Making Faces

 

Andrea Aimi’s Lower School artists in 1Jk and 1MJ recently painted self portraits. Students spent the first semester exploring art projects that focused on both feelings and identity. The last project from this unit was a large scale self-portrait that had many layers of painting technique and color theory. They learned brush use and how colors can bounce off each other with the use of tonal ranges. They worked abstractly with shape and line before painting from observation. Their preliminary sketches were based on gently feeling their facial features and using pencil to describe the texture of very smooth and very fuzzy. They were also asked to be honest in how they felt as they painted, no need for smiley faces if the feelings are different in the art making process. Students learned that art should be from the heart. They also looked at artists from history such as Picasso, Alice Neel, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. A current artist that was studied was Henry Taylor, who is based in LA and shows at Hauser and Wirth. Students were asked to look at his tonal use of paint and expressions. 

You may enjoy these works currently on display in the Rosenquist Gallery by the Library.