Henri Matisse's painting, "Sideboard," opens the door to the author's first-grade students' lesson on still life. This lesson is about the process of designing, the act of making decisions, and the knowledge of one's own preferences. In this article, the author describes how the students made still life with fruit and seashells.

A great start for the semester, this pinwheel project provides a good dose of art history, and a variety of media and techniques. It also teaches students how to clean up and store things properly. Five artists are introduced, each with a different art medium and technique. In this activity, students are expected to: (1) study works by five famous…

When he painted a portrait of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612), Giuseppe Arcimboldo used his imagination, and portrayed him as "Vertumnus," the Roman god of vegetation and the seasons. It's fun to find the different fruits, vegetables and flowers he used: pea-pod eyelids, a gourd for the forehead. Court painters of the time usually…

This article profiles Frank Woodberry Applebee (1902-1988) and features Applebee's painting called "Monday." Applebee was born in Boston and attended the Massachusetts College of Art. Throughout his career, Applebee continued his learning, and in the 1940s took a correspondence course in drawing from the Ralph M. Pearson Design Workshop. He…

The author noticed that, when painting self-portraits, her students struggled with size relationships between the head, neck, and shoulders. In order to address this without having to deal with facial proportions, she had her second-graders take turns drawing a partner from the back. Students began this project by learning about Mary Cassatt,…

The technique of what people today call "collage" is not new. In Victorian times, elaborate art was created from bristly horsehair as a type of collage. The modern collage dates to the early 1900s when Picasso pasted newspaper on a drawing. In 1919 Karl Schwitters, a German artist, developed collage into an art form that was as important as…

This article considers how primary teachers can learn from the practice of artists in their own teaching of art. Fundamental to artistic practice is the notion of practising with various materials and tools. In the article I look at some children's images, as well as scrutinising some statements made by the painter Francis Bacon. The practices of…

This article describes how the author exposes her students to the world of Jackson Pollock, the artist who brings to mind dripping, meandering, splashing puddles of paint. Pollock's action paintings of the late 1940s-'50s call out for unfettered movement, fluidity, and freedom of application. Is it even possible to capture the action, rhythm and…

The author teaches painting in a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Each fall semester he asks his students why they have come to Pratt and what they want to do when they graduate. The common answer is to develop as artists and find a commercial gallery to show and sell their work. Some want the MFA degree…

Rutz presents samples of artist Steve Mumford's paintings from the Iraq war zone alongside photos or other war images and asks readers to examine notions of journalism, photojournalism, and the practices of representing war.

In this article, the author describes a glass art project inspired by Dale Chihuly. This project uses two-liter plastic soda bottles which are cut apart and trimmed. Applying heat using a hair dryer, the plastic curls and takes an uneven blown-glass quality. The "glass" is then painted using acrylic paint. (Contains 2 resources and 1 online…

On perusing American collage artist Eric Carle's book, "Rooster's Off to See the World," at an annual school book fair, the author, mesmerized by the carnival of colors and collage on each page, thought "What a wonderful visual aid for a combination painting and collage unit." Her first-graders were involved in a painting unit, and knowing their…

In this article, the author shares how she changed the way she engaged with Alex, a student who was reluctant to do art projects. While reflecting on Alex's objections to doing art projects, she noticed one concern in particular that arose again and again: he wanted to play. Alex experienced the shift into art-making as a break from playing with…

This article describes an activity in which students created and designed lampshades using artists' styles. This was a unique experience because while all of the students have drawn or painted on flat canvas, none of them had done dimensional painting in this manner before. Essentially, they were planning and creating murals in 3-D. The author…

Coming up with new projects for students is easy, but finding projects the majority of the children enjoy and do well with is quite another matter. In this article, the author describes how students made an advanced form of finger painting project. This project was inspired by Allen Montague, an artist from North Carolina, who was demonstrating…