We read a story by Laurence Anholt called, “Cezanne and the Apple Boy” and learned a bit about Paul Cezanne’s life.  Students then used oil pastels to re-create one of his paintings through a directed drawing lesson.

Oil pastel drawings with a paint ”wash” over top … some of the washes were a little heavy …

As part of our study of the Elements of Art, we have been looking at ’value’ – lightness and darkness.

We experimented with our watercolour pallets and finger-painted some amazing pictures.

We did a quick in-school ’field trip’ by visiting the Art Room next door. We saw all the lovely colours of the various items in there.  Then the lights were turned off and we experienced blackness, or darkness.  We did this a few times until the students realized that we have no colour without light.  Back in the classroom we heard a story about colour and light.  We learned that all the colours are in the white light.  When we ‘see’ a coloured shirt it is like the shirt is having a party and inviting all the colours, except for the one that we see.  That colour is bounced back to our optic nerves and we see it as its colour.

We then learned that black and white are ‘values’, not colours, as they are not in the rainbow of colours. 🌈

Students were introduced to ‘contrast’ (the sudden change from black to white or white to black), and ‘gradation’ (the gradual shift between the two values).

With their white paper they were to create a picture showing the two values while also showing that they understood the concepts of contrast and gradation.