Artists/Art History

The other day Hannah and I were talking.  I mentioned that something was a mosaic.  Hannah said, "What's a mosaic?"  And I knew what our next home school lesson would be. 

What they knew:

Seth:  Art can look good or bad, and it doesn't matter.  Some art can be animals.  You can use a pen or a marker, some can be anything you want.

Hannah:  You can use pen, pencil, marker, paint brushes, paint, clay, crayon, and pastels.  There are lots of famous artists.  They all had different techniques.  One is cutting out and glueing on.  Art can be colorful or dull.

First off, let me tell you...it took us 4 hours to do all this stuff.  Our usual home school session is about 2.  But they were the ones who kept wanting more.










































I am not a slave driver.  Usually.

We started off by reading I Spy Two Eyes. 

Next I gave them a very basic overview of some different styles of art.  Just a couple of sentences about each.

• abstract
• cubism
• impressionism
• pointillism
• pop art
• post-impressionism
• primitivism
• realism
• surrealism

I found images in books or online to showcase each of these styles.  We discussed the "major players" in each of these styles.  (Jackson Pollack for abstract, Seurat for pointillism, Dali for surrealism, etc.)  We spent more time talking about impressionism specifically, and talked a bit about what led up to this style.  We looked into the lives of Jackson Pollack, Henri Matisse, Monet, DaVinci, Van Gogh, and Picasso specifically.  We also discussed various mediums, but primarily learned about painting.

Then I had made a little slideshow on the computer using about a dozen paintings.  I "quizzed" them by showing them a painting and then seeing if they could remember something about it...the artist, the style, the medium, anything.  They did really well!

Then we got busy DOING!  I had prepared 4 activities for them.

• a self portrait inspired by Van Gogh
• an abstract action painting inspired by Jackson Pollack
• a mosaic inspired by cubism
• and a watercolor inspired by the Impressionist era.

They got to choose which one they wanted to do first. 

Here are the results: 





















For some reason, I cannot find Seth's self-portrait.  And I'm sad, because it was a more primitive style, and I loved it.  Oh well.  Hannah's is cute, but fairly predictable.  The mosaics turned out cute, I thought.  Seth's is a dragon, MaKaty's is a cow, and Hannah's is a unicorn. 















The watercolors were fun, too.  Seth decided on a desert landscape.  If you can't tell, it's a turtle eating a cactus.





















 Hannah's is a pond and garden in a backyard. 

And finally, we went outside and did some action painting.  Rick brought home these huge maps so that the kids could use the backside for big art projects.  They were perfect.  We still ended up cleaning a little paint off of the garage door, and some off Seth's feet,















but for the most part, it was an easy clean-up.  Seth chose to go back to the same spot each time he got a new color, and so his painting sort of has the effect of a volcano erupting. 













































Hannah walked around her painting with each new color, leaving a much more fluid look. 































































 We plan to find some cool frames for them, and then cut out a chunk of the painting to fit inside. 


What they know NOW: 

Seth:  Some artists use paper, or clay, some guy put paint in a balloon and painted splatters, some artists were never loved until now, some are weird like the guy who cut off his ear, there are self-portraits, some do cut paper, some even use glue.

Hannah:  My favorite artist was totally crazy, and I'm very disappointed (Van Gogh).  People like to paint happiness, using warm colors and cool colors, there were realism paintings, and impression paintings, some people cut things out and put them on, some people filled balloons with paint and threw them at the canvas, artists like to sign their paintings, some of the painters used shapes in their paintings called cubist painting.

I have also been doing a simple "school" with MaKaty each week.  Usually we just go over the alphabet, practice writing her name, do weather, numbers, letters, etc..,read a couple of concept books, and do a math/concept worksheet.  Today was about color, and she was just so cute sorting out the colored toys that I just couldn't resist taking pictures. 

The cool rainbow effect doesn't hurt either.

Next week will be our final home school for this summer.  Subject:  Electricity!