Keith Haring Paintings

Artwork by Keith Haring

The first artist that middle school students were introduced to this year was Keith Haring. We observed photographs of his artwork and learned about his life as an artist. Haring was a contemporary artist who created public art, or art that could be seen by everyone. He created large murals and made his art accessible to everyone. His work often showed a social message and he created many works of art for many causes. Middle school NTA students used bright colors, simple figures, and lines to show movement and emotion to create their own artwork inspired by Haring.

Some classes created individual paintings to visually express a universal idea such as war, love, friendship, conflict, family, etc...

Another class worked as a group to portray "Celebrations and Challenges in School" using the style of Keith Haring.

Autumn Landscapes

2nd and 3rd grade students learned how to use shapes to draw people and things. Students learned how to draw a horizon line to create a ground to place objects on. Students used shapes and lines to create bare Autumn trees in a Fall scene. Finally, they added red and yellow paint to show leaves on these trees.

Kindergarten

In October, kindergarten students read books in class about monsters. In art, Kindergarten and 1st grade students read the book "Jeremy Draws a Monster" by Peter McCarty. They learned about organic shapes and used yarn to trace random organic shapes on paper. They then turned these shapes into monsters using crayon.

Next, students learned how to create circles, rectangles, and triangles by cutting square paper. They learned about masks and created their own cut paper masks while practicing their cutting and gluing skills.

First grade students created their own masks using similar paper bending and folding techniques, but they also used texture rubbing to create bumpy looking faces for their monster masks.

Kandinsky Lines

Primary students studied the artist, Wassily Kandinsky. Wassily was an artist who painted abstract artwork to music. We learned about the different types of lines and explored how various lines express emotions. Students then painted their own lines while listening to music. Finally, they learned added blue, red, and yellow paint to their work to experiment with color mixing.

3rd Grade Paintings displayed in the front lobby