CGS Artists Have Been Busy

It is has been an incredibly busy and productive time in the art room for the children over the last few weeks. So much so, that we didn’t want to miss anything and combined all the creativity into one blog post! Enjoy…

Grades 1-3 Sunflowers
Sunflowers are one of my favourite flowers and it made me very happy to teach the children how to paint them. Our pieces were inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe, an artist I admire very much, and the beautiful flowers she painted up close.
The children learned about how things may look completely different if you really take a close up look. O’Keefe was quoted as saying “If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment.” I asked the children to take a closer look at all the flowers they see and to pay close attention to texture and details.

JK and SK Pumpkins
The children did a wonderful job getting into the Fall spirit, learning how to draw bumpy pumpkins. We learned how to create the illusion of a 3D pumpkin by adding different shades of orange to add dimension. The children also learned how to draw a realistic pumpkin by drawing ovals and curved lines to represent the “bumps”. I can tell the children are getting excited for Halloween!

Grades 1-4, The Peace Branch
With our weekly, school wide recitation of the Kids for Peace Pledge, Remembrance Day coming up and our new Principal’s Club charity (The Olive Branch for Children), it got us thinking about Peace and the meaning of extending an olive branch. The children did a lovely job of creating the mural together. There were many stages in the process and everyone had a chance to contribute along the way. The result is very effective. Watch for it soon in the upstairs hallway. Once the campaign posters come down there will be room for it!

SK Selfies
The beautiful works you’ll find on the art board downstairs were inspired by Sandra Silberzweig, a Canadian artist born and raised in Toronto. The
children painted “selfies” or self portraits in the style of Sandra’s art. We talked about Analogous colors (groups of three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel) and patterns.

Grade 4 Poppies
Stay-tuned for more on the Grade 4 Poppies project. We’ve included only one teaser photo here today to let you in on how well the paintings are coming along. More to follow when the paintings are complete!