The Expressive Scene Project

Thinking like an artist comes from the balance of technical growth and student creativity. I’m constantly in search of achieving this balance through open-ended projects, and I routinely reflect and adjust what I teach to achieve it. The goal of this balance is to ensure students can look at art, understand it, discuss it, make art with increased skill and creativity, and see its expressive possibilities.

I break this process down into three phases based on the design cycle: research, practice, and final project. We start by looking at both traditional and contemporary art. After an introduction, including a glimpse at historical art, contemporary art, and grade-level examples, students conduct independent research, explore their own solutions to creative problems in their sketchbooks, and plan and execute a final project. We also engage in progress critiques, final critiques, and a written reflection.

Contemporary Inspirations
Contemporary art is an essential part of my Expressive Scene Project. I’ve used this project as a jumping-off point for students to further develop skills in creating the element of space on a two-dimensional surface while using color, marks, and subject matter choices to express their intentions as artists.

When I first formulated this project, I used Edward Hopper to inspire research, but I’ve continued to add contemporary artists to this initial discussion over the years, including Lois Dodd and Richard Mayhew.

Discussions about work by Dodd and Hopper often begin with the mood created by the subject matter and spatial arrangements. Work by Dodd and Mayhew invites further attention to their simplified shapes, colors, and expressive brushwork. Related artists and themes can be found in the books Landscape Painting Now (D.A.P., 2019) and Lois Dodd: Catching the Light (Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012).

The contemporary artists’ work shows students a variety of subject matter choices, composition, and paint applications that can be used in the depiction of a scene. Students can incorporate interior or exterior views as well as landscapes and architectural scenes from numerous styles in their own work and research.

Research and Practice Phases
Students respond to an artwork or artist they find relevant and relatable to their own experiences and interests. This adds a “choose your own adventure” quality to the project allowing students to connect their lives to their work. They explore the possibilities and make their own creative decisions. These examples engage with common themes found in contemporary work, such as new forms of realism, romanticism, abstraction, and constructed environments; and share diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and methods embraced in today’s art world. I increase the focus on the conceptual nature of studentsʼ work as they progress through middle school into high-school art courses.

Students search out artists and artwork of their own choosing for inspiration and begin preliminary and practice sketches. In the practice phase, students break down scenes through drawing in their sketchbooks. They focus on contour line and shape sketches, color and value scale explorations, brushstroke and mark-making experiments, and thumbnail copies of their research artists.

Final Project Phase
When the research and practice phases are complete, students begin their final project, relying on their experiments and successes to guide their choices. Due to the pandemic, I’ve recently opened up student choice of media to include any drawing, painting, mixed-media, or digital painting approaches. What used to be a focus on color mixing and brushwork is now expanded to include drawing, painting, mixed-media, and digital techniques using a stylus via Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, or free online apps such as Pixlr E and Chrome Canvas. I began this shift out of necessity, but I have continued it as school begins to return to a normal schedule this year.

Reflections
The result of blending technical skill with the creativity of a project-based approach is an increase in student engagement and a visible leap in the quality of studentsʼ work. I am convinced by student outcomes and survey responses that the expanded choice and voice embedded in projects inspired by contemporary art has led to deeper learning through authentic student-driven exploration with less time focused on specific materials and techniques. What began as an artist emulation project has evolved into personalized work that promotes thinking like an artist.