6th graders are starting out with one of my favorite projects - the master remix project! For this project, students are getting a little bit of art history in before they begin. We began by looking at our pinterest board which has both original paintings by master artists as well as remixes or versions of master paintings that people have put their own spin on. We discussed the original paintings and then how some artists have remixed them and the different ways that someone could approach remixing a piece of artwork. After looking through these images, we gave students a handout that looks like the following:
Go to the following websites and explore the work of the artists listed below. Choose one that you would like to "remix" for your painting project.
Artists: Mary Cassatt, Jacob Lawrence, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Winslow Homer, Frida Kahlo, Paul Cezanne, Katsushika Hokusai, Paul Gauguin, Juan Gris, Faith WRingold, Edgar Degas, Grandma Moses, Diego Rivera, Modigliana, Edouard Much, Marc Chegall, Henri Rousseau, Franz Marc, Camile Pissarro, Leonardo da Vinci, Horace Pippin, Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh, Romare Bearden, Georgia O'Keefe, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Students then used this handout to explore the artist on the list and their artwork to find one they would like to remix! They then spent some time researching the artist a little bit and get to know the painting. Since then, students have been learning about gouache paint which is what they will be using, color theory, and sketching/drawing. Today, they began playing around with paint to invent their own new colors. Tomorrow we will finish inventing our colors and we will talk about painting techniques. Then, either friday or monday we will begin to draw our paintings onto our final draft paper before beginning painting!