Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

Art Gallery: A Library of Creativity

Tuesday, September 8th, 2020

art-gallery-creativity

If a picture is worth a thousand words, an art gallery is like a library of intricate creativity. It makes an intriguing field trip for your kids to be exposed to greatness. Most art galleries in large cities have rotating exhibits that feature famous works of art from well-known and loved painters and sculptors of all time. Recently my family went to a Norman Rockwell exhibit, where row upon row of Life Magazine covers were displayed, capturing the essence of many decades of history.

My kids pointed out intricate details in the sketches. They noticed humorous and emotional scenes of various kinds. We saw presidents from the past 70 years or more, all with the themes of the day behind them, depicting wars, mundane life (hanging clothes to dry on the line), and the mischief of children.

I have taken my children to many different exhibits over the years. Two of our favorite artist displays were a collection of paintings of Rembrandt and the inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci.

When my children were very small, I had a large packet of postcards of famous works of art, so my children were already familiar with the artists before we went to the exhibits. This made the exhibits even more meaningful to our kids. I highly recommend taking your family to a local art museum so that you, too, can experience some of the most creative minds of all time.

advantages-of-art-galleries

I would like to leave you with a poem I recently wrote about an art gallery:

Art Gallery

The eyes of a portrait
Peer out from a canvas
Hanging larger than life
In a hall where people pass

Suspended in time
People from long ago
In elaborate costumes
In row upon row

Framed in splendor
Trapped in stone
Each masterpiece
Cries out to be known

Looking closer
Details can be seen
Inside the masterpieces
That look like a dream

Leaving the gallery
No longer night
Back to reality
Blinking in light

————————————————————————————————————-

More posts about classical art:

  1. Da Vinci
  2. Rembrandt
  3. Monet
  4. Van Gogh
  5. Picasso
  6. O’Keeffe

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Johannes Vermeer Art Projects for Kids

Monday, January 21st, 2019

vermeer-art-projects-for-kids

This post contains affiliate links. I was given access to the class to blog about it.

This is the third post in the series Mixing with the Masters: Volume 2, which includes six famous artists, with three works of art for your kids to re-create from each artist. The first week we showed you our projects for Henri Matisse, which were really colorful. Last week we did some fun art activities for Albrecht Dürer, including charcoal, ink printing, and watercolor. Today we will complete our short series of our favorite three artists by doing some fun art projects by Johannes Vermeer.

Girl with a Pearl Earring Mixed Media

The first work of art by Vermeer that we created is this mixed media girl. We painted a canvas black the day before starting this project. My kids chose different colors of scrapbooking paper for the turban, scarf, and shirt. You can print off the template if you need help with the face, but since you have to paint over the face anyway, you will need to look at Alisha’s artwork in the video to add the finishing touches to the eyes, nose, and mouth.

girl-with-pearl-earring-vermeer

I don’t know how my son got his eyes to look so life-like. (His is the first pictured above.) I think it’s because the eyeballs looked off to the right rather than the middle. My son’s picture reminded me a little of the Mona Lisa, which we did for another mixed media class in the past. Her eyes follow you as you sway to the right or to the left.

The Milkmaid Gouache Painting

This was a fun watercolor painting where we used brighter gouache paints. This milkmaid is pouring water into a bowl. The food on the table reminds me of a still life picture I did back in high school when I lived in Guatemala. We had a fruit bowl in the middle of the table that we had to sketch and then paint. Still life is a classic assignment for students learning to draw and paint.

milkmaid-gouache-painting

The Little Street–Line & Wash

I loved this cartoon-like line and wash watercolor painting! We started by sketching the buildings and street with pencil. We added the details of brickwork and window panes. Then we painted in an exaggerated, messy way, leaving some white space to create the cartoon-like effect.

little-street-line-wash

My daughter loved the way her sketch came out. If you look closely, you will see the wooden shutters on the windows, drawn with precision and detail. I like the perspective in her doorways. She does a lot of drawing in her free time, mostly Japanese-style cartoons. She decided to lean a broom against the wall inside one of the doorways.

building-sketch

We really enjoyed the three artists that we studied, and some day we might come back and do the other three, since there are six artists in the series. If you would like to grab this set of classes for your own kids, you can get them here. This is a high-quality art course, and my kids learned so much!

Albrecht Dürer Art Projects for Kids

Monday, January 14th, 2019

albrecht-durer-art-projects-for-kids
This post contains affiliate links. I was given access to the class to blog about it.

This is the second post in the series Mixing with the Masters: Volume 2, which includes six famous artists, with three fun works of art for your kids to re-create from each artist. Last week we showed you our projects for Henri Matisse, which were colorful and slightly abstract. This week we will focus on Albrecht Dürer.

Charcoal Young Hare

Our first work of art by Dürer is made with charcoal on tan paper. You will need at least one charcoal pencil, which you can get at an art supply store. You will also need a smudger. (I’m not sure what Alisha calls the white thing that smudges. I think she gave it a name like Alfred or something. Ha!) The other pencil you will need is a white pencil, which will make the fur pop on this drawing.

charcoal-young-hare

The fur on the bunny is fluffier in the front than in the back. Alisha gave step-by-step instructions in the video while we drew the bunnies on our clipboards.

The Fifth Knot Carving & Printing

Albrecht Dürer carved lots of woodcut patters that looked like labyrinths. The engravings he made could be dipped in ink and pressed onto paper like an old-fashioned printing press. For this art activity, you can carve on a rubber carving block, or if you’re broke like we are, just use some left-over styrofoam from meat that you bought at the store. Make sure to wash the styrofoam with soap and water and dry it thoroughly before carving this simple knot in it:

albrecht-durer-stamps

Oh, when I say simple, I mean the one that is the shape of a snowflake, which Alisha gives the template for. We used a wooden skewer to carve on the styrofoam. I branched off and make a Celtic cross, since I’ve been fascinated with Celtic crosses for years and have a collection of them in my closet. Back when I lived in England, I loved to travel around, and Celtic crosses were really popular necklaces, especially at castle and cathedral gift shops.

Iris Yroiana Gouache & Watercolor

Dürer did a series of nature studies and botanical paintings. This iris is one of them. We used gouache and watercolor for this painting. Always make sure to use watercolor paper rather than regular computer paper when you are watercoloring. It truly makes a huge difference in your painting, as the colors soak into the paper in a much better way on the higher-quality paper.

Iris-Yroiana-Gouache-Watercolor

We focused on different shades of blue and green, adding water to lighten the colors. The gouache was much brighter than the watercolors.

fun-with-durer

Once again, we had a ball discovering more about another famous artist. If you would like to grab this set of classes for your own kids, you can get them here. Stay tuned for the next artist in our series!

Henri Matisse Art Projects for Kids

Monday, January 7th, 2019

henri-matisse-art-projects-for-kids

This post contains affiliate links. I was given access to the class to blog about it.

Several years ago, my kids took an online art class, where each week we focused on a different famous artist. It was called Mixing with the Masters. We created three different works of art for each famous artist:

  1. Da Vinci
  2. Rembrandt
  3. Monet
  4. Van Gogh
  5. Picasso
  6. O’Keeffe

Well, now Alisha (the art instructor) has come up with Mixing with the Masters: Volume 2, including six more famous artists. We will be focusing on our favorite three artists in this series, but you are welcome to do all six. When you’re in high school, SAT preparation and essay writing take precedence over classical art. (Sniff…) Today I would like to show you the artwork we did when we studied Henri Matisse, who was a colorful artist.

Woman with a Hat Pastel Painting

The first work of art that we created was with oil pastel crayons. Alisha provides a template to make it easier to begin with the shape of the woman with a flamboyant hat. My daughter has a sense of humor and drew a Chiquita banana hat on top of this woman. You can click the picture to see the hat better. It’s the one in the middle: the woman with the pineapple, grapes, and bananas.

woman-with-hat-pastel

It seems like Matisse just randomly splashed color around. The style of art reminds me of Picasso. Even the background of the picture has disjointed colors like a modern art stained glass window. The black outlines help to define the shape of the woman to distinguish her from the background of the piece.

matisse-pastel-art

I love how Alisha gives background information about each artist, why they painted the way they did, and whether they fit into the art culture of the time period. It’s really a brief study of history as well as a study of classical art techniques.

Goldfish Gouache Painting

Alisha introduced us to gouache painting, which is similar to watercolors but with more intense pigments. I like stronger, bolder colors anyway, so this was fun to do. The goldfish are in a bowl on top of a table surrounded by plants outside on a patio.

goldfish-gouache-painting-matisse

Once again, the black color defines the shape of the table and makes a good background for the fishbowl. I like how the goldfish are reflected on the top of the water.

fishbowl-art

You can print out a picture of the original artwork from Alisha’s course, so that you can see the colors that Matisse used in the painting. You don’t have to paint it all in one day. We listened to Billy Joel while painting this picture. My son Nathaniel chose to play “The Piano Man” in his last piano recital, and he was able to listen carefully to the song while painting this fishbowl. Art and music go together, and it puts us in a good mood for painting, not that the song has anything to do with fish.

Sorrows of the King Drawing with Scissors

Alisha provides a template that you can print out with the shapes of this colorful collage of a Biblical scene of David playing the harp for King Saul. My son chose to make the “frog man” on the left out of camouflage paper. You can see for yourself (clicking on the picture below, third piece) whether the “frog man” has disappeared. My daughter chose girly pink flower paper for part of the background. You can play with different colors and textures if you want.

sorrows-of-king-matisse

For each layer that you add to this collage, you will need to use Mod Podge. It’s pretty messy, so make sure to use newspaper under your work. We also used old paintbrushes from when the kids were toddlers, so that they could throw the brushes away when they were finished with the project.

matisse-kid-craft

We enjoyed doing these colorful projects for this famous artist. If you would like to grab this set of classes for your own kids, you can get them here. Stay tuned for the next artist in our series!