High School Art Field Trip to NBMAA & The Hill-Stead

Thirty of our amazing Wamogo High School students attended an Art Field Trip on Thursday, October 24th.  

First, we went to the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA).

Upon entering the lobby,we were greeted by the guard.
 He was so warm & welcoming that students wanted to have their picture taken with him.
He is so dedicated, he never leaves his post.

We had guided tours throughout the museum, focusing on the artwork, the artists, and the relative history. We saw a wide range of artwork including; drawings, paintings, photography, and sculptures. Besides the dedicated guard, one of the most impressive pieces was an installation in the stairwell.

These are all cups. Cups of different sizes & colors; screwed, glued and stacked upon one another. In 2008, it took ten days for the artist, Lisa Hoke, and a small crew of assistants to install the piece in the museum! It looks cool from every angle so the stairwell was a great place to put it.

Some other wonderful works of art:

All of the pieces pictured here are a part of the NBMAA permanent collection.

Currently, one exhibit throughout the building highlights costumes from various productions at the Hartford Stage. It is fascinating to see the craftsmanship up close. 

STAGECRAFT: 50 Years of Design at Hartford Stage (Oct. 2–Dec. 16, 2013).  

It is a wonderful museum that is pretty close to home! 

In November, they are hosting a Maurice Sendak exhibit AND there is an event entitled Family Day: Wild Things! scheduled for Monday, November 11th from 11-3 with special activities scheduled that are free with Museum admission.

For more information about the New Britain Museum of American Art, check out their website http://www.nbmaa.org

Next stop, The Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington.

The Hill-Stead is noted for its 1901 33,000-square-foot house filled with art and antiques. Pioneering female architect Theodate Pope Riddle designed the Colonial Revival-style house, set on 152 hilltop acres, to showcase the Impressionist masterpieces amassed by her father, Cleveland iron industrialist Alfred A. Pope. It is a wonderful, living museum where visitors have the opportunity to see artwork, furnishings, clothing, and old-fashioned indoor plumbing. Wandering around the extensive grounds with sunken gardens and trails is free to the public. No photography is allowed inside of the house. Luckily, it was a perfectly clear Fall day and we were able to spend time outside drawing and taking pictures.

For more information about The Hill-Stead museum, go to their website. 

http://www.hillstead.org

Both of these museums are a part of the Connecticut Art Trail. 

Explore the Connecticut Art Trail ... seventeen world-class museums and historic sites from bucolic farms, art studios and former artists' boarding houses to grand and modern art museums in vibrant downtowns. Discover diverse, quality collections rich in history and heritage, including European masterpieces, American Impressionism, ancient art and contemporary culture.

Purchase the ART PASS for $25 and visit all 17 museums for one low price, valid for ONE YEAR.

For more information, go to the website.  

http://www.arttrail.org/index.htm

Art I: Upside Down Drawing

For this project, ART I students take a black & white (grayscale) reference picture and adhere it upside down in their sketchbook. Whilst the reference picture is upside down, the student then recreates the picture on the opposing page by drawing the shapes and values that they see represented. The rationale is that if the picture is upside down, the artist can begin to isolate shapes instead of drawing what they think the picture is supposed to look like. We are eliminating the process in which the drawer identifies the parts they are drawing (eye, hand, ear) thereby shifting their mode of processing. I suggested that the students start in one corner and work their way across the paper to complete what fits of their reference picture. Sometimes in our translation, our relative sizes may be larger (or smaller - depending on drawing style) and the entire composition may not fit. 

This video was made using a free app on the iPad; iMotion HD. The camera was facing the upside down picture and it automatically took pictures every 30 seconds as the drawing developed. (This version of the video is a bit choppy.)

Using the ancient Japanese art of Origami to combine art & math in the creation of a 3D form.

Six pieces of square paper

and hundreds of very precise folds

before assembly begins...

It is harder than one might think.

Will this stunning, hand-painted dragon be one of the Wamogo donations to The Empty Bowl Dinner?

LeAnn has an incredibly steady hand

and a tremendous amount of patience

as she paints her dragon on this cappuccino mug.

(and dragon eggs inside!)

Simply gorgeous!

Preparation for high school ART FIELD TRIP

If you are one of the lucky 30 that chose to join us on our Fall Art Field Trip to the New Britain Museum of American Art and The Hill-Stead, please take the time to check out the museums online before we go. There is a Field Trip Handout on my website, describing our day and there are links to the museums here.
NBMAA
The Hill-Stead