Mill Valley School District Art Department

Painting Curriculum Map

Ceramics/Sculpture Crafts/Photography
Mixed Media/Collage

Art Department Philosophy
Statement
Through a robust
studio-based art curriculum,
students in Mill Valley School
Studio Habits of Mind
District have opportunities to
explore a variety of art media
at every grade level.

Painting Printmaking
Drawing

Art Department Philosophy Statement

Mill Valley School District provides a robust studio-based art curriculum where students learn to
express personal ideas and feelings using their imagination, or observation. Students learn to
value originality, artistic freedom, and the art process.

The program places artistic expression at the center. Aesthetic values, art criticism, and art
history inspire and grow out of students' creative experiences. Students have opportunities to
make choices and cope with ambiguity and uncertainty as they exercise judgment in
solving artistic problems. Through the making of their own art, students invent, experiment,
discover, investigate, take risks, work through mistakes, and reflect. Students explore different
sources for inspiration: imagination, intuition, memory, and observation. They learn from each
other and they learn to value their creative process and product.
Studio Habits of Mind
 Painting Overview

Key Vocabulary Guiding Questions Big Ideas

Painting
Resources Connections
Related Museum Exhibits, Artists Studied, Childrens
Websites, Books, Images, Literature, Cultural, Historical,
Videos, Music Cross-Cultural

Understandings Exemplar Projects

Project Examples
By Grade Level By Grade Level
Painting Vocabulary

Abstract, acrylic, analogous colors, blend, brushes, canvas, color mixing, colors, complementary
colors, hues, intensities, intermediate colors, mood, neutral, primary colors, realistic, secondary
colors, splatter, stippling, symbolism, tempera, theme, tints and shades, value, warm and cool
colors, washes, watercolor, watercolor paper, wet-on-dry, wet-on-wet

Painting Guiding Questions

How does an artist make a painting?

What materials and tools can be used to create a painting?
What techniques do artists use to create a painting?
How and where do artists get ideas to make a painting?
What are the unique qualities of a painting?

Painting Big Ideas

Painting is a very expressive medium. It allows an artist many ways to tell a visual story
about people, places, things, and/or feelings through a variety of colors applied in many
different ways.
Painting is a process by which a surface is colored by a pigment.
Painting is traditionally applied with a brush, but may be applied with other tools such as
fingers, rags, sponges, and pallet knives.
Paint can be applied with brushes, knives, or other tools on a variety of surfaces.
There are a variety of kinds of paints.

Painting Resources

Go to a museum
http://moma.org/explore/collection/painting
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection.html
www.artic.edu
www.gallery.ca
www.mban.qu.ca/en
www.mexicanmuseum.org
www.asianart.org
www.metmuseum.org
www.lacma.org
Painting Connections

Emma Amos Claude Monet

Robin Wethe Altman Gabrielle Munter
Jean-Michel Basquiat Julianne Turner Nungarrayi
Anne Berenge Daphne Odjig
Chuck Close Georgia OKeeffe
Rosa Rolanda Covarrubrias Ole Kolii Paul
Richard Diebenkorn Horace Pippin
Helen Frankenthaler Diego Rivera
Ted Harrison Henri Rousseau
David Hockney Sandra Rowe
Friedensreich Hundertwasser Elly Simmons
Annie Pitjara Hunter Nancy Spero
Frida Kahlo Henry Ossawa Tanner
Noel Kapanda Michael Neson Tjakamarra
Paul Klee Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Lee Krasner Eric Tournaire
Jacob Lawrence Vincent Van Gogh
Franz Marc Pablita Velarde
Henri Matisse Laura Wheeler Waring

Childrens Books:
13 Painters Children Should Know by Florian Heine
A Brush Full of Color by Ted Harrison
Chuck Close Face Book by Chuck Close
Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself by Margaret Frith
Henry Ossawa Tanner: His Boyhood Dream Come True by Faith Ringgold
Hundertwasser for Kids: Harvesting Dreams by Barbara Stieff
Inspirations: Stories About Women Artists: Georgia OKeeffe, Frida Kahlo, Alice Neel, Faith
Just Like Me by Tomie Arai & Enrique Chagoya
Laurence Anholts books about artists
Life Doesnt Frighten Me by Maya Angelou
Mike Venezias books about artists
Faith Ringgolds books
Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars by Joan Holub
 Painting Project Examples

Transitional Kindergarten: Tempera Paint Explorations

Kindergarten: Tempera Paintings of Animals
First grade: Floral Still Life with Tempera
Second grade: Painting and Design: Symmetry
Third grade: Monochromatic Paintings
Fourth grade: Tempera Paintings using Complementary Colors
Fifth grade: Landscape Painting: Pathways
Sixth grade: Wayne Thiebaud Dessert Paintings using Acrylics
Seventh grade: Hard-Edge Paintings
Eighth grade: Impression Strip Paintings

Painting Understandings By Grade Level

Transitional Kindergarten Students

Experiment with using paint

Use colors to paint familiar objects
Use a variety of painting tools
Engage in self-directed play with tempera paint
Engage in self-directed creative making with paint
Share and talk about their paintings

Kindergarten Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Experiment with mixing colors
Use colors to make lines and patterns
Paint pictures expressing ideas about family, feelings, and neighborhood
Experiment with paint and build skills in various media and approaches to painting
Engage in exploration and imaginative play with different painting materials
Engage collaboratively in creative art making through painting
Explain the process of painting while creating

First Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Use tempera, watercolor and mixed media (e.g. crayon resist)
Use positive and negative space in making a painting
Experiment with mixing white with colors to make tints
Mix secondary colors from primary colors and describe the process
Paint a still life using secondary colors
Explore uses of materials and tools to create a painting
Engage collaboratively in exploration and imaginative play with different painting materials
Use observation and investigation in preparation for making a painting
Use art vocabulary to describe choices while painting
Second Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Combine tempera and watercolors with drawing materials (e.g. crayon, oil pastels, felt pens)
Experiment with mixing black to various colors to see how they make shades
Demonstrate beginning skill in use of art media such as watercolors and tempera paint
Create a painting using warm or cool colors expressively
Experiment with various materials and tools to explore personal interests in a painting
Brainstorm collaboratively multiple approaches to painting
Make a painting with various materials and tools to explore personal interests, questions, and
curiosity
Discuss and reflect with peers about choices made in creating a painting

Third Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Use a variety of materials, individually and/or in groups (e.g. murals)
Mix and apply tempera paint to create tints, shades, and neutral colors
Paint a landscape, seascape or cityscape that show the illusion of space
Create a painting based on the observation of objects and scenes in daily life, emphasizing value
changes
Create a personally satisfying painting using a variety of artistic processes and materials
Elaborate on an imaginative idea in making a painting
Apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas
through the painting process
Elaborate visual information by adding details in a painting to enhance emerging meanings

Fourth Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Use a variety of materials, including opaque watercolors, on alternative surfaces (e.g.
cardboard)
Use complementary colors in an original composition to show contrast and emphasis
Explore and invent painting techniques and approaches
Brainstorm multiple approaches to address a creative painting problem
Set goals collaboratively and create paintings that are meaningful and hav purpose to the maker
Revise a painting in progress on the basis of insights gained through peer discussion

Fifth Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Combine a variety of media with painting
Create an expressive abstract composition based on real objects
Use perspective in an original work of art to create a real or imaginary scene
Experiment and develop skills in multiple art-making techniques and approaches in painting
through practice
Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for a painting
Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to choose an approach for
beginning a painting
Create artist statements using art vocabulary to describe personal choices in making a painting
Sixth Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Further explore tools for painting and experimentation of paint application
Refine use of tempera, watercolor, and acrylic
Demonstrate openness in trying new ideas, materials, methods, and approaches in making
paintings
Combine concepts collaboratively to generate innovative ideas for creating paintings
Formulate an artistic investigation of personally relevant content or creating a painting
Reflect on whether personal paintings convey the intended meaning and revise accordingly

Seventh Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Use alternative surfaces
Combine materials with tempera and watercolor (e.g. collage, photography, sculpture)
Experiment with color mixing
Develop skill in mixing and color relationships using paint
Demonstrate persistence in developing painting skills with various materials, methods, and
approaches in creating works
Apply methods to overcome creative blocks in making a painting
Develop criteria to guide making a painting to meet an identified goal
Reflect on and explain important information about your painting in an artist statement or
another format

Eighth Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Refine skills using a variety of materials
Explore a wide variety of personally meaningful subject matter
Demonstrate willingness to experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and
meanings that emerge in the process of painting
Document early stages of the creative process visually and/or verbally in creating a painting
Apply relevant criteria to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for a painting
 Transitional Kindergarten Kindergarten First Grade
Tempera Paint Explorations Tempera Paintings of Animals Floral Still Life with Tempera

Second Grade Third Grade

Painting and Design: Symmetry Monochromatic Paintings

Exemplar
Painting Projects
By
Fourth Grade Grade Level
Fifth Grade
Tempera Paintings using Landscape Painting: Pathways
Complementary Colors

Sixth Grade Seventh Grade

Wayne Thiebaud Dessert Hard-Edge Paintings Eighth Grade
Paintings Impression Strip Paintings

Goals/Key Understandings
- Create new colors of paint in
different ways
- Use different tools to make a
painting
Key Vocabulary
black, blue, brush, dabbler,
green, magenta, orange, red,
yellow, white
Connections
White Rabbits Colors by Alan
Baker; Mouse Paint by Ellen
Stoll Walsh
Transitional Kindergarten Project
Tempera Paint Explorations
Motivating Questions
Visual Arts Standards
What colors can you name? What
colors can make other colors? 2.3 Experiment with colors
How can I use different tools to through the use of paints
paint?
Studio Habits of Mind
Express
Develop Craft
Assessment
Resources
- Teacher conversation with
Fingerpaint outdoors with your
student: What colors did you
child using washable paints
use in your painting? Tell me
how you made new colors.

Goals/Key Understandings
- Identify colors by name
- Recognize particular elements
of painting
- Experiment with paint and
brush
- Collaborate with others to
make new colors
Key Vocabulary
geometric shapes, organic
shapes, primary colors (red,
yellow, blue), secondary colors
(orange, green, purple)
Connections
The Rooster? by Pablo Picasso;
My Favorite the Rooster by
Sandra Perez & Pablo Picasso
Kindergarten Project
Tempera Paintings of Animals
Motivating Questions
What kinds of shapes and lines
does an artist use to create an
animal in a painting? How does
an artist use tempera paint to
create an animal?
Resources
Childrens Book About Chickens
y
by Lily Liu; Chicks & Chickens b
Gail Gibbons
Visual Arts Standards
2.4 Paint pictures expressing
ideas
2.5 Use lines in paintings
2.6 Use geometric shapes/forms
in a work of art
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Engage and Persist
Stretch and Explore
Assessment
- Informal conversations: What
primary and secondary colors can
you name in your painting? What
brush techniques did you use?
How did you make lines and
shapes to create an animal
figure?

Goals/Key Understandings
- Create a floral still life from
observation, memory, and/or
imagination
- Develop skill in making colors
and applying paint
- Reflect on their work
Key Vocabulary
composition, floral, imagination,
memory, observation, palette,
secondary colors, still life,
tempera paint, texture
Connections
Odilon Redon, Vincent Van Gogh,
Henri Fantin-Latour, Ambrosius
Bosschaert, Georgia OKeeffe
Ming Vases, Pewabic pottery,
Venetian glass vases, Heath
ceramics
First Grade Project
Floral Still Life with Tempera
Motivating Questions
What is a floral still life? How
will you use observation,
memory, and imagination to
create your painting? What are
the secondary colors, and how
will you make them?
Resources
Annual Bouquets to Art
DeYoung Museum exhibit in
April; Heath Ceramics Studio in
during the making of the work
Sausalito; Asian Art Museum;
Little Blue and Little Yellow by
Leo Lionni; Sesame Street video,
Primary Colors
Visual Arts Standards
1.3 Identify the elements of art
2.2 Mix secondary colors from
primary colors and describe the
process
2.4 Plan and use variations in
line, shape/form, color, and
texture to communicate ideas or
feelings in works of art
2.6 Draw or paint a still life using
secondary colors
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Observe
Engage and Persist
Reflect
Assessment
- Observation during students
process
- Reflective conversation with
student about the artwork
and upon completion: Where
did you get your ideas for your
floral painting? What new colors
did you make, and how did you
make them?

Goals/Key Understandings
- Identify symmetrical patterns in
nature and symmetrical designs
in art
- Use symmetry to create visual
balance in a painting
Key Vocabulary
asymmetry, balance, design,
symmetry
Connections
Ndebele: The Art of An African
Tribe by Margaret
Courtney-Clark; My Painted
House, My Friendly Chicken, and
Me by Maya Angelou & Margaret
Courtney-Clark; Seeing Symmetry
by Loreen Leedy
Second Grade Project
Painting and Design: Symmetry
Motivating Questions
Visual Arts Standards
What is symmetry? How do
2.5 Use symmetry to create
artists use symmetrical designs?
visual balance
Where do we see symmetry in
2.2 Demonstrate beginning skill
art? Where do you see
in the use of art media tempera
symmetry around you?
Studio Habits of Mind
Observe
Develop Craft
Understand Art World
Resources
Assessment
World of Amish Quilts by Rachel
Pellman; Symmetry in Chaos: A - Teacher and student reflection:
Search for Pattern in What is symmetry? How did you
Mathematics, Art and Nature by show symmetry in your design?
Michael Field
 Third Grade Project
Monochromatic Paintings

Visual Arts Standards

Goals/Key Understandings 2.2 Mix and apply tempera

Motivating Questions
paints to create tints, shades,
- Make a variety of tints and and neutral colors
How do artists make tints and
shades in collaboration with 1.2 Describe how artists use
shades? What is a
another student tints and shades in painting
monochromatic painting, and
- Identify and create a 4.1 Compare and contrast
how do artists make them?
monochromatic painting selected works of art and
describe them using appropriate
vocabulary

Vocabulary Studio Habits of Mind

monochromatic, shades, tints Engage and Persist

Connections
Assessment
Resources
Alan Ebnother, Sally Hazelet
- Student self-assessment: How
Drummond, Anne Truitt,
An Eye for Color: The Story of did we create a monochromatic
Pablo Picassos blue period,
Josef Albers by Natasha Wing painting using six different tints
Pablo Picasso: Breaking all the
and shades?
Rules by True Kelley
 Fourth Grade Project
Tempera Paintings using Complementary Colors

Motivating Questions
Visual Arts Standards
Goals/Key Understandings
What are complementary
1.3 Identify pairs of
colors, and how do artists use
- Mix and use complementary complementary colors
them in a painting? How many
colors in a painting to (yellow/violet, red/green,
different colors can you create
communicate a mood orange/blue) and discuss how
by mixing just one pair of
- Create neutral hues by mixing artists use them to
complementary colors and
complementary colors with each communicate an idea or mood
white and black in varying
other 2.8 Use complementary colors in
combinations? How do artists
- Create a composition to show an original composition to show
show contrast and emphasis in a
contrast and emphasis contrast and emphasis
work of art?

Key Vocabulary
Studio Habits of Mind
color wheel, complementary
Envision
colors, composition, contrast,
Reflect
emphasis, neutral hue, shade,
Stretch and Explore
tint, value

Resources
Connections
- Look for pairs of
complimentary colors while
Darlene Keeffe, Andy Warhol,
walking in your neighborhood
Ellsworth Kelly, Vincent Van
- Visit any museum and look for
Gogh, Theresa Paden
pairs of complements within a
work
Assessment
- Reflective conversation with
student: What complementary
colors did you use in your
painting? Describe your color
mixing process. How did you
create a neutral hue? How did
you show contrast and
emphasis?

Goals/Key Understandings
- Students will create the illusion
of depth
- Students will create works that
convey an idea, feeling, or
personal meaning
- Students will learn what a
landscape is and how artists
create a landscape painting
- Students will learn what
one-point perspective is and how
to use that to create in a painting
Key Vocabulary
converging lines, horizon line,
perspective, vanishing point
Connections
David Hockney (Pear Blossom
Highway); Vincent Van Gogh
(Wheatfield with Crows); Wayne
Thiebaud
Fifth Grade Project
Landscape Painting: Pathways
Motivating Questions
How do you show that things
are closer or farther away on a
two-dimensional surface?
What is a landscaping painting
and why do artists make them?
What is one-point perspective
and how do you create depth in
a painting?
Resources
https://www.amazon.com/exec
/obidos/ASIN/6305347972/hard
oldolejarz-20
Visual Arts Standards
2.6 Use perspective in an
original work of art
2.1 Use one-point perspective to
create the illusion of space
Students will create works that
convey an idea, feeling, or
personal meaning
Studio Habits of Mind
Express
Envision
Assessment
- Teacher reflection with
student: Did you accurately
convey 1-point perspective
using a horizon line and
vanishing line? Did you use a
pathway to guide the viewer's
eye across the space?

Wayne Thiebaud Dessert Paintings
Goals/Key Understandings
- Study the life and artwork of
Wayne Thiebaud
- Use a viewfinder to create a
detailed, up-close drawing of a
dessert from observation
- Mix tints and shades with
acrylic paints
Key Vocabulary
contour line, enlarging,
highlights, observation,
proportion, rule of thirds,
shades, shadows, tints, value,
viewfinder
Connections
Wayne Thiebaud, Pop Art, CBS
Video, SPARK video, Scholastic
Magazine
Sixth Grade Project
Motivating Questions
What can you learn about the
life and artwork of painter
Wayne Thiebaud from our study
of him? How do artists use a
viewfinder as a compositional
tool? What is the rule of thirds?
What is the technique for
making tints shades with paint?
Resources
Wayne Thiebaud - CBS Sunday
Morning short film (YouTube),
Wayne Thiebaud - KQED Spark
video:
Http://www.kqed.org/spark/ed
ucation
Visual Arts Standards
2.1 Use various observational
drawing skills to depict a variety
of subject matter
4.4 Change, edit, or revise works
of art after a critique,
articulating reasons for changes
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Observe
Understand Art World
Assessment
- In-Process student-teacher
assessment: How did you use the
viewfinder to create an up-close
composition? How did you use tints
and shades to help make the
dessert appear three-dimensional?
What qualities of your work make
you feel it is a success or failure?
What would you change?
- In-class critique; grading rubric

Goals/Key Understandings
- Build a painting composition
from background first to
finishing details later
- Use tape and acrylic paint to
develop a hard edge composition
- Use a variety of techniques to
create an illusion of depth
Key Vocabulary
color field painting, color value,
composition, Geometric
Abstraction, gradation,
hard-edge painting, mask, Op
Art, style
Connections
Piet Mondrian, Victor Vaserely,
Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin,
Joseph Albers, Kenneth Noland,
Kazimir Malevich, Suzy Kellems
Dominik, Frank Stella, Geometric
Abstraction
Seventh Grade Project
Hard-Edge Paintings
Motivating Questions
What is a hard-edge painting
and how do artists make them?
What techniques are used? Why
was this style of painting
developed and is still used
today? What are the different
ways artists show depth on a
two-dimensional surface?
Resources
sfmoma.org (videos, resources),
SFMOMA
Visual Arts Standards
2.2 Use different forms of
perspective to show the illusion
of depth on a two-dimensional
surface
2.4 Develop skill in mixing paints
and showing color relationships
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Envision
Stretch and Explore
Understand Art World
Assessment
- In-class student-teacher
reflective discussions: How did
you create a hard-edge
painting? How did you create an
illusion of depth?
- In-class critique; grading rubric

Goals/Key Understandings
- Use advanced color mixing
techniques to match the colors
of a section of an artists painting
- Create an impressionist
painting that incorporates the
elements, qualities, and style of
impressionism
Key Vocabulary
complementary colors,
Impressionism
Connections
Marie Bracquemond, Mary
Cassatt, Eva Gonzales, Claude
Monet, Berthe Morisot, Vincent
Van Gogh, Impressionism
Eighth Grade Project
Impression Strip Paintings
Visual Arts Standards
Motivating Questions
2.1 Demonstrate an increased
How can I incorporate and/or
knowledge of technical skills in
camouflage a piece of an
using more complex
impressionist painting into my
two-dimensional art media and
work, and still have my own
processes
point of view?
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Engage and Persist
Envision
Assessment
Resources
- In-process student-teacher
www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ discussion: How did you use the
impressionism strip in a creative
The National Gallery, London
and innovative way? How did
www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en
you match the colors of the strip
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
exactly? How did you manage
www.claudmonetgallery.org
your time?
- In-class critique; grading rubric