Thiebaud Style Pastel Still Life

Submitted by: Gina Grant
Medium: tempera mixed with flour
Grade Level: Sixth

 

Resources:

• Wayne Thiebaud Online
• Wayne Thiebaud - brief biography
• Arts Central

Here are some of my grade six work on Thiebaud (part of a unit on Pop Art) that was shown at their end of year exhibition. I bought them all small cakes from an Italian cake shop, had them draw them with yellow Chalk on strawboard (compressed cardboard - a bit easier to cut than chipboard), got them to mix colours to create Pastels, put in some flour to thicken it, and got to them to use Palette Knives. Finished works were brushed with a clear acrylic varnish.

 

Books

Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective - Thiebaud is famous for his lush early '60s paintings of cakes, other sweets and people eating them, but this book and the exhibition it documents put together by chief curator Nash of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who also provides an essay reveals the painter to be preoccupied with a larger slice of American life.

 

      

 

      

 

Delicious: The Art and Life of Wayne Thiebaud - Now young readers have the chance to explore the development of a fascinating artist while delighting in the very child-friendly art that has made him so acclaimed. With her deft touch, critically-acclaimed non-fiction author Susan Rubin tells the story of the man behind the masterpieces.

Counting with Wayne Thiebaud - Wayne Thiebaud's delectable paintings, etchings, and drawings make Counting with Wayne Thiebaud as much an introduction to contemporary art as it is a delicious first book of numbers.

 

Harmony Totem Poles

Lesson: Harmony totems (with Artist in residence)
Medium: Wood
Grade Level: Fifth - Sixth

 

 

From Gina: My grade five and six students designed totems based on the theme of harmony. These were carved out of cypress logs by a chainsaw sculptor and then the children decorated them. We had them placed in the gardens of the Organ factory (the town hall organ - quite famous around here - was built here over 130 years ago), which houses the art room and grade six rooms.

 

I organized the younger grades to perform around the school on the night of the installation. The preps and first grade students performed dances from around the world, the grades 2 and 3 performed songs, and the grade 4 students built their own instruments and created a soundscape which they performed to a poem they had written about the environment. I decorated the front garden of the school with 'Wish for the Future' flags created by the preps to grades 3 - based on the Tibetan Prayer Flags and the grade six students wove colourful material through the wire fence of the Organ Factory. Some of the grade six students (who will be graduating shortly) read out pieces on their interpretation of harmony and three created the front design of our program. I placed all their designs of the totems, created on large rolls of paper, in our art room along with their storyboards about how it all was created.

 

TO GINA'S STUDENTS' SELF PORTRAITS

SEE GINA'S PERSONAL MANDALA UNIT