Sixth Graders Investigate Renaissance Art
Teacher’s Comment: Since 1997, Nashoba Brooks sixth graders have devoted a unit to the Renaissance, and art projects have ranged from Mona Lisa face collages to a giant horse á la Leonardo Da Vinci. Most recently, we decided that the subject under investigation would be the still life. The girls worked with portrait and still-life artist Mary Minifie, who has won awards from the Guild of Boston Artists, the National Arts Club of New York, and the American Society of Portrait Artists. She came to the studio for three intensive sessions with the girls.
To make the most of their time with our artist-in-residence, students used charcoal and pastels, which are quicker than painting. We tried to be as sixteenth-century as possible—for example, we used sandpaper for sharpening the charcoal. The Renaissance was a time when people looked at things deeply. Da Vinci, an artist who was also a scientist and a mathematician, made intricate sketches to prepare for a larger work. We wanted the girls to get a sense of this kind of thorough investigation.
“The artist-in-residence talked to us about different ways of looking at the still lifes, about making sure the distance between objects was right — the composition. She helped us learn the best ways to use charcoal and then pastels. With the still life of strawberries, I used a lot of different reds and pinks. Ms. Minifie showed us how to use a finger to smudge and mix the colors together. We did a lot of experimenting with color. We worked on shadowing and learned how to make things look real, like in Renaissance art.”
—Sixth Grader, 2004
