TRICIA TOONE | artist & teacher

Raku Firing at Frenchtown School

John Fulwood of Kissimmee River Pottery came to Frenchtown School to raku fire the ceramic work of grades 5-8. Despite the rainy day, I have to admit I personally had fun spending the day outside huddled around the kiln with John, and his assistant Marion. John brought a canopy for the students to stand under, although most decided it was more important to get an up-close look at the action than to be comfy and dry.

For most of the students of Frenchtown School, this was their first experience with ceramics. From raw clay to the raku firing, it was fun to appreciate the wonder of the ceramic process with them. I hope to have John back again next year!

Thank you Frenchtown PTA and Board of Education for making it possible!

Hunterdon Art Museum Young Artists Showcase

Frenchtown Elementary School participated in the Young Artists Showcase at Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ. It was an excellent show and we will be sure to participate next year. Congratulations to the young artists from Frenchtown, Holland Township, and Delaware Township whose work was selected to be in the exhibit.

Hunterdon Art Museum is a great local resource for those who live in Hunterdon or surrounding counties. The museum also offers adult and child classes throughout the year. I'm excited to attend the Life Drawing Marathon on Saturday, March 24. 

Here's some photos from the Young Artists Showcase.

There was a good turnout, despite the snowstorm we had that day.

A visitor admires this Frenchtown student's spraypaint peice. The 7th grader had been researching this technique on his own and made many attempts after school and at home. His hard work has quite an impact.

First Grade Clay

In first grade, we were practicing pinching and pulling to make a form in clay. Eventually, I will introduce making a form by attaching clay pieces with scoring and slip. Although they are working with air dry clay now, I want them to develop good habits. 

Towards the end of the session, I handed out toothpicks and demonstrated how it could be used to make texture and carvings. At that point, the sculptures took a turn as students also found some interesting uses for this new tool. 

Here is a Triceratops made by pinching and pulling.  

This little wolf has so much character. He used the toothpicks to make fur texture. 

As soon as toothpicks were in sight, one boy was inspired to make this porcupine. 

A toothpick became a handle for this little bowl.

Halloween in 3rd Grade

Yes, it's a bit after Halloween. But as a huge horror movie fan, I think we can celebrate Halloween year round.

Lebanon Borough 3rd Graders worked with groups to create haunted scenes. They developed their plan in sketches after looking through all the possible materials they had to work with. (cardboard, tissue paper, paint, glue, tape, paper, tubes, clay, string... basically, anything we could find)

Here are the results labeled by group name. (Unfortunately, photographs don't capture the full experience.)

"The Spooktacular Group"

I love the barbed wire made from string, as well as the footprints left from the mini clay characters.

"Haunted Mysterious House"

This haunted building is being circled by a clay train. I believe a ghost is beginning to peak out of the chimney.

 

"The Haunted Sculpture Group"

This group had incredible attention to detail. Notice the toothpick fence they painted one by one.

"The Nameless Horror"

Interesting architecture in this one.

What Can We Make With Shapes?

In Kindergarten, we have been looking around at all the shapes we can see in the world. Often when we draw or cut shapes  to create what we have in mind, it can be easy to remain stuck in old habits or cliches. (Circle heads, stick arms, corner sun with rays, etc)

In this project, we started with a pile of pre-cut shapes. "Using your imagination, what could that shape be? What could you make with that unusual shape?" 

Students played, trying many options first to see what they could make. They glued down their favorite picture. Afterwards, students created titles for their work.

Some results...

The Furious Superhero Kid by Joey

I love Joey's choice of the "boomerang" like shapes for arms and legs. It gives a feeling of action to his superhero kid.

A Storm by Jon

You can see the victim of this storm seeking shelter under a large brown shape, while "debris" is blowing past.

Rainy Days by Mackenzie 

Small shapes representing rain surround Mackenzie's female figure. I think it is fun to contrast the feel of Mackenzie's weather with the feel of Jon's storm. 

Group Weaving Center

I believe this is my new favorite blog. I love seeing the results of Nan's choice based art room. I would like to gradually work choice based into my art program. However, it requires becoming quite creative with space.

With some 8th grade help, we just began a group weaving center. It has just begun, but I will update the progress.

Art Shows Us Ourselves

This was our first day of school project. Each student, grades 1 through 8, "doodled" their way across their own puzzle piece.

Our emphasis was on using doodling as a form of visual brainstorming. The only rule: Black marker outside the bold lines, colored marker inside the bold lines.

I wanted the statement to set the tone for the school year, approaching art as self-exploration. The exercise also serves as a good initial assessment of students abilities and comfort with creativity. It's also fun to see the developmental progression from 1st grade to 8th, left to right.

Light Observations with 4th Grade

The objectives of this unit:

* Practice observation skills that are important in both art and science.
* Describe and visually represent how light affects the appearance of an object and its shadow.
* Create drawings from observation.
* Vocabulary: value, shadow, highlight

Part 1- Light Observations (You can download a lesson plan for the first part of this unit.)

In a dimmed room, student groups spent the period taking notes and sketches based on their observations of a single light source on a manikin. I left their mode of note taking open ended so that they could record their thoughts in whatever way was effective and comfortable for them. Some people think in words, some in pictures.

I loved seeing their notes at this stage. Most of the students were looking at light and shadow in a new way. The shadow was the first thing that fascinated most of them. As they looked deeper, they noticed the relationship between the distance and location of the light source to the manikin and its effect on the shadow. I had to prompt many of them to look at the actual manikin and how that looks in the light. I learned a lot from their observations- they pointed out things I never noticed.

Part 2- Proportion

Students continued with their observation of the light and manikin. This time, all students created sketches of their manikin and shadow with a focus on proportion in their drawing. I like to create an opportunity for practice in most lessons. It reenforces for the students that ALL art is part of a process of learning and that one perfect finished project is not the main goal of art.

Part 3- Individual Interpretation

Students were to take what they learned about light and proportion and take it a step further. Put it in context. Imagine a scenario for the manikin using the manikin for reference. Students needed to cooperate with their group to come up with a manikin pose that they all agreed on that could be interpreted in many ways. Example: A manikin posed with his arms up in the air could be many things- a goalie, air traffic controller, dancer, etc. Each student could interpret it in their own way.

This student focused on color for her final drawing. She brought out the warmth and glow of the light source behind the manikin. Also notice the attention to color mixing in the mostly violet shadow. She neutralized it with a combination of colors.

This student did an excellent job of taking what he learned about proportion and light and applying it to a mostly imagined form. Although he used the manikin as a model for proportion, he adjusted his character to have huge muscles and a missing limb. Using his knowledge of shadows, he adjusted the shape of the shadow as well.