High School Art II & III Beauty for Ashes Project

by Anna Nunez

Before Christmas break, GPA High School Art II & III students got to watch a film by Bentzi Avtzon called "The Light of Fire" about a very talented artist named Yoram Ranaan who lives in Israel. The film documents the story of a fire in 2016 that burned down Ranaan's studio destroying a great number of his paintings and life's work. They got to see how he and his family were affected and how they came through that season together. They also were interested to see how Ranaan's process of being creative changed somewhat. After we watched the film we had a class discussion about it and about how God can take the difficult and painful things in our lives, and the mistakes we've made, and use it for our good or even do something new in us. This inspired our "Beauty for Ashes" project. The students were allowed to create, paint, or draw whatever they wanted in this theme. Some illustrated seasons or events from their own lives and some illustrated scripture from the Bible that speak to this theme as well. To find out more about the film "The Light of Fire" or the artist Yoram Ranaan and his beautiful artworks go to the following links.
(Be sure and click on each photo to see the students' art more closely.)

https://www.thelightoffirefilm.com/

https://www.yoramraanan.com/

by Moriah Young

by Olivia Wilburn

by Caleb Carter

by Emily Porter

by Hayden Tondre

by Faith Penrose

by Grace Lyles

High School Art 1 Pen and Ink Still Life

High School Art 1 students have been busy being creative with our drawing unit. The past couple of weeks we learned about how to create shading when drawing with a marker, Micron, or Sharpie pen. There are different techniques like hatching (lines), cross-hatching, contour hatching, stippling (lots of dots), and scumbling (scribbling). After practicing these techniques, the students drew a still life and used what they learned to shade. I loved what they did! (As always, click on each photo to see more closely.)

Middle School Beauty for Ashes Project

Before Christmas break, GPA Middle School art students got to watch a film by Bentzi Avtzon called "The Light of Fire" about a very talented artist named Yoram Ranaan who lives in Israel. The film documents the story of a fire in 2016 that burned down Ranaan's studio destroying a great number of his paintings and life's work. They got to see how he and his family were affected and how they came through that season together. They also were interested to see how Ranaan's process of being creative changed somewhat. After we watched the film we had a class discussion about it and about how God can take the difficult and painful things in our lives, and the mistakes we've made, and use it for our good or even do something new in us. This inspired our "Beauty for Ashes" project. The students were allowed to create, paint, or draw whatever they wanted in this theme. Some illustrated seasons or events from their own lives and some illustrated scripture from the Bible that speak to this theme as well. To find out more about the film "The Light of Fire" or the artist Yoram Ranaan and his beautiful artworks go to the following links.
(Be sure and click on each photo to see the students' art more closely.)

https://www.thelightoffirefilm.com/

https://www.yoramraanan.com/

Middle School Art 45 Minute Sculpture Challenge

Middle School Art Classes had fun with a 45 minute sculpture challenge using pipe cleaners, pony beads, and fuzzy pom poms. (Click on photos to see closer.)

High School Art 1 Group Drawing Project

Over the last month the High School Art 1 classes have been working diligently on our Group Drawing Projects. Each class was divided into groups of 3 or 4 per group. Then each group got to choose a black and white photo to reproduce only the reproduction was in a much larger scale. They began by dividing their photos into equally sized squares. Each student chose 3 squares to work on but they had to work together as a group to match up edges and lines on their 12 inch square project paper. 

At first the project seemed pretty daunting but when they began to finish their squares and put them on the wall they got excited to see their full picture pull back together. The finished projects were about 3 feet x 3 feet to give you an idea of their sizes. Many of the students said that this was their favorite project so far! They worked so hard on this and I think they also enjoyed getting to know other students that they might not usually hang out with. Aren't they grand? (Click on each photo to see closer.)

(Some of the original pictures and individual squares)

High School Art 2 & 3 Cubism Still Life

For the month of November students in High School Art 2 and 3 learned about Pablo Picasso, our featured artist for that month. Picasso was an interesting artist who could paint in different styles but eventually focused primarily on Cubism, a style that inspired the beginnings of modern art. For our project, the students drew their own still life in the Cubism style which was a bit tricky as it is done in a disjointed manner, much like looking through a broken glass window. Click on each picture to see their masterpieces more closely. :-)

Middle School Matryoshka Doll Drawings

This project took the Middle School Art Classes to the country of Russia where we learned about Matryoshka Dolls, also known as Nesting Dolls. The students were amazed when they saw an actual set that contained 10 total wooden dolls each one nestled inside the next biggest one. They couldn't believe it when the last and very smallest doll finally emerged. Seeing the amazing set of wooden dolls inspired them to draw pictures of their own sets. How clever they all are!

(Click on each photo to see closer.)