The Ratner School Art Program

Let me begin the first post of the 2015-2016 year by saying this: I love my job teaching art! I had a wonderful and productive summer creating an entire show of art at Zygote Press and traveled showing my jewelry, but I truly missed the students at The Ratner School. I was going to wait until we had a complete week of school to begin doing the blog post, but we have already accomplished so much in art, I did not want you to fall behind in the information! We have gone outside several times to draw, painted, begun still-life projects, and gone on a STEAM related field trip to the orchard. We are beginning longer term projects in all the classes and everyone is well focused and ready to create.

Kindergarten Art

We have begun to hit a rhythm with our classes in art this year, although we have yet to have a complete week! The students are eager to learn and create each Monday and Thursday and they are settling wonderfully into the expectations and processes in the art program. We have completed the study of Maria Montessori with the focus in art on the simple circle and the creation of patterns within the circle compositions created. The current focus is on John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) where we went outside to draw tree using observational skills and on Thursday, created observational drawings of the apples from the 1st-8th grade orchard field trip. The Kindergarten artists then added watercolor paint to their drawings to complete the project. Look for the work hanging up in the hallways, they are very well drawn and charming.

1st and 2nd Grade Art

The first and second grade artists have settled quickly into the rules and expectations of the art program. We began the year with our talk about what art is, why we even bother creating and explored some of the ideas of what makes an object "art" or just a "thing". The discussion was lively and full of thoughtful and intelligent insights. We worked for two classes on observational drawings and the students learned to s l o w  d o w n, take their time and just look at the object before they begin to draw. It is a new process for some, there is always marked progress from the first attempt to the final drawing of the project. Try to encourage your child to draw objects at home, the more they draw, the more they see! We are beginning a new project based on intense black and white patterns called "zentangles" this week and I will fill you in more next week.

3rd and 4th Grade Art

I feel like it is still the beginning of the year with the 3rd and 4th Grade group. We have unfortunately missed several classes due to the holidays or the amazing field trip. With all the classes missed, we have still been working diligently building up the skills of drawing and observing. The students have completed several object drawings and composed a series of 4 line drawings that were then painted with watercolor. We will be beginning a longer term project this week focusing on the work of Monet. Look for updates on this project in next weeks blog post.

5th and 6th Grade Art

We began the year working on observational drawings of both natural and man-made objects in art. We went outside to draw when the weather allowed and enjoyed the fresh air and sunlight. Once the rainy weather set in, we turned our focus to a series of observational drawings from objects. The students really began to slow down their creative process and began to see a different level of detail in their drawings. This practice set us up perfectly to move into the current warm/cool color grid project we are currently working on. I will give you updates on this longer term project next week.

7th and 8th Grade Art

We began the year as we have always begun, with observational drawings. I certainly appreciate the warm, dry weather and have lived in Northeast Ohio long enough to know we have to seize the opportunity to go outside whenever possible to draw! We focused our observations on the actual school building this year after having a discussion about identifying features of our unique school. Some artists drew the entire building while others focused on details of the building. A sense of place and identity certainly came through in the drawings. The artwork is currently displayed throughout the second floor of the school. We continued the observational work drawing elements of nature and moved directly into our current project of a long term still-life project. I will tell you more about that next week.