Our Natural World
Elementary students across the district explored the theme of “Our Natural World” and created pieces under this umbrella. Using a variety of media and processes, students expressed their viewpoint covering everything from landscapes to animals to fruit. Please enjoy this work of our fine young artists!

BENNETT-HEMENWAY SCHOOL:
Art Teacher: Bree Curtis
Project: Chalk Pastel Landscapes, Grade 4

LILJA SCHOOL:
Art Teacher: Sepi Golestani
Spring Birds: Collage , Grade 1
Inspired by the beauty of spring and the stunning collage illustrations in the book, Pie in the Sky, our first-grade artists embark on a creative journey to bring their own birds to life!
Students begin by drawing their birds, carefully shaping their forms and adding details. They then explore color blending with colored pencils, learning how to mix and layer colors to create depth and vibrancy in their artwork.

MEMORIAL SCHOOL:
Art Teachers: Abby Khandelwal, Megan Keery, and Caitlyn Thompson Warm/Cool Landscapes: Kindergarten
Kindergarten students demonstrated their understanding of warm and cool colors by creating beautiful and dynamic landscapes. They used watercolors and crayons to establish the “cool” background. Then, with tempera paint and markers they showcased unique “warm” patterned trees. Memorial’s youngest artists really created beautiful landscapes!
Mixed Media Skyscapes: Grade 3
Third grade artists created beautiful mixed media skyscapes using tempera paint and pastels. They utilized toothbrushes to create a spatter of stars as the background. They then carefully placed stencils to create beautiful bursts of galactic colors. These pieces are really out of this world! Chinese Vase Still-Life Paintings: Grade 3
Students in 3rd grade each created a still-life painting of a Chinese vase filled with flowers. They painted their flowers using just three colors of tempera paint, blue, yellow and white. First students looked at images of traditional blue and white Chinese vases and they drew and cut out a symmetrical vase of their own. Then we discussed the lines, shapes and images from nature they could use to design their vase using blue paint. After that they let their limited color palette mix right on their paper to create new shades of blue, yellow and greens in loose flowers of various sizes. What a beautiful job they did!

BROWN SCHOOL:
Art Teacher: Michelle Parven
Tonal Landscapes: Grade 3
Students in Grade 3 created monochromatic gradient landscapes demonstrating value scale and a knowledge of tints and shades. We began by creating mountain templates by ripping strips of paper to echo the irregularity of rocky cliffs and doing a light underdrawing to guide them. Students then focused on foreground, middleground and background, and mixed their own paint to demonstrate the idea of value and color saturation. The final touch was to add silhouettes of trees and shadows if they desired.
Kirchner Pastel Landscapes: Grade 4
Fourth grade students created a variety of landscape scenes inspired by Ernst Kirchner using only oil pastel with light underdrawing. The goal was to show one-point perspective and layering of elements, and playing with color and light. Students lightly sketched their designs on neutral recycled paper, thinking about perspective and composition. Finally, they used soft oil pastel, layering and blending to create a riot of color.

This exhibit features artwork, photography & poetry from the book Solitude, Community, Hope: An Anthology, recently published by First Parish in Framingham.
First Parish in Framingham responded to Senior Minister Rev. Aaron Stockwell Wisman’s year-long theme of sermons on the topic of loneliness.
The book was a volunteer effort of artists, poets and authors expressing their different perspectives on solitude, community, and hope. The book recognizes and appreciates that despite our differences, we all have a common need for human contact and connection. You are not alone.

Ella is a student at Walnut Hill School for the Arts. She was born in Hangzhou, China, currently living in Los Angeles. While she has explored a variety of media, Ella specializes in oil painting with a strong focus on the human figure. Her work delves into the stages of human growth, capturing fleeting moments in time through expressive brushstrokes and delicate detail. Using vibrant color palettes and intricate compositions, Ella’s paintings celebrate identity, emotion, and the layered beauty of femininity. Her art invites viewers into an intimate dialogue between strength, vulnerability, and transformation.

The Community Mosaic Diamond is part of an international mosaic project conceived of by Dr. Claire Barnett in Seattle, WA. It is made up of 128 four-inch triangles, and was created by over 150 local participants. Over the course of two years, Carol Krentzman created spaces where men, women and children could make a mosaic triangle in orange, yellow, green, or blue. Carol supplied bowls of colored, broken glass and ceramic tiles. The participants arranged the tiles by pressing them onto paper triangles which were covered with sticky mesh. When the triangles were all finished, Carol and her studio assistants, Kathleen, Jeff, and Lois, created a pattern on the board. Then all the triangles were removed from the paper, and glued onto the board, then grouted and prepared for display.
Carol Krentzman has been creating public art for many years with a focus on stained glass and mosaics. Carol uses a variety of tiles, individually made fused glass tiles, clay elements, and other materials when fabricating her indoor and outdoor mosaics.