Speciality highlight February 2025: Fine Arts
Dear Parents,
I am excited to see our students' artistic progress in Fine Arts this term. Each class participates in paintings unique to their curriculum, and observing their progress is always inspiring.
Our First Graders have been exploring color, refining their brush control, and developing their ability to balance water and pigment in their paintings. They especially enjoy listening to color stories and translating them on paper with yellow, red, and blue. Currently, they are gaining experience in mixing the three primary colors directly on the paper to create green, orange, and purple. It is fascinating to see how each child's interpretation of a color story turns out differently.
Second and Third Graders are exploring new watercolor techniques while working on a series of paintings that illustrate the seven days of creation, inspired by the Hebrew creation stories from the Old Testament. For example, last Friday, they painted the separation of water and dry land and the creation of plants. They were deeply immersed in a color experience using only yellow and blue when they moved their brushes over the painting to mix the two colors and create grasses and trees. Before, the students practiced subtracting color from their paintings when painting the creation of light.
The Fourth and Fifth Graders have recently completed two projects that tie into their studies of Ancient civilizations: one depicting a story from Ancient Persia and another illustrating Buddha meditating on a lotus flower. Overall, the students have become confident in applying different watercolor techniques. They now enjoy having more room for creativity in their paintings, which brings out their personalities. After listening to the story from Ancient Persia, each student chose a different scene to paint from the story, and the story came together beautifully in their depictions.
Our Sixth and Seventh Graders have embraced the role of apprentices to Leonardo da Vinci, selecting either one of his self-portraits or a portrait of a woman to replicate in a pencil drawing. They now focus on light and shadow by blending different hues with black for shades and white for tints. After painting a watercolor palette of shades and tints, they will soon begin their interpretation of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring using acrylics on canvas.
It has been a joy to witness the creativity and dedication our students continue to show in their artistic journeys.
Warm regards,
Gaby Farrokhi
Fine Arts Teacher
