Stages of development in art work

Your Child and His Art























Have you ever wondered about the developmental stages of student artwork. Sometimes a student seems so advanced, or so far behind. Lowenfeld and Edwards give us a general guideline. Do This link will take to Lowenfeld's and Edward's stages of development.
http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html

What kids create

Kids love to use the whiteboard! This is a picture of a "mean girl" taking a pizza away from another girl! 

A child's interpretation of the flamingo by Audobon.

poster of flamingo by Audobon 

Child's interpretation of a Stella- This has been a very popular art card to draw, I'm not really sure why... 

We have had a lot of crayon resists lately at the painting studio.

Halloween Roses- drawn on wallpaper

These will probably be some of the last roses of the season, but you never really know do you... I wanted to capture them before the snow comes. We've had some frost, but I still have roses- and it's Halloween! I'm always amazed at how hardy some flowers are. This drawing is done with sharpie on wallpaper. I think I like drawing and painting on wallpaper- we had a bunch of it in the basement, and I decided to test it out and see how I like it. This one has a really great texture to it- very fun to draw on!

another photo- ready to paint

Carolyn, my mother-in-law, is very creative. She is really into clay reliefs this year. She is 80 years old and still working on her art! She really loves paper clay and has enjoyed many hours working on her pictures. My daughter, Cara, got her going on this media. They've had a lot of fun working on their art together. Carolyn also gets together with her friend Bonnie to work on art together. What a great hobby! We all love her creations.

sunflower relief

in progress- this is the tray Carolyn uses. She sits in a recliner with this tray in her lap and she works on her art while she watches TV. 

Etsy.com

Image via CrunchBase

I just spent an hour looking at Etsy. Do you ever look at this site. I find it so inspirational! You can find so many fabulous handmade items. I think the pictures of the items are a treat to look at. So many great ideas for how to photograph your work. It makes me want to make something creative, NOW!

Busy students

Here is a sampling of what has been happening in the art studios! I love watching what the students come up with when they are allowed a little freedom of choice, and they are empowered to be in charge of their own  learning.

Constructing with cardboard at the Build Studio

The student titled these, "Statue of Liberty" and "Cat Statue of Liberty" :)

This student chose to use a picture book for reference at the clay station.
They were very inspired by the clay reliefs in this book.

When this student couldn't remember how to mix the secondary colors, they reread "Mouse Paint".

Collage inspired by Matisse.

Studio Menus

I thought you might like to see a sample of menus I made for my students to use in their Studios. I have set up 6 studios for them to work at: Build, Paint, Study, Draw, Clay, Collage  Each studio has a variety of materials and inspirations.  I am using TAB (teaching for artistic behavior) ideas.  I have really enjoyed watching the students create this year. It's pretty amazing what they come up with!

 

Still Life arrangement

These are some of the objects I added at the drawing station. The students could rearrange them if they wanted to for their drawing. This was how I found them after one class. I thought it was interesting that they set it up like this. I don't think I would have ever thought of this arrangement!

Collage Kids!



Collage by Student





Image via Wikipedia

Here is a collage by a student in my art class. I love to see what kids come up with when they are supplied with scissors, paper, and glue. They are so natural in their concepts, color, and balance. They don't use any pencils at this station- it is just cutting and gluing.  They learned about Matisse for inspiration.

Complement Compliment

Image via Wikipedia

I love the complementary colors this time of year!
Tip of the day- notice the complementary colors (across the color wheel) all around you this season. As the leaves turn I am noticing the deep contrast of shadow and color everywhere. This is always a time of year to marvel at the beauty of nature. How can it be so amazing every year? Later in the season the color becomes more subtle, subdued, and neutral. I'm so lucky to live where there are 4 Seasons.

Moving Friday

making scratchboard

two tips for the day:
#1- Stain busters for art teachers to keep on hand. "Lestoil"- for anything oil based, "Kiss Off"-  often gets paint out, "Borax"- great whitener and brightner, "WD40"- for oil based stains,
Yesterday I got paint on my gold purse, my white scarf, and my pants. I got it out of everything but my purse.
#2- Spend as much time as you can with family and girlfriends.  Protect time with them at all cost!  Life is short, Art is long- and love of family and friends is longer!
I had breakfast today with 3 of my teacher friends this morning- we meet once a week at a great local yocal place.  It's one of my favorite things to do! We all stay until the last second, and pull into our schools at the last second :)

This is the schedule at my second building of the day; every other day is different- and every Wednesday is different - The first class of the day is from 8:30- 9:05 at a Private School about 4 miles away.

When I got to my first building of the day my student teacher was there, and her supervising teacher was there with her! Next, the Principal of that building came in (a Private Christian school I teach at 1st hr), with the Superintendent of the Public School District I teach at!  I had no idea any of them were coming. It was quite a party!  It is a new thing this year that we are servicing this Private school for art class, so I guess they were checking on how things were going. My student teacher did great.  She didn't seem at all nervous to have all of those "bosses" there while she was teaching.  I was really proud of her!
 The first hr of the day I had 6th-8th graders at the Private school. Then I run over and teach 8 more classes at the Public school.  I have a 35 minute prep period every other day.  My student teacher and I have conquered 4 weeks of this!  On Friday I move to another building and teach 4 weeks there.  I'll have 9 classes a day, with a prep period every other day.  After 4 weeks at that school I'll move to a 3rd building  where I'll have only 8 classes a day! and I will actually have a prep period every day! wow! maybe I can actually have time to look at my email at work! I feel like I am running a rat race- but I am stain free, and I have friends I love!

Art Prize starts this week!

Image via Wikipedia

Hi Art Friends!

ArtPrize: September 22 - October 10

Don't Miss it! It starts this week!

I'm an official artprize artist! Please vote for me!

look me up at 

http://www.artprize.org/

Julia Garnett's 

Text voting ID: 

Up: 44301 

or use this code to vote online

My painting "Farmscape" is showing at O'Tooles 

juliaspaintings.blogspot.com

Venue information

O'Tooles Public House

448 Bridge Street NW

Grand Rapids

back from Chicago...

We just returned from a trip to Chicago. I'm so inspired by all the artwork! Everywhere you turn there is beautiful artwork!  Here are just a few examples...

at the train station

public art on the street

stained glass museum at Navy Pier

the wall outside of our hotel 

even the sink at the hotel was "artsy"

Art is everywhere you look in Chicago...

Ann Arbor Art Fair '10

Image by jgarnettzoo via Flickr

July 21-24 I will be at the Ann Arbor Art Fair! Come and see me on Liberty Street across from the Post Office.  Booth #259.

The Guild website has lots of information:
http://www.theguild.org/art_fair_summer.html

The Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair is a combination of several art fairs.  It's huge!  About a 1/2 million people attend the fair every year.

new building, new students, new schedule...

I just found out that I will have another building of students added to my schedule.
A while back I got a phone call from one of my friends saying that it was in the paper that my school district was going to share "Activity Teachers" with another local private school. Art is considered an "Activity" class, so my friend was wondering if I was going to have to teach at this school.  I hadn't heard a thing about it, so I assumed that there were some arrangements that didn't include me. Well, I was wrong. I got the call this morning. I have until tomorrow to decide if I want to bid into a general ed. classroom or stick with the art job. Next year the art position will have 4 buildings of students. The schedule will be primarily divided between 3 buildings.  The art teacher (maybe me) will be at each of the 3 buildings for 4 week rotations. At one building the first class period will be at the new school. So, for one month out of 3 I would have to travel daily. Each building will have 8 classes per day, most classes have about 28-29 students.
I'm really not sure whether to jump back into the classroom, or stick with teaching art.

Grand River abstract

Image via Wikipedia

The Grand River runs 260 miles through Michigan.  The mouth of the river is in Grand Haven.

This is not a great photo of this painting- but this gives you an idea of my abstract of the Grand River. This is quite different for me. It's mixed media- painted papers, paper towel, sharpie, acrylic, gel medium... It was sure fun to do. 

Search Amazon.com for mixed media

Search Amazon.com for sharpie markers

I order my acrylics from http://www.dickblick.com 

Art Tip: Happy 4th of July!

Image by Camera Slayer via Flickr

Just a very quick art tip today...
Holidays and Seasonal objects and concepts make great starts for a painting.  For instance, when thinking about today, I could make a painting or a page in my sketchbook about so many things!

Here's a list of ideas I could go with:

• I could just start with the colors red, white, and blue and make a stars and stripes design
• set up a patriotic still life with things like the apple pie Cara made,  flags in a blue vase, and some red zinnias and roses from the yard
• make a more realistic watercolor of the fireworks we saw from the boat over Coldwater Lake last night
• maybe an abstract of the night sky with fireworks
• photography of the family sharing the holiday can be used to inspire a painting
• the horse was pretty stirred up by the fireworks- a white horse running under the big firworks in the sky was quite a beautiful sight
• kids licking ice cream cones, or eating watermelon
• people lined up for a parade

Maybe this will help spark some ideas of your own!  Have fun thinking about your art, and setting goals of what you want to accomplish.
Happy 4th of July!