Middle School Art Show! Winter 2022

 Welcome to the Middle School Art Show! Winter edition! You will find art projects from the 5th and 6th graders and from our 7th and 8th graders. Look around and I hope you enjoy the artistic talent and gifts of our middle school students! 

These first projects were drawn and colored by our 7th and 8th graders and are their own version of Andy Warhol's self portrait. They did such an amazing job! I took a photo of the students then they drew their face. I made copies for them on cardstock and they colored them in with oil pastels. 

The Beautiful Blackbirds belong to the 5th and 6th graders. We read the book, Beautiful Blackbird then they drew and cut out a blackbird and arranged them on white paper with a sunshine, colored streamers, sequins and glitter in the background. 

Below are more projects created by the 5th and 6th graders. You will see lined skyscraper drawings where students created simple skyscrapers on colored paper and one on white paper that they glued in later. Then, they added some details like birds, clouds and a few people falling out of windows cause they are in 5th and 6th grade! They also did value pumpkins where students chose a pumpkin still life to draw then could choose to leave it as a drawing, color with pencils or paint. Students showed value with shading to show light and dark. On the bottom corner you will see a cute little seal with our seal watercolor paintings. Students drew a seal in the ocean with a black oil pastel then painted their picture with watercolors. 

Above, you will see more projects by our 5th and 6th graders. We looked at the work of Henri Matisse, specifically his cut-outs. We talked about geometric vs. organic shapes and focused on the organic shapes with cutting out different shapes to create a collage in their own style. 

Below, the 7th and 8th grade students looked at the work of Wayne Thiebaud and his sweet stuff. Wayne painted cakes and other goodies in big bright colors and was a pop artist. My students chose a sweet item to paint and added a little thickener to the foreground to make their sweet item 'pop' out a bit. 

Below, the 7th and 8th graders created a Klimt style 'Tree of Life.' We looked at the life and work of Gustav Klimt then glued tissue paper on a background, painted a black tree with acrylic then added sequins and glitter. 
You will also see some accordions created by the 5th and 6th graders. They created a colored watercolor spiral, then cut their page in half with a curving line. They painted watercolor dots on another page then when dry, used a Sharpie to make their dots into food, birds, flowers or animals then glue them on their folded accordion. 

In the foreground, you will see a color study by Kandinsky that was created by our 7th and 8th graders. They divided their paper into 6 squares then listened to different styles of music for each square while they created circles with oil pastels. 

Our 5th and 6th graders created Alma Thomas inspired rainbows. Students chose to paint their rainbows in a circle, arc, vertical or horizontal. They used different colors of tempera paint to paint small lines going across their page. 

The 7th and 8th graders looked at the art and style of Art Deco and created a poster. We looked at the fonts, colors, shapes and more that made up posters in the Art Deco era of the 1920's and they each created their own version. 

The 7th and 8th graders also looked at the art of Renoir and created a Fall Tree in his style. 

The 7th and 8th graders did two projects in the style of Kandinsky. The first was a circle study and this one was creating abstract lines. Abstract art is so fun to do with middle school students! They first painted a background, then painted different colored shapes around their picture. When dry, they finished by painting acrylic lines of different styles and thicknesses around their picture. 

Below the abstract lines, you will see some fun dancing giraffes created by the 5th and 6th graders! We read the book, Giraffes can't Dance then students painted a background sky and grass with tempera paint. While that was drying, they drew one or more dancing giraffes then colored them in with orange and brown markers and painted their giraffes on their painting. 

Last yet not least, the BEST part of the middle school art show are the descriptions!!! Middle School History teacher, Katrina and High School Principal, Ellen live for the art show! The High School teacher, Maria has her students fill out a Google Form asking for the student name, grade, assignment they completed, a title for their piece and a description of what they were working on, what they learned, etc. while they were creating their piece. Well, when you ask middle school students to give a title and description, you might (will) get some interesting answers! I have taken some photos below of their titles and descriptions. Enjoy!