Proud artists shared nearly a year’s worth of masterpieces to parents, grandparents and siblings during the annual Lower School Gallery Night. The cafeteria and specialists’ hallway were transformed into colorful galleries filled with works of art created by JK through 4th grade students. Visitors also enjoyed mural coloring stations, stitching their names on a tablecloth and drawing portraits at a selfie spot. “I love art class because we do so many different kinds of projects and have a lot of time to work on them,” said Ellie, a 3rd grader.
A sampling of projects on display by grade level included:
JK: painted van Gogh sunflowers, recycled circle art inspired by Kandinsky, and painted polar bears
SK: Native American pictographs in clay, Asian elephants in parade, radial symmetrical Mandalas and winter landscape collograph prints
1st Grade: fairytale self portrait paintings, Chinese dragon colorings, German sketched nutcrackers and Japanese Sumi-e painted booklets
2nd Grade: ceramic slab sunflowers, Fauve style chalk landscapes, 3-D plaster amphora Greek vases and ceramic gargoyles
3rd Grade: double pinch pot ceramic Hopi pottery, acrylic painted sunflowers on canvas, Northeast Lenape basket weavings and Northeast Iroquois ceramic false face masks
4th Grade: Linoleum 3-color animal prints, Henri Matisse inspired interior room compositions, O’Keefe inspired landscape paintings with bone and gridded collaborative compositions (van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” Wood’s “American Gothic” and more)
Lower School Art Specialist Amy Oliver designs art projects to complement the curriculum at each grade level. Students love transferring what they have learned in class to the art.