Minds are illuminated through artmaking
Campers presented thoughtful interpretations as they were asked to analyze an artwork at the beginning of Making Discoveries through Artmaking class with Cheyana Armantrout. This was a warmup inquiry exercise in which students studied the art presented for one minute and then were asked to recreate the piece by memory. Once students completed their sketches of what they remembered, Armantrout put the art back on the screen and asked questions to stimulate conversation. “What did you miss?”; “What is the first thing you notice?”; “What materials did the artist use?” were questions that prompted great discussion.
One student first saw the woman bending over to gather flowers and another saw the person holding the umbrella. When asked what students might title the painting, someone exclaimed “Remorse” and another responded with “Sadness Leaving” –both expressing the melancholy emotion set by the artist in his painting. When asked to guess the famous artist, Copeland, Ryan, and Kinsey all correctly stated, “van Gogh.” Kinsey said the brush strokes in the painting were very similar to the previous week’s painting of observation by Vincent van Gogh and Copeland even suggested it could be an extension of his other works. Regardless, all the students agreed it was definitely van Gogh with a similar look and feeling compared to other works previously viewed. With a pleased look, Armantrout said the title of the painting is “Memory of the Garden at Etten, Ladies of Arles” which is an oil painting from 1888 by Vincent van Gogh.
Students were asked to finish up on the previous week’s art assignment which was to recreate an artwork with a medium of their choosing. Kinsey chose to use a combination of watercolor and oil pastels. Ana had completed hers with oil pastels.
The immerse, inquire-based opportunity has been a wonderful learning experience. Last week they explored the basic Cyanotype process which was an early photographic process creating beautiful art using the sun. Paper marbling was another project involving shave cream and food coloring—a great project with lots of mess.
One thing is for sure, these students are diving into a variety of media to investigate, question and create amazing art!
