Over The Moon

Over the Moon, SPI’s new Pop-Up Student Art Gallery, is a space that celebrates the talent and creative journeys of young artists who are part of the Story Preservation Initiative community.

SPI encourages students to draw characters and scenes or give artistic form to feelings elicited by the stories in our collection. Selected drawings, submitted to SPI by teachers, parents, or school officials, will be exhibited in our Over the Moon pop-up gallery space regularly throughout the school year. We welcome artists of all ages, artistic abilities, backgrounds, and geographies. It’s pretty much guaranteed that participating students will be, well - Over the Moon!

We’re excited to present this exhibit featuring the work of K-8 students from Crossroads Academy in Lyme, New Hampshire. For this exhibit, Crossroads Academy students studied the works of master artists and applied their techniques to a work of their own. The result is pure magic! Exploring a variety of media, the students channeled their sense of wonder into each piece. Through their eyes, we see the world in its most vibrant and imaginative form.

Story Preservation is honored to showcase the work of these tremendously talented young artists. Bravo!

We’ll put out a Call for Artists through our newsletter every few months, so be on the lookout! To subscribe to our Newsletter, click here or be in touch via our Contact page.

Mia, Grade 8

Anna, Grade 8

Maddy, Grade 7

Marie, Grade 7

Hao, Grade 7

Kingston, Grade 6

Luke, Grade 6

Sage, Grade 5

Emma, Grade 5

Aadhi, Grade 4

Brett, Grade 4

Henrik, Grade 4

Elle, Grade 4

Parker, Grade 4

Kate, Grade 4

Nolan, Grade 3

James, Grade 3

Calan, Grade 2

Ellie, Grade 2

Heidi-Grace, Grade 2

Lucy, Grade 2

Maya, Grade 2

Nora, Grade 2

Rhys, Grade 2

Charlie, Grade 1

Genevieve, Grade 1

Margot, Grade 1

Dean, Grade K

Garrett, Grade K

Laurel, Grade K

Project Title, Materials, and Descriptions

Grade K

Australian Aboriginal Animal Papunya Dot Paintings

Tempera Paint

Aboriginal art is art made by indigenous Australian people. It includes painting on leaves, woodcarving, rock carving, sculpting, ceremonial clothing and sand painting. Kindergarten students drew inspiration from this art form and created dot paintings!

Grade 1

Paul Cézanne inspired apple Still life

Oil Pastels

The first graders discussed the differences between a still life and a portrait, looking at the works of Paul Cezanne, before creating their own still life renderings inspired by Cezanne’s Apples and Oranges.

Grade 2

Four project assignments, each one represented by students’ artwork.

Charley Harper inspired printed Pine Bough & Sparrow

Tempera Paint, Pearl Liquid Watercolor, Sharpie
Charley Harper was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters, and book illustrations. Students used a printed technique to create their pine bough and after collaging a Charley Harper inspired sparrow to adorn their pine branch.

Jackson Pollock Fall Leaves

Oil Pastels, salt resist, watercolor paint

Second grade students enjoyed learning about artist Jackson Pollock. With his use of “action” painting students created seasonal compositions with warm oil pastel leaves and cool watercolor backgrounds.

“Squirrel's Eye View” Snow Figure

Crayon, sharpie, watercolor paint

Second grade students created these “squirrel eye view” perspective snow figures. Inspired by the book, The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming.

Taj Mahal Drawings

Crayon, sharpie, watercolor paint

After learning about Ancient India in the classroom students looked at the wonder of the Taj Mahal. Using symmetry and color temperatures to capture its architectural beauty.

Grade 3

Yayoi Kusama Pumpkins

Paper, sharpie

Students learned about the Japanese contemporary artist, Yayoi Kusama. They drew inspiration from Kusama’s body of work and created their own Kusama style dot pumpkin.

Grade 4

Two project assignments, both represented by students’ artwork.

Moonlit Pumpkins

Oil pastels

Using oil pastels students created wonderful compositions demonstrating concentric circle moons, value, foreground, middle ground, and background creating depth to their moonlit scene.

Van Gogh inspired Trees

Oil pastels

Fourth grade students learned about artist Vincent van Gogh. As we examined his famous painting, The Starry Night. Taking inspiration from his swirling night sky, students explored layering textural strokes into the silhouette of trees.

Grade 5

Ink Blown Autumn Trees

India ink, watercolor, crayon

As fall approached, students used a technique with India ink to create a landscape. By blowing the ink, students created a wonderful composition. After, students applied watercolor and used lines to isolate the leaves and added tone to the background.

Grade 6

Monochromatic Winter Landscapes

Tempera paint

As winter approached, the sixth graders moved into monochromatic value scales and created wintry tree scenes, using foreground, middle ground and background layers by selecting one color and mixing and applying tints, tones and shades of it.

Grade 7

George Seurat Fall Inspired Pointillism Paintings

Canvas board, acrylic paint

The seventh graders examined the qualities and characteristics of impressionism, post-impressionism and pointillism using Georges Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte. They created their own Georges Seurat–inspired fall themed pointillism still-life paintings.

Grade 8

Non-Objective Abstract Warm and Cool Designs

Oil Pastels

Students created non-objective abstract designs that use visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. They demonstrated a warm and cool palette that also contained value and gradients throughout.