Welcome to the Art Room of Justin Kramer
North Lakes State College, Queensland, Australia

"There is no must in art because art is free." ~ Wassily Kandinsky

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Animal Eyes - Grade 7

Justin was inspired by the lesson by Bunki Kramer, Los Cerros Middle School, Danville, California. Like Georgia O'Keeffe, the students focused on something small and magnified it - to make something beautiful. The students were required to mix their color on the canvas rather than premixing on a palette. This resulted in some very painterly images.

A View to Value - Landscape Painting - Grade 9

This is a grade 9 unit where students develop a knowledge and understanding of aerial perspective. Students manipulate paint to create a representational image of the landscape. Their selection of image is based on the concept that it is a view that they value, i.e. have a personal connection with. Students worked from images that they personally took or collected. The unit also has introductory lessons into plein air painting. These were done in watercolor and were to balance the more extended studio painting sessions. This unit was done at the beginning of the year and is a very focused unit and develops students representational painting skills.

One of the students won a painting trophy at the local youth art competition (bottom row - left). We were all very excited for her. Another student won first prize at another competition for painting section in his age division (bottom row - right). Justin encourages all of his students to enter the local competitions.

 

Exploring Painting Techniques - Guitar Painting - Grade 8

These are works by grade 8. Students were exploring different painting techniques of sgraffito, impasto and dry brush. They were asked to compose the shape of a guitar into a composition. Preliminary work in this unit included color mixing, paint technique, balance and composing design elements. The guitar provided to be an accessible item for the students to represent. Students fused this object with others, changed its context, represented within context, zoomed in on the object and changed its meaning or represented it as an energized object. The unit began with observational drawing of a guitar including blind contour drawings. The students found this enjoyable and allowed for personal interests to still be represented while containing a common link for an introductory class. Most of the students had limited art experience.