The art curriculum at the AJA is based on the elements and principles of Art.
In 2nd grade the first Element of Art that we are learning is “Textureâ€Â. Texture is the look and feel of a surface (rough, smooth, soft, hard, glossy, etc) and it can be physical (tactile) or visual (illusion). Texture adds richness and dimension to two dimensional art works.
We looked at Starry Night (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) and I gave the students a pencil and black paper to draw the basic structure and shapes of the elements in the Starry Night painting. The students then started to finger paint with the lightest color first in dot and dash paint marks to imitate impasto-thick finger paint markings of the sky and the village as in the painting. While this was drying, the students created the cypress tree made from white paper and oil pastels, and moon and stars by cutting and gluing yellow, orange and white construction paper. They added moon glow and the swirls with white and yellow tempera and a q-tip. The students got pretty creative with this part. I love the variety one can get with this project!
