We are studying the art of Ancient Rome right now with our Harmony Fine Art plans. This week the link for Trajan's column didn't take us to a very good picture. I was a little annoyed because searching the web for pictures with my kids standing over my shoulder is always a little risky- who knows what will come up! Then Austin remembered we already had some pictures from one of Kurt's trips last year. After a quick search through my inbox we found these:

Later Kurt showed the kids a video he had taken of the whole column. The kids are fascinated by the different scenes and all the details. To learn more visit here.

How we do it: Artist Study

Once I have selected an Artist (usually someone I or the kids are interested in) I try to find a selection of prints. In the past we have used Taschen Portfolios I found at Barnes & Noble for $5-$10. With our next Artist we will be using a calendar - you can find calendars for past year for $3-$5, and current calendars are $10-$15. I let my kids take turns picking which print we will put on our fridge. I like to leave them up for at least 2 weeks, but I admit sometimes they are up for 3 or 4 weeks. We try to study at least 6 prints. A couple days each week we take a few minutes, usually during breakfast or lunch, to talk about the painting - What do you see? What colors were used? What shapes and lines stand out? Can you see the brush strokes? etc. After a couple weeks we put up a new painting.

Any Doctor Who fans caught up with the latest season? I admit I'm a slightly obsessive fan, and I picked the picture for this week:

After a couple months I let the kids pick a painting to reproduce. Sometimes they pick one we have studied, sometimes they pick one we didn't. They also get to choose which medium they will use - paint, markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc. For paper we use 11"x14" posterboards I found on clearance. This gives the kids a large enough paper to work with which is also stronger than copypaper or even drawing paper. Here are their most recent pictures - Good-bye Vincent Van Gogh. Using a large size posterboard I made each of them a portfolio by folding it in half and taping the sides. We keep their pictures in it and they love being able to look at them and remember the artists. This is the basics of doing Artist Study, but there are a couple other things I like to do as well.

I find a few picture books from the library about the artist, but I like the books to have a story, as opposed to a biography with dull facts and dates. Some excellent examples are the Anholt's Artist Books for Children by Laurence Anholt: Camille and the Sunflowers, Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail, Leonardo and the Flying Boy, etc. I also make them each a notebook page with a picture of the artist, basic dates, and a few inspiring quotes. They are starting to get quite a collection and love to look through them.

Good-bye Vincent Van Gogh

This week we finished up our Artist Study of Vincent Van Gogh. The kids picked a picture they wanted to try coloring. They decided to use crayons this time.

N - Vase with Twelve Sunflowers

A - Noon Rest from Work (after Millet)

Artist Study - Finishing up Picasso

Its time to move on to a new artist - Vincent Van Gogh coming up! - but first we needed to finish Pablo Picasso. I let the kids pick one of the pictures we have studied over the last couple months and then had them do a reproduction of it. While we spend some time learning about the artist's life, the point of our Artist Study is to be able to recognize the artist's work. So this is like our final exam for Pablo Picasso. A's - Still Life with Bulls Head, 1958
N's - Child Playing with a Toy Truck , 1953
See how focused and peaceful O is coloring beside A & N? Such a deceptive sight.

Here she is after I was pulled away to answer a phone call (Hello Amelia!) - marker all over her face and arms, eating the cinnamon & sugar for toast. She probably had some butter too. Thankfully J was napping or I shudder to think what would have happened.

P.S. My sweet N is a major perfectionist and shed multitudes of tears over things in her picture she thinks are wrong. She didn't want me taking pictures or sharing them, so if you have a moment, please leave a kind word for her and A - thank you!

Artist Study - Winter 2010

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso - Wikipedia

Pablo Picasso - Taschen Portfolio

This is the only Taschen Portfolio for Picasso I could find at Amazon, but the cover is different from the one we have, so the pictures we are using may be different than the ones found in here. As a personal preference, I am using the pictures that don't have nudity.

Google - "Pablo Picasso Lesson"

TONS of lesson ideas can be found for Picasso. We probably won't be doing any of these lessons in particular, but we will talk about Picasso's different styles and subjects, such as faces/portraits, Harlequin, Blue Phase, Cubism, etc. The lessons I've found on the web have given me useful information for this.

YouTube:

I love doing modern artists because there are videos where the kids can get to see the real person they are learning about. Here are a couple that look interesting- (preview before you show to your kids, I know I will!)

Meeting with Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Library Books:

We will potentially be reading more than I have listed, but here is our starting list-

Oooh! Picasso

What Makes a Picasso a Picasso?

Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail

Draw with . . . Pablo Picasso

The kids are already enjoying this book - It gives instructions on how to do some of Picasso's simple drawings.

Artist Study - Fall 2009

Claude Monet

Art Smarts 4 Kids Post

Famous Art Appreciation Lesson

Harmony Art Mom Monet Lesson

Monet Taschen Portfolio

Wikipedia - Claude Monet

Picture books from library

"School always gave me the impression I was in prison . . ." -Claude Monet

School Updates

Glance over to the sidebar and you can see we are starting some new studies in our school.

For poetry we are reading William Blake.

We didn't keep up our Artist Study through the summer, so we will continue studying Claude Monet's works, starting with Red Boats, Argenteuil.

Our new Composer Study will be Ludwig van Beethoven.

I also thought it would be fun to include some quotes from each person.

Have a great day!!

Farewell Jackson Pollock! Hello Monet!

We are moving on to a new Artist, so I thought I would share some of the resources we have used for our Jackson Pollock study. The point of our Artist Studies is to be able to recognize the artist's work, but I like to add in some biographical information appropriate for kids

youtube is awesome!! I wanted to show my kids how Jackson Pollock painted- prowling around a huge canvas on the floor, flicking brushes and splattering paint everywhere- but of course I didn't want them watching a complete documentary about him (due to his personal life- not appropriate information for them). Youtube, of course, had several great, short clips of him that were exactly what I wanted. Just search "Jackson Pollock."

The library also had a couple great books about him:

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Jackson Pollock by Mike Venezia

Action Jackson by Jan Greenburg and Sandra Jordan


Personally, I loved the widget on my sidebar that let you use your computer mouse to make a Jackon-like painting. I spent way to much time channeling my inner-Pollock.

At Barnes & Noble I found a Taschen Portfolio of Jackson Pollock's paintings for only $5- a great deal! Using magnetic tape I would post one on our fridge for my kids and I to study. We had some great discussions about the paintings during lunch!

We will be studying my favorite artist next- Claude Monet!!

Painting like Jackson Pollock

My kids have been begging to paint like Jackson Pollock for weeks, so yesterday I finally pulled all the stuff out and let them go to town. Overall I was surprised at how tame they kept it. I thought they would want kitchen utensils, paint everywhere, all in imitation of Jackson Pollock, who we have watched painting at youtube, but they kept things really simple. I guess that means we'll be painting more in the near future.

Getting started-

Olivia too! This is her first time painting.

Hard at work-
Proud Artists-

Nyah's-

Austin's-

Gothic by Jackson Pollock

When I put up a new painting of the artist we are studying, the kids and I like to discuss it during lunch. The kids are sitting at the counter and face the fridge where the painting is hanging, but they jump up every minute or so to run over and point something out. With the Jackson Pollock paintings our discussion is very much like cloud gazing- the kids tell me what they can "see" in the painting.

From today's painting:

Austin- baseball, birds, turkeys, 3 eyeballs, tree, and windows.

Nyah- different shapes, colors, & sizes, eyes, fish, fish eyes, worm with eyeballs, peacock feathers.

Olivia- (who asked me to lift her up so she could point) eye and ball.