Art with Mrs. O'Neill

I am beginning a really fun landscapes lesson where I teach the students to use masking techniques to create a forest landscape. This lesson almost always produces great results and the kids have a lot of fun learning the new painting techniques. I have them lay different sized masking tape on the paper. (this year I am using a donated paper I have a ton of, and it has almost a plastic quality so the tape does not tear it.) Then they paint their horizon line and can choose if they want a sunset or blue sky, etc... We let the background dry and the next class they pull off the tape and paint the details of their trees. We look at birch trees, and students usually really enjoy painting that type of tree.

 I have been super busy lately working on DuPonts Auction Art Projects! Every year in November we have a fundraising supper, silent, and live auction to help our PTO raise money. It is usually a great success, and a lot of people in our community donate items to help our school. It is so nice to be in a supportive community with parents who do so much for their children. I assist students in making a class art project to go in our silent auction. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it! Parents usually get into quite the battle to win their childs art work! Here are some of the projects we have done this year...                                                                First Grade Birdhouses                                                            Kindergarten Bowls                                                                Second Grade Flower Planters                                                                       Third Grade Umbrellas          

Every now and then I dabble in creative baking... This was a very fun decoration I did for my daughters class when I went to teach a Starry Night lesson. Tasted pretty good with all that icing!

The brown bowl was worth $15,000! What a great day I had Friday Oct. 8th with my fellow art educators at the "Japanese tea" workshop given by Artist/Teacher Regis Brodie! I just had to share a few pictures from the day. I can't wait to teach my students the lesson we did. They always LOVE clay projects anyway, and I know this one will be very exciting! You begin by making a basic pinch pot... Find the center of the pot by spinning it and using a needle tool... Roll out a coil and add to the bottom for the foot... Join the foot to the bowl with scoring and pinching the two parts together. Flip your bowl over and spin it to trim to top or "lip" of the cup. (This makes it better to drink from...) Then use stamps, paddles, or other tools to decorate!  We learned a lot from Regis about the actual ceremony done to serve and drink the tea. It is very special to the Japanese culture, and has been around for thousands of years. I really enjoyed the day

We finally finished our school's art installation! It was a little scary for me a to have to get on such a tall ladder, but I overcame my fear of heights for the sake of Wonderful Artwork ! It has been so much fun teaching Chihuly units to my students, and we are all so excited about next week (when we get to take our Chihuly fieldtrip! Woohoo!!!)

So, the saga continues! I am still working on our Chihuly Installation. It has been a lot of work, but the students are really enjoying the art making process. I am glad to be able to give them all the background lessons before we go on our field trip. I know it will make the work they see become more meaningful. Here is a pic for an update....

Students have been designing an Installation for our school based on Chihuly's Ikebana's and Towers. We have done several units to lead up to this, and students are very excited. It has been a lot of fun to create a project like this, and have so much enthusiasm from students! Here is the process for creating our Ikebana's.... 1. Students sketched a design for their Ikebana (seen in my previous posts) 2. We cut plastic milk jugs in the shape of flowers, and used permanent markers to color them. 3. Students are the using a tissue paper flower to attach the jug parts and create a center for the flower. 4. Then, we attach them to the post to create the installation! Here is the post we are designing the installation for... It's kind of boring, huh? Not anymore!!! Still a work in progress... I will keep you posted!

4th graders have created some awesome "Macchia" paintings in the last few weeks.... We reviewed tints and shades to create a background organic shape similiar to Dale Chihuly's Macchias. Then they went over to add the lines and spots. They came out fantastic!

Students are getting very creative with their sketching. They are using several colored pencils at once...(similiar to how Chihuly draws) 4th Grade designs... 3rd Grade Designs...

My 3rd and 4th grade students will soon be taking a field trip to Cheekwood to see the Chihuly exhibit.  We are all SO excited about it, teachers and students!  Students are also in the process of helping design an "Ikebana" Installation in our school's library. Here are a few pics of student progress...