Ms. Vella's Summer Art Projects

I've been doing a lot of painting this summer, as I hope you all have too. I was lucky enough to take a course with Julian Bradshaw at St. Michael's College entitled, "Educator as Artist." The course focused on personalized learning in the arts. Each student enrolled in the course were encouraged to work on their own passions and interests as an artist while developing a large body of work.

Here are some of my paintings I did during my time working on my concentration; you might see some of these at the South End Art Hop in Burlington in September, if you get a chance to visit the Innovation Building off Lakeside Avenue.

Tracy Campbell Pearson Visits UMS!

You may have already heard about our special guest, Author and Illustrator, Tracy Campbell Pearson. She visited UMS today, speaking to all students about the process of being an artist and writer. To celebrate her visit, I was inspired to design a fun lesson based on one of my favorite characters she created: Bob the Rooster. To make their pictures of Bob, students followed a step-by-step drawing guide, outlined their work in black oil pastel, then added splashes of paint to bring their "Bobs" to life. These were a great end-of-year project!

Painting Our Clay Birds and their Nests

We owe Vito Canizarrio, the high school art teacher, a big thank you for firing our entire school's clay pieces! He fired over 257 ceramic works in the kiln at the high school as well as another 250 from Porters Point School. He said he's happy to do it because he knows how important it is for children to have the opportunity to work with clay. 

Clay is such a rich artform that everyone connects to in a very real and tactile way. There's something deep and special about clay that allows children to truly connect to their work. Today students in Ms. White's and Ms. Barnett's 1st grade classes enjoyed painting their sculptures of birds with their nests. Check out some of these fun photos a student helped me take in class:

2016 Colchester District Art Show

I hope you have had a good vacation. I spent a good chunk of mine preparing for our upcoming art show. All schools in the Colchester School District participate in this one amazing show that demonstrates our students' talent and creativity ranging from kindergarten to grade 12. I do my best to include as many students in this art show as possible. Every student helped to create our circus mural this year, which will be on display at the show.

The Show runs from Tuesday 5/3 - Friday 5/6 and will be open 8am-4pm all days. There is also a closing reception being held Thursday night (5/5) from 6pm-8pm. Refreshments will be provided.

Hope to see you there!

Students who have artwork on display in addition to the mural are listed below by class along with which artwork will be on display:

Kindergarten: 

K Helfrich

1.       Ava        Donuts

2.       Tuqa      Donuts

3.       John      Warm Up

4.       Krish      Numbers

5.       Ezra        Owl

6.       Olivia     Feathers

K Mulcahy

1.       Esme     Donuts

2.       Kadence Donuts

3.       Ben        Clouds

4.       Myah    Numbers

5.       Sawyer Owl

6.       Michael  Tape Monster

7.       Gardner Building

8.       Max       building

K Curkov

1.       Justin    Donuts

2.       Eleri       cacoon

3.       Taylor    buildinga

4.       Christina Numbers

5.       Chloe Portrait

K Anderson

1.       Trevor   Buildings

2.       Gabe     Portrait and donut

3.       Stella     Tape

4.       Anna     Owl and donut

5.       Mackenzie          Donuts

6.       Alice      Donuts

7.       Harisson Donut

8.       Abi         Donuts

     1st Grade

1 Hughes

1.       Laila   Donut

2.       Haylee Donut

3.       Anya Donut

4.       Gage Donut

5.       Anna R Donuts and Portrait

6.       Tatum   Donut

7.       Elias       Pumpkin

8.       Hayden Pumpkin

9.       Mikaela Spiral

10.   Tanner Tractor

11.   Jessy-lynn Clown

1 Kelly

1.       Madison              Cupcake and donut

2.       Isaac                      Rescue

3.       Ethan                    Owl

4.       Aubrey                 Portrait

5.       Mattea                 Cupcake

1 White

1.       Dylan     Donut

2.       Alia         Donut

3.       Kayden Donut

4.       Sophie  Donut

5.       Izze        Spiral

6.       Noor      Spiral

7.       Leah      Train

1 Barnett

1.       Juliet                     Spiral

2.       Lucy                       Cat

3.       Matthew             Portrait

4.       Katerina               Portrait

       2nd Grade

      2 Howard

   1.  Colton   Puppet

2.       Aiden    Marten

3.       Lucy       Water

4.       Kathleen              Eagle

5.       Payton  BirdsTrees

6.       Mackenna  AutumnDP

2 Collins

1.       Ethan Puppet and Eagle

2.       Marie Puppet and  birds

3.       Lila Puppet

4.       Madison Puppet and Autumn DP

5.       Hannah Tape

6.       Yugal Tape

8.       Galen    Birds

2 Davis

1.       Autumn Puppet

2.       Emilee G, Marten

3.       Ryder    Tape

4.       Riley Eagle

5.       Michael       Sturgeon

  

2 Thibault

1.       Ambrose Puppet

2.       Brinlee G. Puppet

3.       Grayson M Puppet

4.       Brinlee B. Puppet

5.       Noah Puppet

6.       Payton Puppet

7.       Abbey Portrait

8.       Karmen Eagle

9.       Michael Eagle

10.   Lauren Sturgeon             

11.   Wyatt Sturgeon

12.   Naythan Birds

Champlain Valley Regional Art Show

28 artworks by UMS students are on display now through March 25th at the University Mall in South Burlington, VT. Check it out this week, before the stunning display comes down! If you can't make it, be sure to  find room in your schedule to see the Spring District Art Show, held in the Colchester High School gymnasium May 3-6.

Learning to Draw Means Learning to See

Here's a video from earlier this year. You can draw anything if you first take the time to look.

The Circus is Coming to UMS

Circus Smirkus is coming to UMS for an Artist Residency. They will be coming for the full week of March 14-18th with a performance on the evening of the 18th. We've been preparing for this in art class by creating a large mural as an entire school. Each class has contributed to this project, which will be on view at the performance in March. We began by painting the background, then used black to outline the shapes of the landscape. The next lesson included some collage with decorated papers; students have each created a circus character to include in the large mural. This has been a blast!