Xx AleX Darais, EXprssionist painter

Alex Darais

For the letter Xx, we looked at the Expressionist style of Utah artist Alex Basil Darais (1918-2007). We talked about Expressionism and how some of the elements of thesubject are there, they are just depicted in your own way.

Self Portrait

We looked at the tree in this particular piece, and proceeded to paint our own Alex Darais Expressionistic fall tree.

Overheard

#1 Your just jealous! (Clearly not understanding what jealous even means)

#2 (Also not understanding the word) No I'm not!

#1 Yes you are! Girls are always jealous!

#2 If girls were always jealous, then --- and ---- would be jealous, and they're not!

#1 Yes they are, cause' girls are always jealous! Even when they're not jealous, they're jealous.

#2 Well, I'm not jealous!

#1 (under his breath) Uh, ya you are.

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this darling little girl! The best part about being her is that she gets her nails painted. She loves the color blue, strawberries and her cousin. She would love to be a baby pig so that she could be sooooo small. She can do back bends better than anyone else, and she is so amazing because she gets to go to gymnastics. We are lucky to have her as a friend, and love spending time with her at The Studio.

Portrait of our Celebration Day Girl!

Nn noodles, nests, noses, and Emil Nolde

We did so much this week with the letter Nn. First we dyed noodles (and our fingers) with alcohol and food coloring. We got some great colors!

We talked a lot this week about natural art, art found in nature. We looked at nests and their symmetry and the beautiful colors that can be found in eggs. Then we made our own nests, complete with eggs. I am told that a few of those eggs actually hatched. Way to go guys!

We also talked about a German artist named Emil Nolde (1867-1956). He was told by Hitler that he couldn't paint, draw, or create any art whatsoever, by penalty of death. The art was inside of him though, and he saw "pure color and shape in nature all around him" and he had to paint it.

Emil Nolde

We made our version of pure shape and color from a photograph of nature. Those pieces are being saved for the art show.




We had a great week with the letter Nn.

Fabulous letter F

We had a fantastic week with the letter F! We made some fun fish aquariums, we tye-dyed fabric and turned them into pumpkin pillows. We talked about the super-fancy (rococco) painting style of Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806).

The Swing

We then finger-painted our own fancy version of fish with glitter paint! Top that off with fishies, fruit snacks, and french fries for snacks, it was a great week.