First Impressions

As promised, here is a recap of our Impressionism week:

Impressionism was, in part, a reaction to the advent of photography.

 We took that one step further and painted right on the photographs!

 Magazine Impression - Age 5

You can't do the Impressionists without painting some Monet water lilies.

 Well, you can...but why? - Age 8

We painted our Monet project using only the colors he used in his palette: blue, green, purple, white and yellows (he used several). Red was added pater with oil pastel.

Plein air painting. Taking the studio outside!

Several young artists chose the same subject but interpreted them quite differently. These are hibiscus flowers. Left - Age 8  Right - Age 11

 Why, exactly, is Ms. Melanie soaking our canvases in milk?

So we can create vivid pastels ala Degas! - Age 8

 

We studied Mary Cassatt then created our own monoprints of a family schen. Step 1 - Paint the scene onto the plate (in our case, the back of a cookie sheet).

 Step 2 - Press paper onto the wet plate to make a print.

 Step 3 - Lift paper and viola! - Age 11

 What else for our Cezanne study but a bowl of fruit?

 Classic Cezanne perspective trick. Which bowl of fruit looks closer, 

the warm or cool colored one? - Age 11

 Painting a bazillion dots like Seurat can me boring. That's why we did it on a cookie first. Cookies are never boring.

Looking for inspiration for our pointillist paintings.

Lots of dots. Lots and lots and lots.

But the results are amazing! - Age 10 

 Last day of camp. We stormed the Chrysler Museum of Art, sketched in the Impressionism gallery...

...and rocked out with some interactive art! 

2011/2012 Art Classes

Weekly Classes Begin September 13th!


Beginning Artists (Age 4 - 6)

Tuesdays 1:00 - 2:00 pmTuesdays 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Wednesdays 1:00 - 2:00 pm
Class is limited to six to provide individualized attention.


Young Artists (1st through 5th grade)

Wednesdays 4:30 - 5:30 pm
Thursdays 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Class is limited to eight to provide individualized attention.


Cost:

$50 per month Sept. through May

$30 one-time materials fee due the first class.

10% Discount for Church Members OR Siblings

Room 312, Ghent United Methodist Church - 531 Raleigh Ave., Norfolk


Contact Melanie at 757/472-6483 or otlartstudio@gmail.com to register!

Every Picture Tells A Story

I promise to post a full account of this week's First Impressions Art Camp soon, but I had to go ahead and share the story we wrote about this etching by Mary Cassatt:

Mother's Caress

This activity came from a book, Monet and the Impressionists for Kids, which has lots of great info and ideas for introducing young children to Impressionism, I gave my young artists prompts to tell the story behind this painting. This is what they came up with:

This is Mary and Bob. They live in a house in Sicily. They have just finished having a bath and are thinking about putting a bow in baby Bob's hair. Earlier they were reading a book. They love to read books! What you can't see in the picture is a diaper for the baby. They are feeling sad, but we don't know why. Later they will go to the park. Maybe that will cheer them up!

Pretty great, huh? I must say they were quite concerned about the lack of a diaper. They asked to do it again so tomorrow we will try the activity with Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte.

Rock Stars of the Renaissance

Seven young artists recently finished a wonderful week of learning about the Renaissance. The catchy title for camp was Renaissance Men, even though we learned about a couple of Renaissance women too. Of course, toward the end of the camp I came up wither a catchier catchy title: Rock Stars of the Renaissance. Oh well, there will be other camps.

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We started with the late middle ages for background. 

This is a decidedly modern illuminated letter!

We learned about the Limbourg Brothers and used magnifying glasses for

 the fine details of our Book of Hours pages.

A Book of Hours page for the artist's birthday, including her Zodiac sign and the sun 

high in the sky because she was born in the afternoon.

 Painting on the "ceiling" is fun for a few minutes, but four years? 

How did Michelangelo do it?

 Michelangelo day means frescoes. Painting on wet plaster is careful work.

 A Da Vinci subject for a Michelangelo project? Oh my!

Michelangelo Fresco - Age 6 (Another Da Vinci subject - a battleship)

Mirror writing on Da Vinci day.

Got it right the first time!

 The Da Vinci parachute drop was a big success. 

DISCLAIMER: No plastic soldiers were harmed in the course of this project.

 How we keep track of all those pesky dates.

 Crushing "pigment" to make our own paint.

You gotta break a lot of eggs...

...to make egg tempera.

 Experimenting with our home made paint.

Egg Tempera Painting - Age 10

 Relief in the style of Ghiberti - Age 7

 Gold Leaf Rondel in style of Fra Angelico - Age 7

 

On the last day we visited The Chrysler Museum of Art, right down the street.

A scavenger hunt in the European Gallery.

We were so lucky! A restorer was working on one of the Renaissance paintings.

He was very patient and gave us a lesson on art restoration.

We spent some time sketching in the sculpture gallery.

Sharing discoveries - what the Renaissance was all about!

Homage to Chihuly

Our most recent class session was on 3D art. There were many fabulous projects, but my favorites were our Dale Chihuly inspired pieces. The kids were all into the eye patch, but I refrained from giving them out or wearing one myself. I stressed the cooperative nature of his work. Due to his various injuries, he relies on a team of artists to create the art he designs. So we worked as a team to create two installations for our studio.

 This one was done by my younger artists, ranging in age from 4 to 9. I forget where I got this idea and I apologize. We watercolored coffee filters, dried them over a form and glued them down to circular styrofoam bases which were then attached to the wall.

This was the bigger kids' installation. This idea came from Artsonia. We decorated plastic wine glasses with Sharpies then melted them in a toaster oven. The services of the fire department were not needed and the studio is still standing!

And of course we had to make projects we could take home. This time we decorated punch cups. Conveniently, they had a circle of thinner plastic on the bottom which melted away leaving a way to hang them. 

I must say the kiddos were all into melting plastic. I can't imagine how excited they would be to see glass melt.

If you want to know more about Chihuly glass forms, check out this website!

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 * Need further evidence I spell procrastination with a capital P? These projects were completed in early June!