Surrealism

Surrealism started in the 1920’s as a movement in painting, writing, dance, film, and all aspects of art.  It was known for its element of surprise, imagination, and unexpected juxtapositions that make its audience question art.  In visual art, its images are usually ugly, confusing, fantastic, subconscious; not usually ‘pretty’ images.

Artist Rene Magritte, a surreal artist, was known for combining objects that don’t go together.  He would paint an umbrella with a glass of water, raining men with bowler hats, a man with a pumpkin for a head, or a train leaving a fireplace.  Confused by these images and ideas?  Exactly!  The students were not told the lesson, but told to write down some nouns that DON’T go together on a scrap of paper; bumble bees and coffee, rocks and pencils, soda and dandelions, unicorns and toenails.  Brainstorming together is challenging, but produces great results. Combining these images is a way for the students to create and understand surrealism. The students were asked to pick their favorite images and draw them with pencil.

Working on Black Paper

These girls are working on our black paper project.  They started with scrap paper to work out the design first, then they are drawing their design again on the final paper.  Looks Great!

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Do the Gelly Roll! (working on black paper)

I love this project! This project is a large size 'doodle' on black paper using metallic 'Gelly-Roll' markers (available at scrapbooking stores and Michaels). High quality black paper works the best with the roll markers. Black construction paper is too textured and is not acid free. I usually give an assignment as an ideas starter, for example, a pet or flower to start. The students are to 'doodle' in the background of the initial drawing, using repeating patterns and connecting objects. These markers have to be held at a 90 angle, and can be tricky for beginners. Sometimes we use light colored pencils and experiment with how the colors show up on the dark paper.  We talk about repeating designs and balance during this class.  Each student is required to show me their ideas on a scrap paper before they get a piece of black paper. The designs look best when most of the black paper is filled in and the colors are bold.