Colleen Wilcox Inspired Art! (4th)

We began this 4th grade project by looking at a PowerPoint I put together about the artist Colleen Wilcox. She is a young and contemporary Hawaii-based artist who does the most beautiful abstract acrylic work you've ever seen!! Link to here website here.

We viewed a ton of her paintings and then talked about how she really creates movement with the types of lines she uses (wavy, spiral, curvy, etc.). We also talked about the amazing use of color in her work! This was a great opportunity to talk about blending colors and analogous color schemes!
For our artwork I started students out with a piece of white 9"x9" drawing paper. Students created sketches which demonstrated their ability to create movement with lines and their ability to be inspired by their surroundings. Then they were given a final piece of black 9"x9" construction paper. On this paper they did their final drawing and then outlined it with glue. Once the glue was dry, we filled in the spaces with chalk pastel. Ohhhhhhhh how messy. :/
I did demonstrate procedures for dust control however (such as tapping their artwork onto a piece of wet paper towel to catch excess dust vs. blowing on it). The kids overall did a great job being mindful of my rules and procedures... but of goodness were we messy afterwards -- I'm talking itty-bitty pieces of chalk pastel on my floor that turned into giant color explosions when accidentally stepped on!

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