Art Auction: Seattle Fireworks Wells|2nd

Seattle Fireworks is the collaborative work of twenty-four Second Graders with their teacher Mrs. Wells.  The work – about 18″x30″ sits beautifully in a silver with gold tone frame with a sleek archival mat board.

Yours truly – playing the camera woman- was unable to remove the glass easily and create a setting in time to take a better photo.  (Come to the Exhibit Family Viewing Night to see in person… better yet, check it out and come and bid on this beautiful artwork at the Auction). It looks stunning in person!Wells Seattle Fireworks

The process is not hard, but there are a few steps.

The students first laid out the fireworks. Circles were traced and cut free-hand and laid in a concentric manner, some circles larger, others smaller. They overlap to create additional colors and add depth. DSC_7012

Half way through, we took a step back to evaluate to decide remaining fireworks, what size and color palette (warm or cool colors). The white circles in the photograph contain this information. Fireworks planned out

After the fireworks are complete dry, the Seattle skyline is created. Students used fine papers of two beige tones to design their buildings. Their monochromatic color scheme is what sets off the fireworks.

12-WP_20150204_00711-WP_20150204_006 
13-WP_20150204_00815-WP_20150204_010 17-WP_20150204_012

From there, the parent volunteers took over to glue the buildings down. The layout is dynamic because there was no way to really mark ahead the exact locations and the layer the buildings. We would have preferred to involve the students in this phase as well, but they’d probably have sacked out waiting for us to locate each building and have to glue down, remove and glue a few times to reach a satisfactory result.

The image is then complete. Before assembly and setting it in a frame to really make it pop, the entire artwork is coated with two layers of gel medium which provides some UV protection. Here is what it looked like before going into the frame.20-WP_20150211_001

The winner of this artwork will now be able to enjoy fireworks EVERYDAY in Seattle.

 

Art Auction: Birdsongs (1st|Williamson)

Williamson Birds

Students in Mrs. Williamson’s class studied birds, practiced before drawing and painting them on their wood blocks. Made of reclaimed wood assembled by parent volunteers, the piece showcases beautiful whimsical birds in different colors and sizes. Each student signed their block.

Alberts bird Evans bird Practicing on paper Working on their birds Williamson Bird back web

Art Auction: Imaginary Creatures (1st| Mr. Brown)

Brown Imaginary CreaturesDSC_6023 webDSC_6030 - webDSC_6034 - web

Let the First Graders in Mr. Brown’s class show you the Imaginary Creatures they came up with! Imagine them hanging around in your living room!!

Inspired by authors and illustrators who created imaginary creatures and challenged to think beyond the ordinary, these students started out by creating several creatures on 4-panel drawing sheets and selected one to share with you.

They very carefully transferred their chosen creature drawing onto tracing paper so that a copy of the image can be laid over a thin sheet of metal. Then they meticulously embossed their Imaginary Creature to make each one dimensional using a stylus. For a finishing touch, they rubbed black acrylic with tarlatan cloth (used in printmaking to rub ink off etching plates) to give it some patina.

A look into their art process

Imaginary Creatures FATHER SON David Nathan Imaginary Creatures FATHER DAUGHTER Andy Madeleine Imaginary Creatures Ethan DSC_5564

Art Auction: Go Fish (4th Pastorelli)

Go Fish 4th Grade

Created by the 4th Graders in Mrs. Pastorelli’s class, Go Fish is a group composition of 58 individually designed unique fish. Handcrafted from 1/16″ birch plywood, each fish was individually cut, sanded, primed before each student chose their own combination of media to design two fish. Choices ranged from watercolors to acrylics to soft and oil pastels to graphite and color pencils.

The school of fish are float-mounted on different size spacers to enhance depth. While Mrs. Pastorelli’s leader fish led most of the school, a few “rebel” fish swim around, some in the opposite direction!

DSC_5988-web DSC_6004-web

DSC_5939-web

DSC_6053 - Copy

Each student glued fish as part of the whole experience of creating the artwork. The overwhelming comment during this phase: “This glue is very stinky!”

Katina's

Sheep on hill

Sheep on hill sample web
Sheep on hill sample. Click for larger view.

Here is a sample of a possible Art Auction project.

The sample starts with making sheep bodies, horizontal lines with white oil pastel as wax resists. Then pink, blue, purple watercolors are washed on the page to create the landscape including a small blue hill on the right.

Once paper is completely dry, black acrylic paint is used to paint legs, heads, ears on the sheet.

Detailed instructions are found at Art Auction Assigned Project webpage.