I began this mural on the art room wall over the summer… it is a work in progress! Can anyone tell which city inspired the mural? Curious about the finished product? I’ll give you a hint… The sky is inspired by a VERY famous painting by one of my favorite artists 🙂 Stay tuned for photos of the final result!
Welcome back DT students and families! It has been a wonderful summer, but I’m excited for another awesome year of art making in the DT art room! This year I will be teaching at DT on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I also just started working at the Kennedy School – I am so lucky to be a part of two wonderful communities in Franklin!
While I will continue to post photos and text to the DT Art Blog, I am also now on Twitter! Please follow me on twitter to see photo updates and more! 🙂
@MsDoherty_ART
In first grade art we read “A Bad Case of the Stripes,” by David Shannon. The illustrations in this book along with other striped paintings, inspired us to create striped self portraits! 
We worked very hard to create facial features and details unique to our own faces. Here is a sneak peak of some of the artwork that will be showcased in the upcoming art show at Davis Thayer!
WOW! I was so impressed by all of our talented students (and staff!) at the Talent Show this year! What a great night to showcase all of your hard work and unique talents!
I loved being a part of the teacher dance number this year. We had so much fun getting creative with not only our dance moves, but also with our costumes! It was a lot of hard work to form the glow sticks into stick figures, and tape them onto our clothes, but it paid off in the end! In case you were wondering.. I was green! Can you guess which one is Ms. Doherty? 🙂 
On Tuesday, March 22nd, we had a special treat at Davis Thayer! Artist, Bren Bataclan paid us a visit, shared his inspirational story with us, and even led us in a drawing activity! A HUGE thank you to the PCC for organizing Bren’s visit! Bren gave two separate assemblies, one for K-2, and another for 3-5. He shared with us photos and information about his “Smile Movement” in which he gives away paintings for free, to put a smile on peoples faces! All his bright and fun characters have a big smile on their face as well! After his presentation, he taught the students how to draw in his unique style – they all did an excellent job!
Check out Bren Bataclan’s website here: http://www.brenbataclan.com/
2nd grade students helped give Bren Bataclan a warm welcome by creating this banner in art class!
Our students were all so engaged, and a great audience! Bren gave them lots of opportunities to participate and share their own artwork!
Bren also left behind a beautiful, one of a kind piece of artwork at Davis Thayer, dedicated to our Core Values! He discussed how important our Core Values were in his life as a professional artist… How special! Big Thanks to Bren for leaving a lasting impression here at Davis Thayer!
I know that everyone at Davis Thayer will continue to be inspired by Bren, long after his assembly! (I know I will be!) Check out his “Beanie and Bren” youtube videos for even more inspiration!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VryyqWhoYfE
What do you see first? Faces? Or Vases?
4th graders worked very hard on creating their own optical illusions! I have an Optical Illusions book in the art room that many of the students love to read during their free time at the end of class. It became so popular, that I decided to turn it into a project for the 4th graders!
Students began by creating “radial designs” using colored pencils. Then, they drew side profiles of their peers, cut out the silhouettes on black paper, and pasted them to their radial designs.
Here is the optical illusion (faces or vases) that inspired us:
Here’s another! Do you see a rabbit, or a duck first?
How about this one… Young woman, or older woman?
One more.. a side view of a Native American, or an Eskimo in a coat?
Now, create your own! 🙂
5th Grade “Pop Art” is currently on display in the cafeteria for the whole school to enjoy! 5th graders illustrated an onomatopoeia and painted them using the primary colors.
These primary colored painted masterpieces are inspired by famous pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein. We learned that pop artists use bright bold colors and outlines to make their artwork stand out. Lichtenstein’s style of Pop Art has a very illustrative quality to it, similar to cartoons and comics.
Check out this cute (and brief!) video on Pop Art! https://vimeo.com/117960917
In 2nd Grade art, we read Dr. Suess’ book “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” We discussed his unique characters in his books, and created our own fish characters! We used illustrations of realistic fish to help us create cartoon fish.
We began our painting unit by studying the primary colors. Dr. Seuss uses a lot of primary and simple colors in his illustrations! We painted our fish using red, yellow, and blue paint. They are currently brightening up the 2nd grade hallway 🙂
March 2nd was Dr. Seuss’ birthday!!! We celebrated in the art room by studying and painting with primary colors, creating unique characters, reading Dr. Suess books, and coloring in pictures of cat and the hat! We are so lucky to have Dr. Suess books to inspire our creativity!
davisthayerart 