We decided we wanted to learn about great artists and get inspiration from them instead of just doing a bunch of crafts. And while I had planned out projects for a whole heap of artists, today we focused on Claude Monet, Vincent VanGogh, Piet Mondrian, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse. Next time will be Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, Alexander Calder, Joan Miro & Pablo Picasso.
We started the day reading a book titled Ish by Peter H. Reynolds. This book is a favorite around here and it was delightful sharing it with our friends. It's a lovely tale about seeing art and the world in a different way.
Our first project was preparing our Van Gogh piece. We looked at The Starry Night and chatted a bit about color, texture and light. I also shared a little bit about Vincent and how his brother bought his paints, so he loved to glob it thickly onto the canvas to create wonderful peaks and valleys and swirls. For our project we used school glue to texturize an image on black construction paper.
As the glue dried we moved on to Monet. We began by covering the topic of what Impressionism is and then started looking at how light affects objects and how reflections often look white or very light in color. Our inspiration painting was Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies and our project invloved creating a masking tape bridge on canvas and then finger painting our scene/image over and around it. The boys took a very ish approach and created some fantastically unexpected pieces.
Lunch was next on the agenda and it was also inspired by an artist - Mondrian. We used cheeses, membrillo and other such toppings on pieces of pumpernickel to create our edible works of art. It was yummy and fun.
After lunch was all about Warhol. I printed out 6 black and white photos of each kiddo and had them color them with markers. Everyone developed their own technique and style. How very appropriate! We chatted a bit about the pop art movement and used Warhol's John Lennon as our muse.
Our last dive was into the world of Henri Matisse. We read Henri's Scissors and looked and Matisse's Garden before we began our own adventure painting with scissors. I think the kids may have liked this project most. They really got into creating the shapes and placing them on contrasting colored papers.
The glue finally dried on our Van Goghs, so we finished them and the day up by coloring in with oil pastels. By the time we all said our au revoirs, we had arms full of projects, heads full of ideas and hearts full of friendship. I think I really love this little tradition and can't wait for part deaux.
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