Congratulations to Claire Qing from Shady Grove Elementary School, our District Artist of the Month for February! Claire is a talented fifth grader in Mr. Mauriello’s class, known for her remarkable attention to detail in every art project she tackles. In addition to excelling in her art classes at school, Claire has been honing her artistic skills with oil painting lessons outside of school for the past year.

For her recent art project, Claire and her classmates explored the history of lava lamps and learned how to draw organic shapes to depict the lava inside. Using chalk, Claire skillfully applied value to illustrate the light source within the lamp. She also created an intricate Zentangle leaf design, filling it with detailed Sharpie patterns. The background was painted with watercolor. Salt was sprinkled on the paper when the watercolor was wet to absorb parts of the pigment and to create texture around the leaf. In her snowman landscape, Claire demonstrated her mastery of chalk techniques by using the point of the chalk to capture fine details and the side of the chalk was used to create a stunning sunset effect. She also applied two different chalk applications to the snow. Claire used her finger to smooth out the snowman and left the ground more textured around the snowman to create contrast. Shadows were created to add depth to the landscape. The fifth grade class also explored the vibrant wooden animals created by artists from Oaxaca, Mexico. Inspired by the Mexican artist, Pedro Linares, and his colorful “Alebrijes,” Claire crafted two animals out of clay. She painted her two chicks with acrylics and added fine details with Posca Paint Pens to create her colorful version of an “Alebrije.”

Art Teacher Dr. Tinneny congratulated Claire for her outstanding artistic achievements at Shady Grove Elementary School!