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LIBRARY ART OUTREACH PROGRAM
This artwork has been created by the talented students of Montmorency County as part of a program offered by the library. Students receive a brief art lesson about a famous artist and style of art and then create their own masterpiece in that style.

ART IN THE SCHOOLS
with Lori Haas, Director of Libraries
and Art Instructor

LEWISTON - December 2022
Lewiston 2nd through 5th grade students completed another fine arts lesson presented by Montmorency County Public Libraries. First we read Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and looked at some famous artists who painted dots and circles (Joan Miro and Wassily Kandinsky). We then painted an abstract dot inspired acrylic on canvas painting. The students created some impressive masterpieces.
    
     

ATLANTA - December 2022
The Atlanta second through fifth grade students have been busy with fine arts lessons offered by Montmorency County Public libraries. They learned about pop art, Roy Lichtenstein, his use of limited colors, lines, dots, onomatopoeias (sound words) and word bubbles. They used stencils and permanent markers to create drawings in Lichtenstein’s pop art style. Many of the students did not finish their project because of all the details they were including. They will continue to work on them in their sketch books.
Then we read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and looked at some famous artists who painted dots and circles (Joan Miro and Wassily Kandinsky). We then painted an abstract dot inspired acrylic on canvas painting.
The students were very creative and once again their artwork became masterpieces.
    
    


HILLMAN - MARCH 2022

The Fine Arts program was at Hillman Elementary with 3rd, 4th and 5th graders on March 22nd. The students got a set of sketch pencils, with an eraser and sharpener and learned how to use each pencil, how to draw and shade with them. Together we drew and shaded an apple. Most of the students had never used sketch pencils before. Their drawings are absolutely amazing for beginners.




LEWISTON - March 2022
The Fine Arts Program was at Lewiston Elementary School today, March 17th, with 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. Students made these fish paintings with watercolor pencils and liquid watercolor. We started drawing a perch but then they they got to decide if they would like to keep it a perch or change up the colors. I think they did a fabulous job.

    

    

HILLMAN - March 2022
The Fine Arts Program was at Hillman Elementary School today, March 15th, with third, fourth and fifth graders. Students learned several different watercolor techniques and then painted a birch tree landscape. Once again their artwork is amazing.

    

   

Fine Arts program was at Hillman Elementary Schools with 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders on March 3rd. They learned how to use oil pastels and drew a snowy campfire scene in their sketchbooks. Every student got to keep their set of oil pastels thanks in part to a Hope Grant from the Michigan Humanities Council for the Arts

    

    

December 2021 -- The Atlanta Community Schools 2nd through 5th graders learned about Vincent Van Gogh and his Starry Night Painting. Then they painted Snowmen Starry Night Acrylic on canvas masterpieces. Once again the kids nailed it. These are going to make some awesome Christmas gifts.
    

    

Born: 1966 (Omaho, NE) Matt Sesow lives in Washington, D.C. He's a self taught artist who developed his talents to deal with a childhood trauma after schooling in software engineering. More information: When Matt was young, he had his arm severed by a landing airplane near his Nebraska home.


Matt Sesow inspired oil pastel sea creatures by
Hillman Elementary 4th and 5th graders
    

    

    

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Born in 1958, Kevin Sloan is a Denver based painter working primarily with acrylic on canvas and occasionally drawings and paintings on paper and recently, ceramic sculpture.  Growing up in Des Moines, Iowa his early interest in art was nurtured by student classes at the Des Moines Art Center and in particular by their Artist in Residence, Frank Limone.  It was clear upon high school graduation he would continue to study art in college.  

A study of Kevin Sloan. Color pencil drawings by Lewiston 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. Their art really shows Sloan’s style of magical realism and his beautiful imagery with allegory and whimsy. (It was also a big vocabulary day!) Two of the three Sloan pictures we used for inspiration are pictured first followed by the student’s amazing artwork.
  

  

  

  

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Chris Uphues... painter, street artist and designer living in Brooklyn, NY. Uphues’ pictoral language encompasses a range of ebullient and sinister creatures drawn from comic books, Japanese animation and design. He got his Bachelor of Fine Arts, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994.
Chris Uphues style pop art mini murals made by Hillman 4th and 5th graders.
  
  
  
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 Born, January 21, 1955 in York, Pennsylvania, Jeffrey L. Koons is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals. 

Jeff Koons inspired balloon dog chalk pastel drawings by Hillman Elementary School 4 and 5th graders. We have some talented young artist in Hillman.
 
  
  
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A little Christmas ornament painting fun with the
Johannesburg Lewiston Middle Schoolers.
  
  
  
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 Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley was the first known photographer of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated. Wikipedia
Born: February 9, 1865, Jericho, VT
Died: December 23, 1931, Jericho, VT

A lesson on William “Snowflake” Bentley - water color with salt and tape resist paintings of snowflakes and birch trees in frosty air, by Atlanta Elementary School 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.
  
  
  
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Today's lesson on Wassily Kandinsky; a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art.
Born: December 16, 1866, Moscow, Russia
Died: December 13, 1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

“Color Study of Squares with Concentric Circles” inspired wood coasters. Each student painted an individual wood square with acrylic paints, put felt dots on the back and sealed it with Mod Podge. These were made by Lewiston 3rd, 4th and 5th graders and will be ready to go home just in time for Christmas!
  
  
  
Kandisky at Atlanta Community Schools 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. Displayed together by class they look just like Kandinsky’s painting!
  
  
  
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Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright.
Born: October 25, 1881, Málaga, Spain
Died: April 8, 1973, Mougins, France




Pablo Picasso style portraits - crayon watercolor resists, by Atlanta Schools 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. There are some super talented artists in Atlanta!
  
  
  
  
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Paul Klee was a Swiss-born artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Wikipedia
Born: December 18, 1879, Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland
Died: June 29, 1940, Muralto, Switzerland



Paul Klee line art lesson with Lewiston Elementary School 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.
  
  
   
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Alexander Gardner (Oct 17, 1821 – Dec 10, 1882) 
Was a Scottish photographer who immigrated to the United States in 1856, where he began to work full-time in that profession. He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and the execution of the conspirators to Lincoln's assassination.




Pencil portraits of Abraham Lincoln inspired by the photography of Alexander Gardner. These masterpieces were created by Atlanta Community Schools 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.
    
   
  

Atlanta Elementary 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade Charley Harper style
fawn and deer.... crayon with watercolor resists. 
 

 

 

Charley Harper (August 4, 1922 – June 10, 2007)

 Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art and graffiti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s. 

Keith Haring inspired mini Kurals by Lewiston students

  

   

  

  

  

  

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani 
(1884-1920) was an Italian Jewish painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces and figures, that were not received well during his lifetime, but later found acceptance. Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance until he moved to Paris in 1906. There he came into contact with prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși.

Amedeo Modigliani style self portraits by Atlanta 2nd - 5th graders. Modigliani’s style is characterized by extra long necks, blank eyes and dark shadows. I think the students nailed it!
   

  

  

  Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931).
Wilson Alwyn "Snowflake" Bentley is one of the first known photographers of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated.
    

  Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intensely evocative treatment of psychological themes built upon some of the main tenets of late 19th-century Symbolism and greatly influenced German Expressionism in the early 20th century.
  


  Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist. She was best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been recognized as the "Mother of American modernism". 
   

  

 (1881-1973)
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France.
 

  Mid 1800's
Gyotaku (Japanese 魚拓, from gyo "fish" + taku "rubbing") is the traditional Japanese method of printing fish, a practice which dates back to the mid-1800s. This form of nature printing may have been used by fishermen to record their catches, but has also become an art form of its own.
  

  van Gogh (1853-1890)
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art.