Art at Your Fingertips
Keeping Art Alive In Our Schools!
Now in its 35th year Art At Your Fingertips, the Art Center’s visual arts outreach program, brings standards-based education to our local schools.
Each of the five Art At Your Fingertips projects combines art techniques, art history and aesthetics in lessons that meet California visual arts standards for all elementary grade levels. In monthly workshops, the artist who developed each project teaches the 400+ parent volunteers who, in turn, teach students DK-5th grade at every public and private school on the Peninsula.
2009-2010 Projects
October: Fauve-rite Colors by Paula Irish
Inspired by the work of Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876-1958), this oil pastel on black paper landscape drawing will introduce students to color theory and the art movement known as Fauvism. Derived from the French word meaning “Wild Beasts,” the art of the Fauves is characterized by thick, bold strokes of vibrant color.
November: Sacred Fish by Karen Willis
Founder of the Woodlands School of Art, Norval Morrisseau (Canadian, 1932-2007), also known as Copper Thunderbird, has been called “The Picasso of the North.” Using acrylic paint and marker on brown paper to emulate his stylized depictions of wildlife, students will learn about the culture and art of the First Nations People of North America.
January: Reflections in Nature by Kay Furlong
Perfected in Europe by acclaimed artist J.M.W. Turner (English, 1775-1851), the art of watercolor landscape painting has been adapted by American artists for the past two centuries. This project will introduce students to basic watercolor techniques and compositional elements of landscape painting, while demonstrating an exciting new technique for depicting reflection in water.
February: Ice Cream Being Served by Robin Bott
Pop-Art sculptor Claes Oldenburg (Swedish-American, b. 1929) is famous for his monumental public art installations depicting larger-than-life sized versions of everyday objects. The students will use a variety of clay-shaping techniques to form an ice cream cone that looks good enough to eat.
March: "Urban Nocturne" by Robin Kiss
Best known for her iconic images of the American Southwest, Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1775-1851) created a celebrated series of New York cityscapes in the 1920s. In this mixed-media project, students will learn about positive and negative space as they create their own city nightscapes.
