Each member of our class chose a famous artist to research. Each student was expected to gather information from both print and Internet resources. We learned about their lives, their art and their accomplishments. We wrote research papers and made time lines of important events in the artists' lives and historical events that occurred during their lifetimes. We used the information we gathered about artistic styles to create original works of art in the style of each artist.

John James Audubon
Biography by Brian K.

John James Audubon is America's wildlife artist. His book, Birds of America, is treasured by millions of people throughout the world. Audubon was born in 1785 in Santo Domingo, Haiti. His original name was Fougere, but he became John James when his family moved to the United States. His father was a French sea captain and merchant. As a boy, Audubon drew pictures of birds and hung them in his room. He liked birds so much that he would sneak out of school just to watch them. At age 17, Audubon went to Paris to study art. He didn't like France, but felt strongly enough about the country to fight in the French army against the British. After the war, Audubon moved to Mill Groves , New York to work on his father's land. John James Audubon married Lucy in 1808. They had two sons. Audubon drew pictures of birds at the same time as he was trying to work at a couple of businesses. He was a merchant and later owned a mill. He failed at business and owed a lot of people a lot of money. He even spent time in jail. He became a full-time artist. He met people in New Orleans and Philadelphia who liked his work. They introduced him to publishers in England. By1829, Audubon's sons had become so interested in his work that they helped him paint and write books about birds, too. Audubon continued to study and look for interesting birds. He worked in Florida and Canada. His book, Birds of America, was finished in 1838. He would later travel west to study and paint other animals such as the buffalo. John James Audubon died on January 27, 1885. Audubon's style was very realistic. His pictures are scientifically accurate. His favorite subjects were birds in their natural surroundings. In my picture, I drew wild birds sitting in a tree and tried to make them as realistic as possible.

Rosa Bonheur
Biography By Katherine F.

Rosa Bonheur was one of the few women artists of her time. Rosa was born March 16, 1822 to Sophie and Marquis Bonheur. Rosa's adulthood would definitely seem challenging to some people. She went to slaughter houses to see the muscles and bones of cows so she could draw them accurately. Being a female artist as she was, she had trouble getting a real job as an artist at first. When she became the first woman to win the French Legion of Honor, Napoleon refused to give her the medal because she was a woman. Rosa's artistic accomplishments were probably the most exciting part of her career. She had her first exhibit in Paris when she was nineteen. She had entered her painting "Rabbits Nibbling Carrots". All of her paintings reflected her belief in the beauty of nature. Rosa had an interesting style unlike anyone else of her time. She almost always painted animals. Her soft texture was created by painting hundreds of fine lines. She also excelled at sculpting. Her sculptures looked almost real. She liked to use huge canvasses. Rosa painted realistic animals in their natural settings. She combined landscapes with scenes from farm and peasant life. She died of pneumonia on May 25, 1899. I tried to make my painting like Rosa's by using oil paints and a canvas. I painted an animal and the landscape. But Rosa's paintings are a lot better than mine!

Paul Klee
Biography By Jessica M.

Paul Klee was born near Bern, Switzerland in 1887. He established himself as an artist when he moved to Germany. He was a member of Der Blaur Riter (The Blue Writer), a group of artists. He was friends with famous artist, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. He taught at the Bauhaus School of Art from 1920 to 1929. He left Germany in 1933 to move back to Switzerland where he lived the rest of his life. He died in 1940 of a muscular disease called scleraderma. Paul Klee is remembered as one of the great artists of the twentieth century. His style was abstract and colorful. He did oil paintings, drawings and water color. His paintings were small scale and delicate. Some of the paintings he did close to his death were characterized by heavy black lines. The painting I made following his style is similar to his because it is abstract and colorful. I call my painting "Flowering Hillside". Paul Klee was an interesting man. He will be remembered always as a great artist of this century.

Claude Monet
Biography By Laura A.

Claude Monet was born November 14, 1840 in Paris, France. He decided to become a painter in the mid 1850's when he first painted outdoors. He lived most of his adult life in Giverny. When he was old, he painted a large mural called "The Waterlilies" that covered two walls of a room. Claude Monet's first wife was Camille Corot. They had a son named Jean Monet. Camille became ill with tuberculosis and died. Calude then married a woman named Alice Hochede. They had seven children. In the summer of 1924, Claude almost went blind. He died in 1926 at the age of 83. My painting resembles Claude Monet's style because he used bright colors and did simple scenes. He usually painted outdoor scenes. I call my painting "Councher eu Soleil", which means"Sunset" in French.

Vincent Van Gogh
Biography by Duncan W.

Vincent Van Gogh is considered to be one of the world's greatest artists. His work had a powerful influence on modern art. More than any other artist, Van Gogh's feelings came out in his art. He was very religious and he believed God was present in all things. The images he painted seem to vibrate with energy. He used vivid, dynamic color and his brush strokes gave everything feeling of movement. For example, his trees and stars seem alive just as much as his people. In my drawing, "Starry Countryside", I also tried to give everything a feeling of movement and energy. I used bright, vivid colors. I especially liked Van Gogh's trees and stars so I used these images in my drawing as well. I like the way Van Gogh used halo's around light such as streeet lamps, stars, moons, and the sun, so I gave the stars in my painting halo's. Van Gogh's career as an artist only lasted 10 years, but over half of his 800 paintings were painted in the last 2 years of his life. Some of his most famous paintings are "Starry Night", "Cypresses", "Olive Trees", and "Wheatfield with Crows". He lived from 1853 until1890.

Rosa Bonheur
Biography by Sarah G.
Rosa Bonheur was one of the few recognized women artists of her time. hat is one of the many reasons that we look up to her and cherish her work. Rosa Bonheur was born on Marh 16 of 1822. She lived in Bordeaux, France with her mother and father, grandparents, and two younger brothers and a sister. She couod already draw animals when she was only four. At age eleven Rosa was sent to school to learn dressmaking, but she was sent home for misbehaving. The same thing happened at regular school. Her father finally let her stay home and creat eart work in their studio. When she was fourteen, she went to the Louvre evry day to study art. She started entering her paintings in contects and soon became a famous painter. Rosa liked to paint animals. She liked lions and farm animals the most. She also panted landscapes. Everything she painted was very realistic. I did my panting like Rosa's by drawing a realistic picture of an animal.hnm

Maria Martinez
Biography by Kaitlyn L.

Maria Martinez was born on the San Ildefonso pueblo in New Mexico. She grew up learning the ancient ways of her people who had lived in the area for many centuries. Unfortunately, many of the old ways were being forgotten as the elders in her tribe died. When Maria was a young woman, archaeologists studying the People of the Southwest, came to her pueblo. They had found shards of black pottery and wanted to compare it to the work done by the people of San Ildefonso. Maria and her husband, Julian, earned money by making pottery and selling it to tourists. They found the clay in the mountains near the pueblo. Maria made the pots using the coil method used by many Native Americans. She fired the pots on an open fire outdoors, then Julian decorated them. The archaeologists were puzzled by the black pottery and wondered how the people had made such a beautiful, shiny black surface. They asked Maria amd Julian to try to recreate a similar pot. After many attempts and much research, they discovered that the shiny black surface was the result of rubbing the pot with a smooth stone and firing it over a pile of burning sheep dung. Maria mastered this technique and began to create beautiful works of art. She became very famous and today her work is displayed in many museums including the Smithsonian. I made my pot from red clay and painted it black. I painted traditional symbols inside the bowl and around the edge.

Alexander Calder
Biography by Christina S.

Alexander Calder was born in 1898 in Philadelphia. His father and grandfather were sculptors and his mother was a painter. Alexander graduated from the Stephens Institute of Technology in 1919. In 1926, he moved to Paris to begin his career as a professional artist. In 1933 he came back to the United States to open a studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. He died in 1976. Alexander Calder is famous for making mobiles, a term invented by Marcel Duchamp. Calder's mobiles move freely with wind movement and are three to fifteen feet high. Some of his most famous works include "Red Petals" and "Lobster Trap." My mobile is a little smaller than most of Calder's. He used red, yellow and blue, colors that were unusual for mobiles at that time. My mobile is "Dancing Night Sky". I included a moon and stars which I cut from pie tins. I strung the pieces together with wire.

Josie M.
Faith Ringgold
Biography by Josie M.

Faith Ringgold was born on October 8, 1930 at the Harlem Hospital in New York City. Her parents were Willi Posey Jones and Andrew Louis Jones. She had a sister named Barbara and a brother named Andrew, Jr. Faith had a unique technique. She made a four to five inch border around the edges of her quilts, drawings and paintings. She used bright, bold colors. Her paintings include Tar Beach, Dah! , Groovin' High, Who's Bad?, Church Picnic, and Matisse's Chapel and many more. To make my artwork look like Faith's, I used the same kind of fabric border she used and included bright, bold colors.

Andrew F. Inspired by Pablo Picasso

Diane G. Inspired by Georgia O'Keefe

Travis G. Inspired by Frederick Remington

Benjamin E. Inspired by Pablo Picasso

Joel L. Inspired by Marc Chagall

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