Exploring Romero Britto

We loved the exploration on Romero Britto! The use of dark, thick lines and vibrant colors appealed to the children. But what was interesting in the activity was that it offered me a chance to use different thinking strategies with it. We used the thinking routine "Step inside: Perceived, Cared about, Know about" in looking at Romero Britto's artwork "The New Day" . It was interesting to hear about the children's replies and they were able to point out it was "sunshine". We also used the thinking routine to ask the children what Headline they will give for it. Milos remarked ""Flying Heart" whereas Katie said "Sunny Day."

We also used this in emphasizing on the Habits of the Mind Thinking Flexibly as a way to emphasize on looking at different perspectives.This went well also with the Exploring Viewpoints of the Artful thinking palette and the Different Perspectives of the Depth and Complexity Icons. It was surely interesting how these strategies blended together in one activity! We even had a follow through of Romero Britto using coloring dolls. I need to see if I got the photos done for those though :/

 I am definitely loving Romero Britto!

Our Trip to Teylers Museum

Quote for the day: Katie asked me "Mama waarom altijd jongens???" (Mama why always boys?) en waarom zo veel billen? (and why so many butts?) :D

Make your own digital scrapbooking design

Exploring Van Gogh

I found another gem online! I was already contemplating on introducing Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night for our art activity but I am so glad that I surfed some more to get inspiration on what to do. The post In the Style of Vincent Van Gogh by Julie Voigt gave me the essential information that I needed in introducing Van Gogh's creative style.

I know doing one 20-30 minute activity is not enough to really learn the techniques but giving them tidbits of ideas and seeing it in their work is inspiring. I can only hope that the children get inspired as well.

Exploring Mondrian

We're back to exploring the great artists! Here's what we did with the kids and new playmates :)

Op Art Moment

This is our introduction to Op Art that we did a month ago. Exploring M.C. Escher's works is or goal for this month and what better way to start it off than doing some Op Art Moment. Stay tuned for our next Op Art explorations!

Introducing Shapes and Patterns using Klimt and Klee (part 1)

We've recently been reviewing shapes, colors and lines as part of the children's art activities at home. This made me pretty enthusiastic since it means I get to introduce my favorite artist: Gustav Klimt! For those who want to know more about Klimt the multimedia presentation found at iklimt is an interesting starting point. But just a word of caution, it is not for the sensitive eyes since his works can be a bit too erotic.

However for children, Klimt's works can be a good way to introduce the use of shapes, patterns and lines in art. This can be seen in his works The Kiss or The Tree of Life.

For this activity, I used the thinking routine Colors, Shapes and Lines to look at Gustav Klimt's The Kiss.

One of the key features of Klimt's work aside from the shapes and patterns is his use of gold in his art works. Since the kids didn't pick up on it in their responses on the colors, shapes and lines, I know that this is something that we can do for the next projects. Patterns also seem to be something that they didn't identify with the artwork presented. But overall it was good since they are now beginning to also recognize different types of lines.

When I showed them The Tree of Life, I used the Looking 10x2 thinking routine but was refitted to their age group so it became Looking 5x2. It was fascinating to listen to Katie's very specific observations of the owl.

How about you what can you see in this artwork?

Too bad that wasn't the full artwork on The Tree of Life. It was nevertheless interesting to show to the children. The session wouldn't be complete without the children doing their own artworks. Using the masterpiece coloring page from Art Projects for Kids on The Tree of Life (definitely worth the 5 dollars, and do check out the drawing pages as well!), I printed it out on tracing paper for the sgraffito activity that I wanted to introduce to the children. Sgraffito is what we commonly know as scratch art technique. For this activity we used oil pastels instead of paint which is common for sgraffito artworks.

We started well on doing the coloring using pastels. However Milos felt he didn't want to ruin his work with the black pastel on top. The little one is at the stage where he doesn't want his works touched or influenced in any other way. So for now it's just him watching what Katie was doing. Here are some photos of the little artist in action...

Painting A la Andy Warhol

I finally got the documentation of the Portrait a la Andy Warhol activity that I did with the children. I still need to further expose them to Pop Art but the initial activity was encouraging enough...

Thanks to Art Smarts for kids for this activity. Can't wait to do the other Warhol activity (blotted line drawing) for them to really get a better grasp of how Andy Warhol did his art works. But for tomorrow, this interactive Warhol game will be their homeschool activity.