Visual Arts

St. Gabriel’s Art program prepares artists to joyfully express themselves and make thoughtful and creative artworks using a variety of media that is connected to the art world and art history, along with building age-appropriate skills of art criticism and aesthetics.  

Through diverse projects with intentional scope and sequence PreK - 8th grade artists explore both 2-D and 3-D art.

PreK3- 4th grade artists build art appreciation, fine motor skills, attention to craft, resilience, and confidence to take risks. Creativity, imagination, and high level thinking skills are developed through our thoughtful, cross curricular approach built on SEL and cutting-edge art education best practices. Each artist has a personal art journal, engages in lively ‘gallery walks’ of each other’s works and master works to reinforce key concepts, and practices skills of proportion, line, and shape in our leveled drawing skillbuilders. All Lower School artists create a Christmas themed watercolor resist painting, a few of which are featured on our school Christmas card to families; the halls are decorated with these artworks, creating a warm, festive and colorful environment. All Lower School artists also collaborate on multi-grade level special projects for holidays like Veteran’s day (past work includes a large flag on canvas using plastic bottle caps, cards, and game pieces, or painted sticks assembled like a giant flag like artist Robert Rauschenberg) and Earth day (past work includes assemblages in boxes and pillars like artist Louise Nevelson or yarn wrapped chairs like artist Christo).  

Artists benefit from a dynamic and robust curriculum which embraces diverse media, children’s literature, and world cultures throughout their time in Lower School art.  In PreK3, artists create snowflake sun prints, ceramic shoe print hearts, yarn wrapped sticks like artist Christo, and beaded corn for Thanksgiving.  In PreK4, artists ‘action paint’ like artist Jackson Pollock with paint wands, build soft sculpture tacos like artist Claes Oldenburg, and make textured clay pinch pots. In Kindergarten, artists make a cave art mural using their own painted hands and sponge printmaking, create self-portraiture, make ceramic dinosaurs, and draw a giant oil pastel flower like artist Georgia O'Keeffe. In 1st grade, artists draw and paint to music, create a Hill Country pastel landscape like artist Paul Cezanne informed by hiking our school nature trail, weave on CDs, and make ceramic Egyptian cartouches. In 2nd grade, artists make Pop art paintings and clay desserts, enjoy continuous line drawing games using ozobots, and weave bookmarks along with making homemade FIMO beads. In 3rd grade, artists make oil pastel mandalas, weave with paper, and make ceramic owls. In 4th grade, artists create large, realistic animal pastel drawings using sources, ceramic Hamsa hands and digital Islamic tiles, wet felt using locally sourced llama and alpaca fur, make a city collage like artist Romare Bearden, and weave complex tapestries with letters and patterns.

7th and 8th grade artists create a variety of imaginative hand-built thematic works of kiln-fired clay and glass using pinch, coil and slab methods. From pinched hearts, Pop art inspired food, coil vessels with lids, silkscreen on glass tiles and more, artists learn to plan then make multi-step projects involving experimental surface techniques, glazing, glossing, and more. Artists in the fall enjoy Day of the Dead themed ceramic tiles and holiday ornaments using a homemade clay stamp.  Artists in the spring especially love hiking on our nature trail to gather leaves to create leaf print plates. Artists learn, talk, and write about contemporary events and master works across time through our use of the Scholastic Art platform, along with learning first hand about the coding and chemistry of firing a kiln.