Surrealism: Sixth and Seventh Visit

Dreams

Standards

Standard 2, Objective 1A

Determine how artists create a dominance in their work; e.g., size, repetition, and contrast.

Standard 3, Objective 1b

Invent possible stories that may explain what is going on in these same works of art.

Objective

-Students will interpret possible stories from famous surrealist art. 

-Students will create a surrealist piece that is interesting to them, based on their dreams using the idea

 of repetition in their work. 

Artists

1.       Salvador Dali

2.       Vladimir Kush

3.       Max Ernst

4.       Giorgio de Chirco

Vocabulary

1.       Surrealism

2.       Subconscious/Unconscious

3.       Repetition

Leading Questions

1.       What are dreams? Do they only happen while we sleep? Can they also be things we wish would happen?

2.       Why do we dream?

3.       What sorts of things do we dream about?

4.       Do you ever have nightmares? Are these different from dreams?

5.       Do our dreams always make sense?

6.       Do we always remember our dreams?

Outline

           As a class, we will first discuss dreams and the many possibilities of dreams, whether experienced while sleeping or as waking hopes the students may have. Then the other leading questions will be addressed allowing students to talk about their personal experiences and thoughts on dreams. We will then talk about Surrealist artists (see list of artists) and how it relates to dreams. Students will be encouraged to notice repetition within these artists’ works as well as interpret a possible story about the paintings. This will be done in a full class conversation. To help get the students thinking more about dreams and repetition, we will watch a video about a dream that Pooh has about Heffalumps and Woozles.

Next in groups of five, each student will be given a piece of paper that they will put their name on. Then they will have five minutes to draw one thing, as big or small as they wish, they have dreamt about (either something they hope for or remember from a dream or nightmare). This will be done using graphite.

After the five minutes, they will pass their paper to the right (the student at the end will of course pass their paper to the student at the beginning of the row) and they will have five minutes to repeat the same kind of process. Only this time, and the three times after, the student must also incorporate their thing with/into the ones that are already on the paper. For example, if the first student drew an elephant with a tuba for a head and the next student draws a boat with wheels, then the tuba elephant could be drawn eating the boat. This will help incorporate the idea of having a story or a meaning behind an artwork. To accomplish this, the students will be allowed to add to the previous drawings, but cannot erase any part that was already on the paper. Each time a student adds to a new paper, the thing they choose to draw must be different than the one they drew on the previous paper.
When everyone has drawn on all five pieces of paper, they will pass the paper back to the original student, who will complete the drawing. At this point I will give more instruction as to what is required in the finished piece. Repetition should be incorporated in this stage.

The original student can add whatever they like (continuing to use dreams as inspiration and incorporating the additions to previously drawn things) to make the piece their own. They may interpret the images previously drawn in any way they choose, even adding to them if they wish, but again they are not allowed to erase anything that is already drawn on the page. They are then free to add shading using crayons. They will be encouraged to practice layering different colors to achieve the lights and darks they desire when referencing a light source of their choosing. This light source can be a sun that was in their drawing perspective or an imaginary source outside of their paper.

Assessment

Have the students show, by number of fingers, how many of the required things they incorporated into their art piece. Repetition, story, and lights and darks using a light source.

Nature: Fourth and Fifth Visit

Nature

Standards

Standard 1

Objective 1E: Create the appearance of depth by drawing distant objects smaller with less detail  
                        than objects in the foreground. 
Objective 1F: Establish more natural size relationships among objects in drawings.  
Objective 3C: Clean and put back to order art making areas after projects. 
Objective 2D: Create a work of art that uses all of the space on the paper.

Outcomes

-Students will realistically draw a landscape from life that incorporates depth and uses the full sheet 

  of paper.

-Students will reflect on their relationship with nature and use watercolor, on their landscape 

 drawings, to represent it whether negative or positive.

-Students will correctly learn how to handle watercolor supplies as well as how to properly clean up.

Vocabulary

1    -Perspective

2     -Foreground

3     -Middle ground

4     -Background

5     -Realistic/Realism

6     -Landscape

7     -Atmospheric perspective

8     -Contour

Artists

Landscape Artists

            Thomas Moran

            James McNeill Whistler

            Winslow Homer

Watercolor Artists

            Maja Wrońska

            Jeanne Larson

            Evelyn Dunphy

Leading Questions

1      -What is nature?

2      -Do we enjoy nature?

3      -Is it important to us? Why or why not?

4      -What does nature do for us?

5      -What is your personal relationship to nature?

6      -Can we survive without nature?

Outline

First we will discuss nature as a class. The leading questions will be addressed and students will be thinking about how they personally feel about nature throughout the project. Then we will discuss landscapes. What are landscapes? Do they include buildings or manmade objects? Is it only nature things? Landscape artists will be shown, see list of artists. While viewing these images students will be introduced to the terms of foreground, background, and middle ground. We will also go over atmospheric perspective and perspective, such as when you are looking from different angles at the same object or when you are down low by the grass looking up at the mountains vs if you are standing on top of the mountain. We will also discuss how we think the artist feels about nature through their color choices, how they painted it (whether sporadic or inside the lines, misty or crisp, etc.) We will discuss how to draw realistically. That you have to draw what you see not what you know, meaning that a majority of the time they will be attentive to the landscape and not focused on their drawing. To correctly draw realistically they must follow each line in the landscape with their eyes as their pencil moves on the paper.

            Once we have discussed landscape students will go outside to realistically draw their own contour landscapes. They will choose their own perspective and must fill their entire paper and include a background, middle ground, and foreground. They will do this using graphite. While they are drawing I want them to continue thinking about how they feel about nature, and about their relationship with nature.

            When they are finished we will all come back inside and talk about watercolor, the techniques (flat wash, dry brush, blotting, layering, etc), artists (again- see list of artists), and how to properly handle materials (don’t leave brush in water, get water off brush by scraping on side of cup or on paper towel, don’t touch the bristles, etc), and clean up (empty cups, clean brushes by swishing in water and scraping and wiping, wiping down watercolor container, etc).

Finally students will apply watercolor to their landscape drawings according to how they feel about nature. For this part of the project they are not required to stay in the lines, use realistic colors, or even fill the entire page with color. However they feel about nature should be reflected in how they use the watercolor. They should be somewhat used to this idea because they have practiced expressing emotion through color, line, and composition with oil pastels and collage. Once their watercolors are dry, and if we have time, I would also like them to use pen and ink to define the lines of their landscape. But this can be their decision if they want to or not depending on if it works with their idea.

Assessment

            While the students are drawing I will be walking around helping them draw realistically, giving them pointers and they will constantly be checking if their drawing matches the landscape and perspective they have chosen. While handling supplies students will be helping each other use them properly and help each other clean up correctly. When completely finished, students will turn to the person beside them and explain how they feel about nature, whether positive or negative, and explain how their art piece displays this feeling through the colors, application of paint, strokes, composition of color, etc.  

           

Second Lesson - Second and Third Visit

                                        Emotions and Feelings

Students may feel as though they are alone in a world full of people, but this is not true. We are  alike in many ways and all different. We may go through things differently but we all experience the same emotions. We are also unique and need to learn to embrace these differences knowing that everyone is different and strange in their own way. Otherwise we would all be the same person, which would make the world a very boring and colorless place. To help my students understand this we will talk about the enduring idea of feelings and their representations in art, namely in Abstract Expressionism.

                                                      Outcomes

1. Students will interpret and analyze the many components of a composition to reach      

the overall meaning in reference to emotion.

2. Students will realize that the meaning of lines and colors are not set in stone.

3. Students will better understand and be able to interpret color.

 

Goal

Students will ultimately feel more comfortable in their bodies and the world by exploring their personal emotions and their method for handling them.

Artists

Van Gogh

Henry Matisse

Andre Derain

Jackson Pollack

Helen Frankenthaler

Elaine de Kooning

Leonardo Divinci

Vocabulary

Abstract Expressionism

Fauvism

Composition

Line

Warm colors

Cool colors

Outline

           The class will first discuss the many different feelings and how they each affect their lives. Does the emotion affect how; they act, dress, do their hair, the faces they use, how they walk, etc. Once we have discussed this as a class they will split up into groups of three or four and talk about these questions. What makes you sad or happy or angry? Do you want to feel this way? How do you get out of these moods or how do you make them last? What makes them worse and what makes them better?

             After we come together and share some group insights we will view examples of feelings, or emotions, displayed in art (See list of artists). I want my students to analyze what the feeling of the paining may be and discuss how the artist reaches this emotion. What colors are they using? What about their composition makes the audience feel the feeling? Are they using bold strokes or small precise strokes? What would happen if you changed one of the components? Would the feeling change as well?         

               I want to steer the students away from the idea that red is always a symbol of anger. For example when it is mixed to be a less violent shade it can work for other emotions such as joy, or when it is grouped with other colors such as yellow, orange, and green it can imply anything from happiness to growth to summer. The same idea applies with different types of lines, just because it is horizontal does not mean it only symbolizes stability just as a jagged line does not always indicate instability or chaos.

Activity

     Using oil pastels and different kinds of music we will create four different pieces that represent what we are feeling during each song. Students are free to use any technique or object to create the feeling.. When we are done (next class) we will come together and talk about what we think that person was feeling when they drew the piece. What about the piece makes us think this? What if they would have used different colors or different lines?

Now that students better understand how different elements work together to induce or represent a feeling, they will pick one or two of the pieces they drew and rip or cut them up, kind of like we did in our collage project, and create a new piece that represents the emotion you draw out of the hat. 

Assessment

After their piece is complete they will write a paragraph of 3-4 sentences. This should describe the emotion they represented in their piece and how they created this feeling with their oil pastel collage. Did the colors help? What about the thickness of the lines? Or maybe where you put the different colors and lines (this is composition)?

How does knowing that we all have the same emotions but show them differently make you feel about yourself?