Student Art Show Combines Watercolor Washes And Individuality

By Shannon Hicks

To celebrate the conclusion of the school year –– not to mention the first semester of use for a brand-new building –– the fifth grade art teachers of Reed Intermediate School have curated an exhibition of artwork by their students. Every student is represented by the massive undertaking, which presents a collection of line and wash watercolors.

The exhibition greets visitors to the school the moment they walk into the building’s front entrance. It then continues into the cafetorium, running along each of the large room’s walls, totaling 419 paintings. The exhibition is a beautiful, well-organized, and strong presentation of hard work coupled with creativity.

Angela Choniski and Sue Ward led the eight-week project that had their students studying contour line, composition, and color schemes. Long before the final paintings were done, the students endured classes where they worked on preliminary drawings of things as diverse as their own thumbs or their sneakers. Other classes focused on putting colors together to complement each other.

“We wanted to teach them both drawing and observation skills,” Mrs Ward said.

According to a note accompanying the show, line and wash is the oldest form of watercolor. The note continues: “Historically, it was used to put pale tints over drawings done in ink. The media work very well together: The pen lines are the note-taking, or research part of recording the subject, and the watercolor wash is the fluid, creative, interpretive part.”

Once the prepainting studies were complete, the teachers set up still life scenes and left the decision of which scenes to depict to each student. The scenes were diverse, and included a football, violin, and potted plant; a steel skull, violin, and candlesticks; a swan sculpture, trumpet, and an American flag; a trophy and ribbons; a hockey stick, goalie’s helmet and stick; and sheet music on a music stand and a guitar. One student decided he wanted to do a watercolor wash of a computer monitor and keyboard, which his teachers allowed.

“We were stressing uniqueness,” Mrs Choniski added. “We wanted them to bring out their own artists within.”

“There are no absolutes in art. What you do is good,” agreed Mrs Ward.

The student artists certainly used their creativity in interpreting the scenes before them. Mrs Choniski and Mrs Ward encouraged the students to present the scenes with their own colors, which accounts for the rainbow of hues that greet visitors. The show will remain on view for a few more weeks. It served as a backdrop for the 5th Grade Spring Concert on June 4, and will be there to meet parents, faculty, and the public during the Building Dedication Ceremony on June 11.

The exhibition is one of the first formal collections to be presented at RIS, which opened in January. Mrs Choniski and Mrs Ward were thrilled to be able to finally put the walls to good use. A passing comment while the ladies were putting the show together helped cement that goal.

“One of the health teachers saw this and said ‘Now this looks like a school,’” Mrs Choniski said last week.

“This nice thing is,” she continued, “when you look at this show there is so much color, good work, and even with over 400 pieces, there is individuality.”