Draw Klimt Figures

Klimt tree.

      Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna in Austria-Hungary, the second of seven children—three boys and four girls. His mother, Anna Klimt (née Finster), had an unrealized ambition to be a musical performer. His father, Ernst Klimt the Elder, formerly from Bohemia, was a gold engraver. All three of their sons displayed artistic talent early on. Klimt's younger brothers were Ernst Klimt and Georg Klimt.

      Klimt lived in poverty while attending the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied architectural painting until 1883. He revered Vienna's foremost history painter of the time, Hans Makart. Klimt readily accepted the principles of a conservative training; his early work may be classified as academic. In 1877 his brother, Ernst, who, like his father, would become an engraver, also enrolled in the school. The two brothers and their friend, Franz Matsch, began working together and by 1880 they had received numerous commissions as a team that they called the "Company of Artists". They also helped their teacher in painting murals in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Klimt began his professional career painting interior murals and ceilings in large public buildings on the Ringstraße, including a successful series of "Allegories and Emblems".

      In 1888 Klimt received the Golden Order of Merit from Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria for his contributions to murals painted in the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also became an honorary member of the University of Munich and the University of Vienna. In 1892 Klimt's father and brother Ernst both died, and he had to assume financial responsibility for his father's and brother's families. The tragedies also affected his artistic vision and soon he would move towards a new personal style.

      In the early 1890s Klimt met Emilie Louise Flöge who was to be his companion until the end of his life. His painting, The Kiss (1907–08), is thought to be an image of them together. He designed many costumes she created and modeled in his works.

The model on the left is Emilie Floge by Klimt, the model on the right was randomly selected from a magazine, beheaded and pasted onto black paper for this project. Teachers should collect magazines for this exercise and metallic markers. This project is good for many age groups, k-5th.

      Students may select a partial torso or head from a magazine, cut it out and then paste it onto a large piece of black construction paper. Then the teacher can show a power point of a select group of Klimt's works and I mean select. Not all of Klimt's paintings are appropriate for an elementary classroom. Talk to the children about his design choices and how he used color and pattern to define figures. Then pass out those gel pens, metallic markers and brilliant colored pencils that you've been saving for a special drawing project. Students may then design their own patterned surface with these on top of the black paper in order to give their partial figure a completed Klimt like portrait.

More Related Projects:

• Sitting under the tree with Gustav
• Gustav Klimt Art Project
• Elegant Art Nouveau
• Klimt Inspirations
• Klimt Inspired Self Portrait
• More Gustav Klimt Collages
• Building A Klimt

Paint an Abstract Still Life

An abstract still life observed from milk bottles by a third grader.
First students collaged theirpaper with bright colored tissues
and then they added bold, black outlines
while observing milk bottles and other plastic soap containers.

      Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. The arts of cultures other than the European had become accessible and showed alternative ways of describing visual experience to the artist. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. The sources from which individual artists drew their theoretical arguments were diverse, and reflected the social and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western culture at that time.

More Abstract Still Life Ideas for Art Class:

• Tropical Still Life 
• Oil Pastel Still Life Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh
• More cubist still life in tempera, 3rd grade
• Inspired by the Masters II - Cezanne Still Life

Design a Superior Paper Airplane

      A paper plane, paper aeroplane (UK), paper airplane (US), paper glider, paper dart or dart is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of paper or paperboard; the practice of constructing paper planes is sometimes referred to as aerogami(Japanese: kamihikōki), after origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

      The origin of folded paper gliders is generally considered to be of Ancient China, although there is equal evidence that the refinement and development of folded gliders took place in equal measure in Japan. Certainly, manufacture of paper on a widespread scale took place in China 500 BCE, and origami and paper folding became popular within a century of this period, approximately 460-390 BCE. It is impossible to ascertain where and in what form the first paper aircraft were constructed, or even the first paper plane's form.

      For over a thousand years after this, paper aircraft were the dominant man-made heavier-than-air craft whose principles could be readily appreciated, though thanks to their high drag coefficients, not of an exceptional performance when gliding over long distances. The pioneers of powered flight have all studied paper model aircraft in order to design larger machines. Da Vinci wrote of the building of a model plane out of parchment, and of testing some of his early ornithopter, an aircraft that flies by flapping wings,and parachute designs using paper models. Thereafter, Sir George Cayley explored the performance of paper gliders in the late 19th century. Other pioneers, such as Clément Ader, Prof. Charles Langley, and Alberto Santos-Dumont often tested ideas with paper as well as balsa models to confirm (in scale) their theories before putting them into practice.

      The most significant use of paper models in aircraft designs were by the Wright brothers between 1899 and 1903, the date of the first powered flight from Kill Devil Hills, by the Wright Flyer. The Wrights used a wind tunnel to gain knowledge of the forces which could be used to control an aircraft in flight. They built numerous paper models, and tested them within their wind tunnel. By observing the forces produced by flexing the heavy paper models within the wind tunnel, the Wrights determined that control through flight surfaces by warping would be most effective, and in action identical to the later hinged aileron and elevator surfaces used today. Their paper models were very important in the process of moving on to progressively larger models, kites, gliders and ultimately on to the powered Flyer (in conjunction with the development of lightweight petrol engines). In this way, the paper model plane remains a very important key in the graduation from model to manned heavier-than-air flight.

      With time, many other designers have improved and developed the paper model, while using it as a fundamentally useful tool in aircraft design. One of the earliest known applied (as in compound structures and many other aerodynamic refinements) modern paper plane was in 1909, followed in 1930 by Jack Northrop's (co-founder of Lockheed Corporation) use of paper planes as test models for larger aircraft. In Germany, during the Great Depression, designers at Heinkel and Junkers used paper models in order to establish basic performance and structural forms in important projects, such as the Heinkel 111 and Junkers 88 tactical bomber programmes.

      In recent times, paper model aircraft have gained great sophistication, and very high flight performance far removed from their origami origins, yet even origami aircraft have gained many new and exciting designs over the years, and gained much in terms of flight performance. Read more . . .

The Best Paper Airplane Links:

• Paper Airplanes HQ
• Free Paper Airplane Templates
• Paper Airplanes by Chris Eddieman
• The Paper Airplane Guy
• Secret Paper Aeroplanes
• Joseph Palmer

Aviation Web Sites: great for kids!

• National Air and Space Museum
• How We Made the First Flight (Wright Brothers)
• The Early History of the Airplane (literacy resource)
• The Wright Brothers - First Flight, 1903
• Aviation History Online Museum

Aviation Video For the Classroom:

• Wright Brothers First Flight, 1903
• The First Helicopter
• The History of the Helicopter
• Early Helicopters Collapse
• Conquest Of The Air
• History of Aviation Part 1 and Part 2
  

Cut and Paste Paper Pueblos

These paper pictures of pueblos were made by kindergarteners. They learned about how some indigenous people built their homes and why their homes were appropriate for the environment in which they lived.

Above is a photograph taken of a Zuni pueblo in 1873,
Below is a photograph of a Kiva and surrounding
pueblos taken in Taos New Mexico in 1920.

      Pueblos are modern and ancient communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material. These structures were usually multi-storeyed buildings surrounding an open plaza. They were occupied by hundreds to thousands of Pueblo people.

      The Pueblo people are a Native American people in the Southwestern United States. Their traditional economy is based on agriculture and trade. When first encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, they were living in villages that the Spanish called pueblos, meaning "towns". Of the 21 Pueblos that exist today, Taos, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi are the best-known. The main Pueblos are located primarily in New Mexico and Arizona.

      Adobe (pron.: /əˈdoʊbi/, UK /əˈdoʊb/; Arabic: الطوب) is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure), which the builders shape into bricks (using frames) and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. In hot climates, compared with wooden buildings, adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass, but they are known to be particularly susceptible to earthquake damage.

      Buildings made of sun-dried earth are common in West Asia, North Africa, West Africa, South America, southwestern North America, Spain (usually in the Mudéjar style), Eastern Europe and East Anglia, particularly Norfolk, known as 'clay lump. Adobe had been in use by indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Southwestern United States, Mesoamerica, and the Andean region of South America for several thousand years, although often substantial amounts of stone are used in the walls of Pueblo buildings. (Also, the Pueblo people built their adobe structures with handsful or basketsful of adobe, until the Spanish introduced them to the making of bricks.) Adobe brickmaking was used in Spain starting by the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, from the eighth century B.C. on. Its wide use can be attributed to its simplicity of design and manufacture, and the economy of creating it.

      A distinction is sometimes made between the smaller adobes, which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks, and the larger adobines, some of which may be one to two yards (1–2 m) long.

More Related Content:

• Why did Pueblo indians build their houses on top of mesas?
• Facts for kids about Pueblo Indians
• Pueblo de Taos from National Geographic
• Research Starters: Anasazi and Pueblo Indians
• Pueblo Indian History for Kids

Cut-Out, Paste and Paint a Jim Dine Valentine

This first grader cut and pasted, painted and drew a Valentine collage based upon what she learned about Jim Dine and Pop Art.

      Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935) is an American pop artist. He is sometimes considered to be a part of the Neo-Dada movement. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, attended Walnut Hills High School, the University of Cincinnati, and received a BFA from Ohio University in 1957. He first earned respect in the art world with his Happenings. Pioneered with artists Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow, in conjunction with musician John Cage, the "Happenings" were chaotic performance art that was a stark contrast with the more somber mood of the expressionists popular in the New York art world. The first of these was the 30 second The Smiling Worker performed in 1959.

       Above, "Hearts were created by the art students at Barrett Elementary School. They were inspired by the work of artist Jim Dine." Although known for controversial work by adults, young school children are usually introduced to Dine's simple heart 'icon' type prints.

      In 1962 Dine's work was included, along with Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Dowd, Phillip Hefferton, Joe Goode, Edward Ruscha, and Wayne Thiebaud, in the historically important and ground-breaking New Painting of Common Objects, curated by Walter Hopps at the Norton Simon Museum. This exhibition is historically considered one of the first "Pop Art" exhibitions in America. These painters started a movement, in a time of social unrest, which shocked America and the Art world and changed modern Art forever, "Pop Art".

      Although Pop Art began in the late 1950s, Pop Art in America was given its greatest impetus during the 1960s. The term "Pop Art" was officially introduced in December 1962; the Occasion was a "Symposium on Pop Art" organized by the Museum of Modern Art. By this time, American advertising had adopted many elements and inflections of modern art and functioned at a very sophisticated level. Consequently, American artists had to search deeper for dramatic styles that would distance art from the well-designed and clever commercial materials. As the British viewed American popular culture imagery from a somewhat removed perspective, their views were often instilled with romantic, sentimental and humorous overtones. By contrast, American artists being bombarded daily with the diversity of mass-produced imagery, produced work that was generally more bold and aggressive.   

More Related Art Projects:

• Waitsfield Elementary Art: Jim Dine Hearts 
• Another Jim Dine Post
• First Grade Hearts after Jim Dine
• Stamped Hearts Art Project

Favela Painting

Rocinha is the largest hill favela in Rio de Janeiro.
Although favelas are found in urban areas throughout Brazil,
 many of the more famous ones exist in Rio —
a widely photographed city

      A favela (Portuguese pronunciation: [faˈvɛlɐ]) is the term for a shanty town in Brazil, most often within urban areas. The first favelas appeared in late 19th century and built by soldiers with nowhere to live. Some of the first settlements were called bairros africanos (African neighbourhoods). This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many former black slaves moved in.

      Even before the first favela came into being, poor citizens were pushed away from the city and forced to live in the far suburbs. However, most modern favelas appeared in the 1970s due to rural exodus, when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved to cities. Without finding a place to live, many people ended up in a favela. Census data released in December 2011 by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) shows that in 2010, about 6 percent of the population lived in slums in Brazil. This means that 11.4 million of the 190 million people that lived in the country resided in areas of irregular occupation definable by lack of public services or urbanization, referred to by the IBGE as "subnormal agglomerations".

      The people who live in favelas are known as Moradores da favela, or pejoratively as favelados. Favelas are associated with extreme poverty. Brazil's favelas can be seen as the result of the unequal distribution of wealth in the country. Brazil is one of the most economically unequal countries in the world with the top 10 percent of its population earning 50 percent of the national income and about 8.5 percent of all people living below the poverty line.

      The Brazilian government has made several attempts in the 20th century to improve the nation's problem of urban poverty. One way was by the eradication of the favelas and favela dwellers that occurred during the 1970s while Brazil was under military governance. These favela eradication programs forcibly removed over 100,000 residents and placed them in public housing projects or back to the rural areas that many emigrated from. Another attempt to deal with urban poverty came by way of gentrification. The government sought to upgrade the favelas and integrate them into the inner city with the newly urbanized upper-middle class. As these "upgraded favelas" became more stable, they began to attract members of the lower-middle class pushing the former favela dwellers onto the streets or outside of the urban center and into the suburbs further away from opportunity and economic advancement. For example: in Rio de Janeiro, the vast majority of the homeless population is black, and part of that can be attributed to favela gentrification and displacement of those in extreme poverty.

           

WWW.FAVELAPAINTING.COM ~ The Favela Painting project was founded in 2005 by Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn. Go to our site or favela painting on facebook. Special thanks to Rob Admiraal who designed Rio Cruzeiro with us. Thank you Rogier Postma for making ths infomercial happen, Jesse Koolhaas for soundtrack, Jelle de Boer for audio mixing, Ralph de Haan and Hazaza for postproduction and Fernanda Clemente for translations.

The following are the "favela" painting proposals designed by local fifth graders in our community.

The Strangely Changing Face

By cutting out the various features scattered around the face in this picture and placing them on it in various combinations, you can make a vast variety of amusing and startling faces. Do not paste the features. Simply lay them on as fancy dictates. There is hardly an end to the funny faces you can produce.

The Owl and The Jay Bird

A sweet little poem for publishing in your next school newsletter or reading lesson.

An old owl sat all day in a

barn.

The light was dim in the 

barn.

The owl was watching for mice.

He sat right still, and did not say a word.

The jay bird was a great gossip.

She was always going about talking.

She went to the barn to see the owl.

The jay began to talk.

The owl kept right still.

The jay talked and talked.

She staid a long time.

The owl did not say a word.

At last the jay flew away.

She told the cat-bird she

had never had such a de-

lightful chat.

She said that Mister Owl

was the most entertaining 

bird she knew.

--The Golden Age.

Rainy Day Paper Dolls

      It seems like only yesterday when my now eighteen year old was cutting her own 'rainy day' paper family from old J. C. Penny catalogs. I was rummaging through a set of children's books in our bookcase and what do you think a found? An entire catalog family fluttering about from the pages. I picked them up and felt tears form in my eyes. How I miss my children's childhood innocence. I hope that many of my readers here will make just as many happy memories with their little ones on rainy days, printing, coloring and cutting away.

Winnie the Wonder Cuts, The H. C. of L.

      "I'm lonely," said Winnie, one wet autumn day. "This staying indoors is not much fun. I've dressed all my dollies a thousand times o'er. To do it again would be such a bore!" Just then she heard voices, though no one was seen. They seemed to proceed from a new magazine. A newspaper loudly its many leaves fluttered; a catalog also, she thought, gently muttered. "Here's 'Papa' and 'Mamma' and Johnny and Ned, and Agnes and Alice and Baby and Fred! Imprisoned we are, and will be for years, unless you'll release us, with skill and with shears." "I'll do it!" cried Winnie--and then, not in vain, she fell to her cutting with might and with main. "Papa" was an ad of some ready-made clothes, and "Mamma" was wearing some beautiful hose. While Baby and Agnes and Alice and Fred, young Johnny and Edward (the last with a sled) were easy to find if you knew where, in a catalog given to "best" children's wear. "Oh, lovely!" cried Winnie in accents of glee. "I've got, all at once, such a fine family! They'll want many things so I mustn't be stopping. The rest of the morning I'll spend on their shopping." So she got them some suits, all ready to wear, and raincoats and hats and wavy false hair, and chairs made of willow and brass beds and tables, and lampshades and candlesticks, toy dogs and sables. She found them a bathroom with fixtures complete, and elegant shoes for each pair of feet, pianos which sounded the mellowest tones, and beautiful, diamond disked new graphophones. She bought Chinese lilies, in nice shallow bowls, and stockings all filmy, without any holes. She got for them drinking cups, autos and collars--but she spent not a dime, nor even her dollars! Thought all she procured in a manner so rash, she managed to lose not a bit of her cash. The rain it kept on and just wouldn't stop, but Winnie was dampened by never a drop. "This shopping by scissors is certainly wise, and I'm glad that the merchants 'most all advertise. Their talk of 'cut prices' is perfectly true. I cut both the price and the article, too. My paper dolls now have all that they need, and the morning has passed with the pleasantest speed. And the best of it all is no rent need they pay. In the leaves of a book I'll just tuck them away!" from an old New York Tribune

More Related Content: Just a few charming paper characters for you to collect:

• A small gentleman owl paper doll
• The catalog dolls here, here and here
• Polly Pratt Paper Dolls and their wardrobes intact
• Queen Holden paper dolls
• Make a 1930s Face paper toy
• frog mommy

Picture Puzzle: Find the hidden potter

Where is the other potter?

From the "Painted Desert" your wares you brought

For the curious crowds at the splendid Fair

But where is the brother who with you wrought?

Why is he not working beside you there?

Bake a Fortune Cake

Halloween fondant cake tutorial.

      On your menu, don't neglect the Fortune Cake. It contains a ring, a thimble and a dime. Whoever gets the ring will be married soon; the thimble means celibacy; the dime, wealth.
      The fortune cake can be made in any way but the inclusion of the ring, thimble and dime is a very old tradition from the British Isles that dates back several centuries. You can bake these little trinkets into any cake recipe you wish; sometimes, you can find them in cake bakery shops as well.

More Halloween Cakes:

• Reese's Halloween Pinata Cake
• How to Make a Giant Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
• Bubbling Halloween Cauldron Cake
• Decorating a Scenic Halloween Cake

The Karo Corn Maiden Coloring Sheet

Color the Karo corn maiden for the Autumn harvest.