Art in Kindergarten is exciting!  We have been working and learning about colors, lines and brush strokes.  This week we reviewed the primary and secondary colors, hot colors and cool colors,  and created our own palette and portfolio.  In addition to sketching and painting self portraits and portraits of our classmates, we have explored contemporary art and have emulated the works of artists like Jackson Pollack and Henri Matisse.  We love how marvelous creations can be made by oozing the paint onto the canvas or shaking it on with objects jacks and balls!

We have also begun to learn about the Impressionists.  This week we painted zippy strokes like Claude Monet as we re-created his painting of the Japanese bridge.  Then we studied Pierre Auguste Renoir and learned that like Monet, he painted things as they witnessed them in life, but he preferred to paint people and their experiences and expressions.  These artists would paint the same thing many times and it would look very different depending on the time of day and the lighting.  The Dancers was the Renoir that we replicated.  Be sure to ask your child about this...........we concluded if you really study the painting, you can almost hear the music!

Ms. Fallon, Pine Glen's art teacher, was kind enough to stop in and share her real palette, some of her books and her love of this topic with us.

This art exploration has lead to many great books and discussions.  We are practicing our math skills as we explore shape and our journal writing reflects what we have been learning.  It is amazing!

Next week we have more artists to introduce.  Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt are just a few.

Pine Glen's art aficionados are looking forward to the trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in April, but would not mind if we went to France instead to see Monet's actual Japanese Bridge.  Linnea, the character in a story we read, got to go!