  The Greeks began using this technique by arranging pebbles in precise patterns to create scenes of people and animals.  Later in Italy, wall mosaics were made using "Tesserae," tiny glass and terracotta pieces, which were vivid and reflected light.  Students were also shown examples of Byzantine and Islamic mosaics, which decorated glorious mosques, temples, and other places of worship.


After a brief mosaic history, I showed the students some of the materials we were using to create our own mosaics. They took turns identifying the items, as we used common dried foods like split peas, black beans, pumpkin seeds, rice, navy beans, kidney beans, and more.  I even passed around a spice jar of Anise stars and had them use their little noses to make their best guess as to what common candy they smelled like (Licorice!). 

This project took two classes and used the following supplies:
6"x 6" matte board or cardboard square
various beans, seans, twigs...etc
Leaves
white glue
warm colored tempera paint
string
hot glue gun/sticks


First: Each student was given at 6"x 6" chipboard square.  I showed students some leaves and asked them to identify what tree they were from.  Most were common like oak, maple, and birch.  They then traced the leaves onto their board (some did one, others did 2 or 3, depending on leaf size)

Next: Students filled in one leaf at a time with glue and covered the leaf area with dark colored beans or seeds.  They repeated this step with the remaining leaves.  They used light colored seeds and rice to fill in the background area. 


In the next class: To introduce warm fall colors into this mosaic, we added craft stick frames for the border.  Lastly, using red, yellow, brown, and orange tempera paint, the artists painted the frames and any empty spaces of their chipboard.  We even attached a yarn string to make these mosaics hangable decorations! Some chose to go without a string and use them for trivets.


Here are some examples of our Fall Harvest Bean Mosaics!

 
























                Cullen





       

                 Chloe

         Aidan

  

      


















          Eddie



            Jack



                Gaia



          Karlee

           Jake
        

























                   Levi





                   Maddy

       Megan


























           Meredith



























         Seth





        Beth
                                               
                                           Miss Vanessa

                     

                         These looked so artsy while

                  they were drying on newspaper all in a row!