Friday, June 1, 2012

Grade 11 Artist Chairs (AVI3M/3O)

At long last, the newest batch of completed Grade 11 Artist Chairs.  One of my favourite assignments of each semester :)  As always, I would like to note that these were created by students of all artistic backgrounds and abilities.  Great work!
















8 comments:

Miss said...

These are great! Where do you get the chairs from? And is the assignment for the students to copy a painting from a famous artist? I'd love to try these out but I don't think I have the space to store them while the kids are working on them!!

Ms. George-Easton said...

Thanks!
The students bring in their own chairs, but if they can't find any, I usually have a couple on hand to fill in the gap. The students can either choose to copy a painting from art history, or to use the influence of an artist but create their own picture (ex. the fish in this set of chairs). When they design their idea, they are reminded that the chair is a sculptural object and that they are not simply painting the seat.
This is probably the assignment that the students look forward to the most in grade 11. It's too bad you don't think you have the room :( We have a 1000 sq/ft room, so space hasn't been a problem :)

Anonymous said...

These are great!
I have old wooden school chairs that I saved this summer from the trash heap! I am wondering -- do you have the students sand the chairs at all (They are lightly varnished oak)? What primer do you use? Do they poly or varnish them afterwards? Thanks for the help!

Ms. George-Easton said...

Than you. Yes, the students sand the chairs, then prime them with a simple house-paint primer, paint a base coat of their basic colours, and then do their good painting. I don't have them varnish them (too smelly for my classroom) but they are encouraged to if they wish at home.
Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting these. They are inspiring. What kind of paint do you use for these? Thanks again!

Ms. George-Easton said...

Just regular acrylic paint- we use the Reeves brand I think, nothing too cheap or too expensive.

Anonymous said...

This is great!! Would it be possible to do this on classroom desks? I have my students draw on ceiling tiles. I put them up every year.

Ms. George-Easton said...

Thanks! There are a lot more chairs throughout the blog too, if you get a chance to look.
The idea on the desks sounds fantastic!!! I'm sure it would work if you put some varnish on them at the end- the only problem I could see would be that the students couldn't bring the pieces home at the end, or they may worry about their hard work getting messed up by other artists in the future. The ceiling tiles are such a fun idea though :)