Art Show 2014: A Rainbow of Color

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Rina Vinetz

SSF art show 2014: paint cans spill a rainbow of color down the stairs; Bob Ross painting video plays throughout the evening.

We had our annual art show last week. It was amazing! Over 1000 pieces of art; at least two from each student. This show featured a rainbow theme (designed by Devan, our AMAZING parent volunteer art show chair), a FEAST! food art area, and an iPad photography/digital art showcase.

Rainbow theme:

Devan used real paint cans purchased at Home Depot. The colored ‘paints’ are plastic table cover rolls. The 10 cans on the stage were drilled and hung on monofilament. Hidden PVC pipe stands hold up the freestanding paint cans.

The show featured Devan’s amazing freestanding paint can decorations.

Giant crayons and a rainbow of color in front of the plaster masks.

FEAST! Food Art

I taught food art projects in grades K-4. Click here for kindergarten cookie collage, first grade feast collage, second grade Wayne Thiebaud geometric dessert, and fourth grade Seurat pointillist food. Devan decorated the tables with real cooking utensils and ingredients.

Five FEAST! art projects (clockwise from left): clay cupcakes with roses and alphabet pasta; Seurat pointillist food; Thanksgiving feast collage; cooking plate collage; Wayne Thiebaud geometric dessert.

Andy Warhol activity:

We had a coloring contest again this year. I used a blank Campell’s soup can sheet courtesy of E is for Explore blog. Click here to get yours. We used a real soup pot and real cans of Campbell’s soup.

Our interactive coloring contest ties in to the FEAST! unit. Check out the pot of crayons!

iPad Art Showcase:

We put the iPad showcase right up at the entrance. I printed out a few samples of the second grade iPad photography project, then stationed two iPads looping slideshows of our other digital art projects.

This achieved three goals: 1) display student art, 2) advocate for the art program and 3) thank the parents who raised money to bring iPads to our school.

iPad photography print outs, plus looping slideshows at the iPad art showcase.

Thanks to our PTO and parent volunteers

Our entire art program is made possible by the parents at our school. A big thank you to the art room and art show volunteers for all their hard work during the year and for three CRAZY days hanging the show. We also had the help of a college student, Abby, who spent two weeks observing our art program. The gorgeous room layout and decorations are the vision of our amazing art show chair, Devan, a professional party planner. We are so lucky to have Devan on board.

100% of our art program is funded by our school PTO. Thank you.

Enjoy!

What’s your best tip for a successful art show?

Felt Food Collage

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Rina Vinetz

Second grader’s food collage includes a carrot, egg and celery.

Are you looking for an engaging collage project? Try this ‘feast on a plate’ felt food collage project from San Diego’s New Children’s Museum.

I recently toured the Museum’s new food-themed exhibit FEAST: The Art of Playing with Your Food. I found a group of children at an art-making station, happily creating their own collage feasts out of colorful cut felt. I saw felt eggs, bacon, celery, blueberries, and mini-waffles all arranged and glued to paper plates.

Third grader’s plate includes bacon and mini-waffles created from felt and other fabric scraps.

The New Children’s Museum has this lesson plan online, complete with connections to nutrition, visual arts and common core standards. Click here for the Eat More Art! 60-minute food collage lesson plan.

Food sculptures made by rolling fabric and wrapping with yarn (teacher example).

This would be a fabulous idea for a Thanksgiving feast art project!

Whether you are a parent or a teacher, be sure to check out the New Children’s Museum when you visit San Diego. The museum offers art-making activities for children EVERY DAY. I wrote more about the museum in this post and this post.

Enjoy!

Seurat Pointillist Food

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Rina Vinetz

Fourth grade just finished their Seurat pointillism art project. Our students used pan watercolors, Q-tips and markers to make pointillist food! The project was inspired by this project by Jessica Young at Miss Young’s Artroom.

Materials:

pan watercolors
Q-tips
colored markers (we used Crayola and Sharpie)
pencil/eraser
white paper, 9″x12″
reference photos (I found dessert images on Pinterest)
loups or magnifying glasses
pointillist note cards (like these – available at walmart.com and galison.com) or books

Day 1: Learn about pointillism

I passed out pointillist notecards and magnifying loups (borrowed from our science lab). It was a lot of fun to see the dots up close.

Next we watched the first half of an AMAZING video: ‘Get to the Point’ – Georges Seurat and Pointillism by Artrageous with Nate.

Finally we completed a color mixing worksheet, using marker dots to make the secondary colors.

Homemade pointillist worksheet

Day 2: Create dots with Q-tip or marker

Students selected a food reference photo, then lightly sketched their basic food shapes on paper. They had the option of using Q-tip or marker to dot their papers.

(warning: we discovered you can’t erase pencil lines after they’ve been painted with pan watercolor. Remind kids to draw lightly!)

Day 3: Erase lines, add more dots

Students erased their pencil lines from last week, then added MORE DOTS! Some students added a background – a couple even added pointillist borders.

Fourth grade results:

This was a VERY popular and successful project! I will definitely repeat. Are looking for a group pointillism project? Please check out my earlier post for a Seurat mural.

Here’s the cool pointillism video by Artrageous with Nate

This is the first project of our food art series, in honor of the FEAST! exhibit at San Diego’s New Children’s Museum. This year we will be making food art projects at each grade level.

Do you have a favorite food art project?

K – 6 Art

Art lessons for kids ages 5-12 – fresh from the art room!

Tag Archives: FEAST!