Learn+About+Art+and+Artists

__Learning about Elements of Art and Learning About Artists__
L603 Fiesta 7, by Annette Griessman


 * Introduction**

Children are natural artists, and art is a natural medium for expression, especially for younger children. While some students live close enough to an art museum to perhaps take a field trip, others do not. I wanted to present some works of fine art to children, as well as providing some good, age-appropriate art and artist resources, that would make "art museum" art a little more accessible for early elementary students. The two PowerPoints below are idea or project starters to assist a teacher in defining a series of art projects. For example, after viewing the PowerPoints, students could create drawings or paintings using a particular art element, such as line or color.

Also, students could create drawings or paintings in the style of one of the artists studied. Van Gogh is one of my favorites, and students could use the bright colors that he uses, as well as adding swirls and whirls of color to their paintings.

The "Elements of Art" PowerPoint starts out by having children explore web-resource that illustrates the various elements of art in an understandable way. Students can also create artwork on this site, to experiment with the various art elements.

Afterwards, the PowerPoint shows a variety of art pieces, and asks students what art element they think is most important for the art shown on each slide. Of note, I included texture in this PowerPoint, because texture is one element I think children can easily see and like to use themselves in their artwork. Texture is covered, as a topic, from the **encyclopedia** section of the web-resource shown in the PowerPoint.


 * Template Reuse**

I have included only four art elements in my PowerPoint on Elements of Art. There are many more elements that could be covered, such as contrast, depth, movement, and balance. The template could easily be emptied of the art representations of line art, color-based art, etc, and new images could be loaded in, to allow for further exploration.

The PowerPoint on artists could also easily be modified, by inserting new, specific artist themed web-resources, as well as inserting a number of samples of their art.


 * Learn About Elements of Art**

[|elementsofart.ppt]

Elements of Art Key: First art element: Line Second art element: Color Third art element: Texture Fourth art element: Shape


 * Learn about Artists**

The "Learn about Artists" PowerPoint incorporates some wonderful resources on some famous artists, all of which are created by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All of the resources are interactive, and students, even those with limited reading skills, should be able to get some from them. Some of the resources might work best, especially for first graders, if the site is viewed in class and the teacher reads the text, or summarizes the more difficult parts.

Then, select art pieces from each artist are shown. Students, at the end of the slideshow, are asked to decide which artist they liked best, and why. Ideally, as teacher, I would try to hang posters of some of this artwork around the room, changing them once in a while, if possible. (Because Van Gogh works as well in a first grade room as he does in a museum. :-)

[|learnartists.ppt]


 * Web Resources--List**

The web resources used in these PowerPoints are listed here:

Elements of Art: [|Artists Toolkit]

Learn about Artists: [|Learn About Van Gogh] [|Learn About Paul Cezanne] [|Learn About Childe Hassam] [|Learn about Romare Bearden]