Artist's Who Painted Anything but a Blue Horse
Mr. Johnson’s third, fourth and fifth grade art classes studied the artwork of Eric Carle. Eric Carle is acclaimed as the creator of brilliantly illustrated designed picture books for young children. His best known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of millions of children all over the world. He has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers and has sold more than 127 million copies of his books. Born in Syracuse, New York in 1929, Eric moved with his parents to Germany when he was six. He was educated in Germany and graduated from the prestigious art school, the Akademie der bildenden Kunste. During his studies, his art teachers secretly showed him works by artists that were banned by the Nazi regime during World War II. This experience convinced Eric that children ought not be inhibited by conventional rules but instead be encouraged to express their talents freely and joyfully. In 1952, he left Germany for America and landed a job as a graphic designed for the New York Times. Eric Carle’s art is distinctive and instantly recognizable. His art work is created in collage techniques, using hand-painted papers, which he cuts and layers to form his bright and cheerful images.
For our project, “Carlesque Animals,” we used his Collage paintings from many of his Children’s Literature Books for our guide. This artwork is a flat, cut-paper style which displays several different aspects of the animals. The students cut paper from construction paper that they had created by using watercolor paints and additional construction paper to create their animals. These animals were then put into a background habitat using these same techniques. The final part of the project was for presentation by double matting.
The students studied the following design elements of Art: Color (cool – warm,) Shape (square – rectangle – triangle – oval – circle,) Lines (curved – straight – wavy) and the Art of Eric Carle.
