The BESt Art Blog : February 2013

Welcome

Welcome to the Brownsville Elementary School art blog. We hope you enjoy exploring the art gallery created by the students in grades Preschool - 5th. The art projects we do with our students allows everyone to experience art through different mediums...

DRAWING

pencils, pens, crayons, markers and colored pencils

~Students start out in the lower grades learning how to draw animals using shapes. Then in the upper grades they learn proportions of the human face and figure. Then they learn how to shade and add value to make their drawings look realistic.

PAINTING

watercolors and tempera paint

~Students start with painting in Kindergarten and build on these skills all throughout elementary school. They learn how to properly use the paints and take care of the brushes.

SCULPTING

clay, wood, wire and found objects

~Clay is a favorite medium in all grades. Each year our clay projects build on each other so that by the time you are in 5th grade you use all the skills to create your sculpture. Kindergarten also uses found object to make faces. Second grade also uses wood to make Kachina Dolls and 4th also uses wire to create wire figures.

PLUS A FEW EXTRAS

print making, weaving and stitchery

~We print in many ways but mostly in 2nd grade, in 3rd grade we love to weave and in 4th (or 5th) we learn stitchery.

All of our students get to be in the studio for 45 mins. a week but they are constantly creating throughout every day.

Artfully yours!

your art teachers, Shannon Horridge and Tetyana Wittkowski

Monday, February 25, 2013

Mosaics in the 3rd grade

The 3rd graders have been creating mosaics. We looked at some of the mosaics found in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. The students were amazed at how grand the Basilica is and how many mosaics there are in this one place. So we hopped on our imaginary airplane and flew to Rome, Italy. Got in a bus and went to St. Peter's Basilica (all in our minds of coarse). The children got to choose weather to help repair the floor, wall, altar or ceiling mosaic. They got a good feeling of what it must have been like to create these mosaics hundreds of years ago. Once our time was up we headed back to Crozet, VA and made it to PE on time. Just another day in the Brownsville art room.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

March is Youth Art Month

Youth Art Month March 2013

The Council for Art Education is proud to partner with the National Art Education Association (NAEA) to celebrate Youth Art Month (YAM). Youth Art Month is an annual observance every March to emphasize the value of art education for all youth and to encourage support for quality school art programs. YAM provides a forum for acknowledging skills that are fostered through experience in the visual arts that are not possible in other subjects offered in the curriculum.

We provide documentation through a visual spread of student art activities school wide, system wide and state wide. Our county contribution is our Albemarle County Youth Art Book. These pages are the ones submitted by Brownsville as a collage of out yearly activates including some done in Math and Language arts.

Albemarle County also mounts a yearly student art show during Youth Art Month that showcases artist from each school. This show will begin March 3^rd and run until March 24^that the Fashion Square Mall in Charlottesville, VA.

Friday, February 15, 2013

The ACPS Fine Arts Festival is coming up...

Please mark your calendars for the Albemarle County Public School Fine Arts Festival at Fashion Square Mall. March 3rd through March 23rd.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Tooth Fairies

1st grade is finishing up their "Tooth Fairies". These great portraits of their very own Tooth Fairies are wonderfully created and imagined by each 1st grader. Check them out in the halls of Brownsville. Pictures coming soon...

Mrs. Shannon Horridge

I have always had a love for art. After graduating from the University of Georgia with a bachelors in Art Education I moved to Charlottesville, VA. I began teaching at Brownsville in 1999 and taught until 2006. Then decided to stay home with my 3 young children for 4 years. During that time I volunteered as an art teacher at their school and volunteered with the Boys and Girls Club of Central VA. In 2011 I went back to Brownsville as a teaching assistant in the art room and in 2012 became a part-time art teacher again. I LOVE my job.

Ms. Tetyana Wittkowski

Growing up with a mother who was an artist and architect, creating art was just something that I would do. I grew up in Maryland and went to Vermont College for graduate school. My masters degree is in Art Therapy and I hold an art teaching certificate in grades K-12. Living in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador for 9 1/2 years I was able to gain a broader understanding different types of art and culture. In 1996 I started my career in Canada and later with my family moved to Fairfax, VA where I continued with Art therapy and began teaching art. With my children all grown and on their own I decided to get back to nature and move to Charlottesville. In the summer of 2016 I was hired as the full-time art teacher at Brownsville. I enjoy ceramics, sculpture, mixed media and have a passion from land art. I look forward to getting to know the community and beautiful countryside.

The BESt Art Blog