How Art We Doing?

 

Mockingbird 8y/o Park Life painting

 

This is just a quick glimpse of 3 ways have done Art this year, so far. 

 

En plein air

 

One beautiful day we went to the park to paint landscapes. We tried to use the water from the pond to really 'capture' the environment as a one famous Japanese artist does (so famous I forgot his name), but the scum on top sent us elsewhere. In the water we saw the muskrat, goldfish, a Frisbee disc fly in with a splash, and somewhere in there Mockingbird saw lily pads....

 

I probably could have given more instruction for the landscape due to the frustration voiced, but live and learn and use up canvases collecting dust...

 

Mockingbird's Red Room about 12"





 

Artist Study

We are doing Matisse this term. After reading a few children's biographies during lunches, we painted his The Dessert; Harmony in Red (The Red Room) in acrylics and white chalk--because we were out of white paint... This is Mockingbird's picture again. Her work is pictured in this post a lot not because I favor her, but because she starts with enough enthusiasim to have time to finish it, and allows it to be photographed easily (unlike some people). But that's OK. This isn't for a grade or even the end product. It's for the experience, it's for fun--most of all it's for them (not me).

Painting is also a great chance for children to solve their own problems when they say, initially forget to draw in the chair--or paint over the fruit bowl and their mother refuses to step in and fix it (with mixed reviews). I love Harold and the Purple Crayon and once did a whole week of lessons in public school around him and his sword purple crayon, focusing on how he comes to a problem and his crayon leads him to solutions. (A child's version of the Hero's Cycle.) I do try to choose simple pictures by the artist that are big shapes, and might give some sense of success to young children in copying.

I gave them a piece of cardboard, chalk to sketch out the big rectangles we observed, and then paint to go at it. We talked about the curvey lines, the fruit repeating the yellow flowers outside, and where the center of the picture is. Kingfisher 5y/o painted his board a monster, all green, then all black. Mockingbird 8y/o cheerfully reassured him when he complained about his artistic ability only to (I'm not kidding) 2 minutes later, burst into song and dance about how she couldn't do anything right as she had painted something wrong. It was all I could do to not burst into laughter regarding the about-face...which worked itself out in 2 more minutes.

 

Art History

 

It's still early in the year for us (I keep telling myself) and so we have read only to Chapter 5 in Hillyer's A Child's History of Art. This book is a bit pricey and was admittedly a school gift to myself.  It has three sections; Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. We are going to go straight through it--maybe in 3 years, maybe less.  It's wonderful; concise, applicable to a child's world, chronological, and informative- if dated. I finally went through and penciled in on a printed copy of the contents a little related project we would do for each chapter. Ambleside Online has a chart that also references the dates for me.

 

I made a big chart that has the general artistic periods running up the middle; Ancient, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Modern, Post-Modern. I found this outline from Art for Dummies helpful. On the right there is space to note Historical Events to help us relate. I found an old Janson's History of Art at a used book sale cheap enough to warrant cutting out the pictures to add to our poster as we read about them.

 

Typically, I show them images on-line, set them up to do a related project, and read the chapter to them while they work.

We do this on Sundays because they enjoy it and on that day we have the time to really spend on it if they want to work longer.

 

Related Art Projects

 

So far we have done Cave Art, where we drew with sidewalk chalk on brown butcher paper taped to the wall animals--some riddled with primitive arrows, some not.

 

Cave Art -Bowery Bird & Canary

 

We did Egyptian art, simply copying the front-eye, side shoulders stance.

 

Egyptian -8y/o Mockingbird

 

Then we did Assyrian art, drawing in clay an animal with a repeated decorative pattern. I gave them each a slab of clay and some little tools. For Kingfisher (5y/o) I drew the outline of a bird and let him fill it in, but this is again, is Mockingbird's work (remember, Best Beloved, not because I favor her more), it's only about 3x5".

 

Assyrian; Peacock -8y/o Mockingbird

 

 My goals with art aside from learning about an artist a term are:

• Exposure to different styles and understand how they fit into history
• Experimentation with those different styles and materials
• That's it. (I have to remind us all, myself included) It's not to create a perfect copy, memorize the dates of the period, or what part they played in their larger culture--just enjoy and someday further down the road, have a place to put more detailed information as it comes.

Park Life can cover many subjects

 

 

Spring is not to be missed- we've been to the park twice this week to enjoy the weather.

 

GEOGRAPHY:

Bowery Bird and I made drew a huge USA map with sidewalk chalk. To work on the Webelos Forestry badge she marked the forest regions ( you can see a bit in Utah & Arkansas.)

She did great on the western half, I got a little sloppy on all the little eastern states- but they're so far away they don't matter anyway- jk!

 

 

NATURE STUDY:

Kingfisher found perfect deer tracks all over the sand.

 

 



 HISTORY:
Mocking Bird made sandcastles "Medieval ones so it still counts as school"

.

MORE NATURE STUDY & SCIENCE:

We saw the local muskrat-a busy and brave big guy.

And the slow bullfrog he disturbed.

 

HANDICRAFTS:

Made some bark boats with Maple leaf sails that were led by thread (see above).

 

 

POETRY:

I think that I shall never see,

a poem as lovely as a tree.

-Joyce Kilmer

 

 

And stared at ourselves in the water, working out the questions of the universe, why pigtails are so cute, and trying to gage whether or not we could beat the melt down bubbling up from the 7 kids I had in tow today...(we did.) Made it home in time to peacefully watch Disney's Mathemagic and the Composer's Series Rosissini.

Outdoor Time

This week we've done more outside than usual. It's as though we have crossed that bridge and are done tentatively welcoming spring, and now accepting his warm companionship without guard.

We did Geography outside, visited a new splash pad in Springville, Homeschool Field Day at a park, and today instead of Saturday morning cartoons (gag me) I successfully swept them up the Provo canyon to Big Springs trailhead (we never do the full hike the first time--it takes us a good four attempts to really discover the reason for a trail's name...)

Everyday we were out I felt so good about just being out and feeling alive and having my children enjoy real life--and then one of them will say something like "hey, the water cylcle-like on Bill Nye the Science Guy--remember 'hey, where'd you go guys? Oh very funny!' " or  "this Centipede is like the one in James and the Giant Peach."

 OK the latter was actually me and the former an educational program, but that's all I can remember. Lately, it makes me cringe to repeatedly hear real life compared something on a screen.
I remember my first trip to NYC was like that though. Everything was compared to what I had seen on Sesame Street as a child; the subway driving away with a number 3 on it, brownstone steps, yellow taxicabs with numbers, etc.

More often I wish we were reading and comparing things in film to our real life.
Which came first-the chicken or the egg?
I guess I am just feeling that my children will see the world as an example of something they've seen on a screen, when really it's the opposite.

I want them to have experiences that build them with all the senses, not detached observations of another's creating. I know I'm over-reacting, we do compare a lot of real life to books we read etc. That seems to be the time I see that conversation happening more, but if I hear one more Plants vs. Zombies level described with the enthusiasm of an Olympic gold medlist--I just may pull a Winter of Our Disconnect on everyone...just kidding. Not really.

Night Heron of the Morning

9am
Local Park
Spring has Sprung!

Such a noticeable difference in the sounds of the place now. Bird calls everywhere, getting worms, mating, building nests. No tropical jungle, but for here, a big difference. Just a week after the trees have blossomed.

So we go the wetland boardwalk, and at the beginning I see this white reflection. We creep up on this never before seen bird and watch it fly from the water to a tree and sit to watch us.

Mockingbird decided to name it a Blue Fisher even though we later learned it was a Black-capped Night Heron. I love that name, I must think of someone I can name that...it sounds so tidy yet mysterious.

Last time we went we saw the pond's muskrat for the first time swim the entire length of the pond.
It's just thrilling to me that a place you frequent weekly for three years can still hold so much to be discovered.

Charlotte Mason is like that for me. Layers and layers of knowledge and connections to be discovered. I think that is what I love most about her approach- letting the student discover it and make it their own. Not something introduced to you to the point that all mystery and personal investment is obliterated.