An important part of Charlotte's methods, is the study of artists and their works. I choose ones that best reflect the time and era relating to our history studies-so I don't necessarily follow any pre-laid out listings (such as you will find on Ambleside Online). Although, I do use this to help me pinpoint artists and many times, I can find helpful links and ideas through this as well. Don't feel you need to follow such a listing, especially if you are not covering that time in history. You will find a better cohesion for your students, if you keep it more in line to your other studies.The 4 basics to remember:
1. Study the artist-use good living books which discuss their life, artistic style and talents.
2. Study various examples of their work (called Picture Study) for several weeks.
3. Record your findings somehow-whether in a 3-Ring binder (as in notebooking pages/activities), or in an artist book/lapbook where you have a bio of the artist and some examples of their work. This not only serves as a great way to improve recall abilities, but it is a lovely keepsake as well.
4. Practice the artist's style by doing art activities and projects which reflect their main choice of mediums and techniques.
John James Audubon:
Helpful links:
Books:
The Boy Who Drew Birds: The Story of John James Audubon
John Audubon: Young Naturalist
John James Audubon (Conservative Heroes)
John James Audubon in the West
*images from Amazon.com
Coloring Book:
Audubon's Birds of America Coloring Book
Storing the pictures used in the picture study:
I created these mini-books to log general info into, concerning the artists we'll study; and I also have one book dedicated just for storing mini-versions of picture studies on them. This is where we add approximately 4 smaller pictures (they can be removed because they are held in with picture tabs) under that artist. I have also provided my children with 6-7 larger sized pictures to use for their main picture study. These are color prints mounted on black card stock.
Smaller pictures fit these mini-spiral books
Large prints for the study created by color
copying them from a large coffee table book.
Backed on to black card stock.
Stored in just a file folder or large Ziplock bag.
*****************************************************
Mary Cassatt:
image from wikipedia.com
they have a nice amount of info on there too
Source texts/books for reading:
I own and love this one!
Mary Cassatt (Treasures of Art) by Trewin Copplestone
Mary Cassatt: Family Pictures by Jane O'Connor
Sources for Picture Study:
Mary Cassatt: Art Cards
These are cheap(ish) and excellent for picture study-altho not terribly large. You can also go to
have lots of helps there
Mary Cassatt-the Complete Works
excellent source for picture/dates/biography
excellent source for picture/dates/biography
another excellent source for pictures
also many good "coffee table" books are available thru your library
Movies:
Great Woman Artists: Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt: American Impressionist (Artist Special)
The first one is probably the better of the bunch. It showed nudity and was a bit too long to expect younger children to sit through. The second put me to sleep-not that is it bad-but the narrator seemed too monotone to keep anyone's attention. The third was OK, but totally off in many of the sequences of her life. I prefer material that is accurate so it was my least favorite altho it was somewhat entertaining.
Art project helps:
*images from amazon.com
We did a co-op group study of Mary, so I had them put their
stuff into folders with page protectors in them. Worked
great and it's another way to store the children's projects and
notebooking pages.
We did a co-op group study of Mary, so I had them put their
stuff into folders with page protectors in them. Worked
great and it's another way to store the children's projects and
notebooking pages.
Each child chose a picture they wanted with
the info concerning it, for their cover
The notebook page on her bio and the pastel art coloring
The 3 images NTBK sheet and the Monoprint Art project my dd did
We did 2 art projects: the use of pastels to color a painting of MC, and the monoprint using tempera paint and an etching tool (see the Great Artists book for details. Now this is not as easy as the book describes...I was apprehensive about the younger kids' ability to do it without smudging it completely and regarding if they would "get it"-some did pretty good, but I am not sure if they "got" why we were doing it. Doesn't matter tho, they enjoyed it and heh-painting is fun!). Do a few practice tries yourself to get the paint to the right consistency and to gauge how thick the paint needs to be/which etching tools work best PRIOR to showing the kids.
Additional helps:
Jimmie has loads of helps and links, and this is where I found the downloads for the notebooking pages
******************************************************
Winslow Homer:
picture from Wikipedia
Books:
Winslow Homer Watercolors by Helen Cooper
Winslow Homer: An American Vision by Randall Griffin
Winslow Homer: Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists
Winslow Homer Watercolors by Nicolai Cikovsky
Picture Study Helps:
Winslow Homer Watercolors Cards by Dover
Winslow Homer Paintings: 24 postcards
images from Amazon.com
Movie Idea:
Winslow Homer: An American Original
Now this is a liberal take on his life-more entertaining
than anything. This is like the Cassatt movie, kinda cheeky and
fluffy. Check your local library to see if you can procure this-I wouldn't
buy it. :)
*images from Amazon
Art Project:
Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters
We decided to try the watercolor project found in the Discovering Great Artists book-I bought this way back when the olders were still in the elementary grades and love it-very useful resource! The object was to recreate one of the painting techniques Mr. Homer used.
Our supplies
This is a wilderness, wet-on-wet watercolor painting exercise.
After letting them dry, we were to draw in some details. The trees need much improvement, but we were mostly going for the blended watercolor look, not so much the detail work.
The bottom one is my rebel daughter's version-ocean version.
She added some splattered white paint to show the ocean spray and for whatever reason,
I forgot to take a pic of it. Looks about the same but with white specks in the water.
It was fun to try this technique. Especially since we'll be doing a huge watercolor project in our co-op in March. That one will use watercolor and salt and layering of paint to get the final picture. I will be sure to document that here for you as well.
**********************************************
Claude Monet
image from Wikipedia.com
Books:
Monet Art Activity Pack
I own
Linnea in Monet's Garden (HB)
Some books [in the pic] were from our library.
don't own but recommend this-
great for young and old :)
Some books [in the pic] were from our library.
I forgot to write down the titles/authors tho.
My bad. Just check your library for their selections.
I have used many artist books from the "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artist" series-Monet is one of them. I also forgot to take the pic of the Monet and the Impressionists book for Kids I checked out (oops), and wanted to include it-so I have it linked here. We ended up using Pinterest and YouTube for our final choices. The coloring book is another great way to add in some art projects for those who don't like to draw but would rather color/watercolor on a pre-drawn page.
Picture Study Resources:
Use calendars when you can. The prints are usually very nice and large enough to glean many details.
We have a slightly different calendar than shown below. I chose one with pictures we did not already own. The one noted below is a good choice as it has many of his more recognizable prints. Or you can use art cards like the ones I have/own in the pic above. DON'T panic-you can purchase a new set for $11 not $61 like the ad below states! Yikes!
Notebooking Pages:
for images/info to use on notebook page
Free:
We used this one:
Others:
Art Project Ideas:
I chose two different methods to emulate Monet-like art projects for my son. I scoured Pinterest and just Googled "Monet art projects for kids" first, then thumbed through the Monet and the Impressionists for Kids book (linked to my Amazon Affiliate program) I borrowed from our library. My son decided on these two activities:
Project 1:
(instructions link)
Supplies:
Large sheet of good paper (I chose to use the glossy
paper I had on hand), brushes, watercolors,
water/cup, masking tape, salt
and directions found on Deep Space Sparkle's website.
Click link above.
My son's final art piece. He worked very hard to create a curved trunk on the right tree. Getting the shadow was a bit tricky but I think it came out pretty nice. He chose to not add a lot of detail except the river at the bottom [other examples show fences/more trees].
BTW: it's definitely more vibrant in person, the pic doesn't do it justice.
BTW: it's definitely more vibrant in person, the pic doesn't do it justice.
Project 2:
The instructor moves very quickly. We just stopped
when needed to allow for my son to catch up
before moving along.
Go to the YouTube video and watch it first.
It is short enough to view a
few times before starting the project.
Then get prepped and paint away!
This is my Michaels haul score! I got the canvases for 70% off!
Big time savings!
We'll use those for other projects-just had to share!
I used coupons for the paint and the brushes. I got those for 40% off.
Anyhoo-we needed the acrylic paint set since most in the kit were old and dried up.
I had purchased this art case, many moons ago, for my daughter.
It was available during the holiday season. I am not sure if you can
still find it but if you do-it's worth the $ (use a coupon). You could
certainly just buy a small canvas and easel to do this.
The little stand is such a cute way to showcase artwork!
Supplies:
Computer, [access to] YouTube, canvas,
acrylic paints, brushes, paint palette, newspapers,
water, and paper towel to wipe off paint-if need be.
I had my son put newspaper down to protect our table.
I forgot with the first project and spent a lot of time removing
paint-even though it was just watercolors!
Our boy's final masterpiece!
A little funny for ya: I sent a text of this pic to my hubby to show him what the boy had done (he was out of town); so he thought it was a fairly large canvas. Nope-it's actually 5 3/4" X 8". So when he came home the next day, he was shocked and had a good laugh when he saw how small it really was. It's all about perception! Well that, and not having jet lag to skew things. LOL
Oh and Cleo just had to take a look see and
critique things whilst my son was painting.
This is her "What is all this about?" look!
*******************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment