Why Haven’t I Been Blogging?

Posted: May 16, 2013 | Author: Clara Crosby | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The answer is that I wasn’t sure it was necessary to have a Facebook page AND a blog.  I was not sure if anyone was even reading the blog, so I just let it go.  I am learning that I can do both and the each has its own benefits.  So, I will keep up the blog and link it to the Facebook page.  That will help parents to be able to go to the blog via the Facebook page link for Summer Art Challenges, art games, wish lists, etc…

So,  welcome back to the blog!!

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Help our school win $50,000 for our art and music program!!

Posted: December 4, 2012 | Author: Clara Crosby | Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Help Arlington Elementary win $50,000 for their Music and Art Program!

I am so proud to share that my school is a finalist in the Clorox Power a Bright Future Grant Program!

All we need now are your votes!!  There are two ways to vote every day until December 19th.

Go to this link to vote online:

https://powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/m/nomineedetails/?nid=988

Text your vote:    988pbf to 95248

Vote twice a day until December 19^th!

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The Whole School is Painting Like Kandinsky!!

Posted: September 12, 2012 | Author: Clara Crosby | Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 16, 1866, in Moscow, Russia. His father was a tea merchant and his mother was a homemaker.

At an early age, Wassily exhibited a very special gift called synaesthesia cognate. This gift gave him the ability to hear colors and see sounds. This special gift was encouraged by his father who enrolled him in private drawing lessons as well as lessons in piano and cello.Between 1886 and 1892 Kandinsky studied law and economics at the University of Moscow. In 1889 he and a team studied the life of the people in the Vologda district in northwestern Russia. He was impressed by their folk art and the interior decorations of the village houses. Their art influenced his early style.In 1893 he accepted a law faculty position at the University of Moscow. Three years later, when Kandinsky was thirty years old, he decided to become an artist. He left his promising career in law to attend art school in Munich, Germany.

His art was greatly influenced by an exhibition of French impressionist artists. The Impressionists used color and light to show their subjects rather than painting in fine detail. The works of Claude Monet interested Kandinsky very much. Subject matter played a secondary role to color in his paintings, and reality and fairy tale seemed to blend together. This approach would influence Kandinsky’s work for the rest of his life.In 1901 Kandinsky founded the “Falanga” artistic movement and school where he shared his ideas about art. His paintings from that period, like The Blue Rider (1903), show his use of color to express an emotional experience rather than reflect nature.By 1913 Kandinsky was producing the some of the first completely abstract (non-representational) compositions in the history of art. They made no reference to the natural world and were inspired by pieces of music such as Composition VII (1913).

In 1914 Kandinsky returned to Russia. Two years later he married Nina Andreevskaia, the daughter of a Czarist colonel. From 1918 to 1921, he devoted much of his time to painting and teaching color analysis.Between 1922 and 1933, geometrical elements became increasingly important to Kandinsky – particularly circles, half-circles, the angle, straight lines and curves. One of his first works to include these geometric shapes was On White II (1923).

When Nazis closed the Bauhaus school in 1933, Kandinsky moved to France. He remained there for the rest of his life.Wassily Kandinsky died on December 13, 1944, in his studio in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. He is recognized today as the pioneer of abstract art. His non-representational paintings paved the way for the development of the Abstract Expressionist movement that dominated American painting after World War II.

These are from Kindergarten:

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Kindergarten Ladybugs and First Grade Oceans

Posted: August 26, 2012 | Author: Clara Crosby | Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

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Kindergarten students have been busy making ladybugs in the art studio.  They learn how to make thin and thick lines by holding their crayons in different ways.  Holding it like a pencil gives a thin line, while unwrapping the crayon and dragging it across the paper gives a thick line.  They use this new skill to cover their paper in blue or green crayon, depending on whether their ladybugs are in the sky or on the grass.  Now they are ready to make a sponge print with red paint and use their fingers to add black dots, a head, and antennae.

First graders are creating ocean scenes for their Art to Remember project. Students use crayons to create an underwater scene.  They are excited to learn how easy it is to make the seaweed look as if it is behind their fish.  Pressing hard with their crayons they give their fish interesting designs and patterns.  Next, they learn to add a water color wash.  Using the well of their paint set they first create a lighter color by diluting the blue paint with water.  At first, they are afraid to paint over their scenes, but they learn that the waxy crayon resists the paint.

Everyone is so proud!  Soon students will bring home their original pictures and a magnet with their artwork printed on it.  Families may purchase the magnet and order other items as well!  This beginning of the year fundraiser enables us to purchase supplies like clay that we otherwise could not budget.

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