Poems & Painting with Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly is an American artist who is know for his big, graffiti style paintings.
He often quoted poets and myths in his paintings too.
I personally love his style and wanted to replicate his "Rose" series.

First we constructed a poem together as a group.  I did it "mad lib style" where the kids filled in the blanks to create a more personalized poem.

Materials needed:
-Black construction paper, cut into long rectangles
-White pencils
-Colored construction paper for flowers
-Scissors
-Glue
-Red paint

Directions:
1.  Start by having the students write the poem on one side of the black paper in white pencil.
2.  Next have them cut out 3 flower shapes out of a colored construction paper.  You may choose to create a template that they trace for a more uniform flowers
3.  Glue the flowers in a row on the black paper
4.  Apply red paint over the flowers.  I demonstrated how to do this to create the illusion of flower petals.

Magritte - The Banquet

After my last trip to The Art Institute of Chicago I fell in love with this Magritte painting called, "The Banquet".  I was mesmerized but that bright red sun in the middle.  I think I stood there and looked at this painting for 20 minutes.

Materials needed:
-Watercolor paper 11x14 and a smaller piece cut to about 2x14
-Watercolor paint
-Black & Gray paint
-Brushes
-Sponges
-Scissors
-Red felt

Directions:
(This was a 2 day project)
1.  Paint the sunset sky with water color, paint the entire piece of paper
2.  While that is drying on the smaller separate piece of paper paint the gray brick wall.  I gave the students the idea of painting the entire piece gray, then use the other end of the brush to "scratch" in the bricks...worked pretty good I think!

-next day-
1.  Paint with black paint the tree trunks only
2.  Then take a sponge dipped in black paint to make the tree tops.
3.  Glue the brick all at the bottom
4.  Cut out a circle out of the red felt then glue it in the middle.

Laurel Burch Cats

Laurel Burch was a self-taught American painter/folk artist.

She died young at age 62 from a bone disease but even during the time when she was sick and had to paint in bed or from her wheelchair, she never stopped creating.  She said, "I refuse to have anything in my life that I can't turn around into something magical and beautiful.  I just refuse."

She has a great imagination.  Joy and happiness came through in her paintings with her bold lines and bright colors.  Her cats are so fun and whimsical!  My students love her work and they made some great versions of their own cats too!  Check this out...

Materials needed:

-White paper

-Colored paper (We had a pad of donated scrapbooking paper that had awesome colors and patterns)

-Crayons

-Scissors

-Glue

Directions:

1.  Students followed my step by step instructions for drawing the cat face.  (step by step tutorial coming soon)

2.  Color in the cat face, encourage different bright colors

3.  Select 2 fun pieces of colored paper, fold them into a triangle and cut them in half.

4.  Glue 2 halves onto a whole piece (this is your background)

5.  Cut out the cat face and glue it on the background

6.  Add lines, whiskers, and anything you feel it needs.