Art unit- Lesson 6

Lesson 6: Empty Space

This lesson stemmed mostly out of my want for them to fill an entire page not just something in the dead center and call it done. That and after a few years of trying to get them to see that there in not nothingness between the ground and the sky, they do actually come together:)

Cohen's landscape

First up was story telling. I told them a familiar story in a very condensed version. No details, no frills, just summary. Then I told it to them in it's full version. We talked about which one was more interesting. Then we moved on to looking at various works of art....and talked about what the picture would look like if the background was taken away and just the central image left. Even if the background was just a solid color- they still agreed it added to the work.

Then we moved onto landscapes- which were the last of the pieces we observed. I had them look out the window and tell me their observations. Then we moved on to their pieces. I asked them to draw in pencil a simple landscape- grass, trees/mountains, sky. But where one ended the other had to begin. I helped Cohen draw his in and then they traced in black marker before painting in the rest. Cohen (above) chose trees, which he added after the background was painted in. And Rylan chose to do mountains. Cale was having a temper tantrum at the time and didn't participate :)

Rylan's landscape


Today we just worked on original pieces, with the only requirement being that the entire page get covered. Rylan chose another landscape:

And Cale chose- well....you can't really see anything....but you should have heard the story that he was telling as he painted. Somewhere in this painting there is a queen, lots of ants, enough chairs for all the ants, and a whole lot of other details that I didn't catch.

In order to help Cohen and Lakin stay focused a little longer (neither filled their pages), and because I wanted to....I sat down to paint to day too, it's very relaxing...

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