Wolf Kahn

Towards the end of the school year, we studied the magnificent color field paintings of Wolf Kahn.  Color field painters want you to first see the color as the primary subject matter.  Although most color field painters work  non-objectively, Kahn does abstract landscapes.  I love how he keeps things simple and bounces/repeats the color from one color field to another.  Students created their own color field pastel paintings and here is some of their beautiful work.

Pastel Pears

Pears with underpainting

Completed pastel with layering

Students were able to select different fruit and use the same techniques

Pears in progress, this shows the underpainting and glazing 

As we were studying the life of Mary Cassatt, this was a great time to work with pastels, one of my favorite mediums.  Students learned underpainting and layering the pastel over it without smudging so you could see thru to the underpainting.  They were quite stunning to look at and each student's work varied by subject matter or the colors and layering technique they used. 

Pastel Cactus

I absolutely love pastels and the bold effects you can create with this luminous medium, especially on black paper.  Students grades 2-5 worked on these beautiful cactus learning value with light and shadow.  Thank you to Art Projects for Kids for the project idea.  They worked with pastel, but used a black oil pastel to emphasize some of the lines.  I hope you enjoy viewing these as much as I did.  Kids are such fabulous artists!