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April 24, 2012Tracy1 Comment

It’s been awhile since I’ve pulled out our art study. I have Renoir art flashing on my laptop all the time as a screensaver, so it’s a constant reminder to the kids of what we haven’t been doing.

My son, who absolutely loves when we color these masterpieces, has been bringing up Renoir’s absence rather frequently; and it finally occurred to me that it would be the perfect “quiet time” activity for him. I pulled out the coloring page and colored pencils for him, printed off a copy of the art original, and walked off.

Renoir Young Girls at the Piano — Young Girls at the Piano

Folks, he blissfully colored on this page for two whole hours! And the results of his labor blew me away. He mixed his colors meticulously to match as closely as he could to the original, and even when it wasn’t the perfect match, it was an outstanding job identifying the different shades of color.

Though it took us forever to get to it, this was the last Renoir piece I had scheduled for us to color. And as for biography information, I found the best book at the library. (We read it late in February, but with the arrival of the baby I hadn’t posted about it yet.) Not only did it have great kid-friendly information about the artist, but it also explained Impressionism very well and had fun pointers about what aspects characterized an artist’s work. For instance, Renoir loved to paint people having a good time and his people were typically painted with very fair, cream-colored skin and rosy cheeks.

Linking to

Appreciating Renoir

October 12, 2011Tracy

We’ve been working on our second piece of art from Renoir, Still Life with a Bouquet. And my little artists have been meticulously creating their own rendition.

I was thrilled with the little one’s project this time. In my last post on art, I mentioned how she likes to express her creativity. But this time, she really got into the project. I worked with her a good deal, helping to point out the colors. And the fact that she had new coloring pencils probably helped.

Still Life2 — With the little one, my priority is just to get her to match the colors with the original.

The challenge with my son right now is getting him to relax when he colors. He doesn’t think he has colored a page unless it is covered with the richest, waxiest color his crayon can produce. And he attempts this same strategy with his coloring pencils. Of course, it kills his hand muscles. To combat that, we’ve been discussing the light and dark areas in the picture, and I’ve been showing him how to hold his pencil to change the intensity of his color.

Still Life1 — For my son, the task is to get him to recognize lights and darks.

He loves this activity, and contentedly spends days at at a time creating his final piece.

Renoir and Vivaldi

September 29, 2011Tracy2 Comments

We’ve initiated our new art and music study over the last several days, beginning with Renoir and Vivaldi in these first few weeks.

Renoir

Our first assignment was a picture study and coloring page of Renoir’s “The Girl with the Watering Can.”

What do you talk about in a picture study with a four year old and a three year old? I keep it pretty simple.

First, I usually ask them questions about the picture. Who’s in the picture? What is the girl holding? Where do you think she is? What makes you think she’s in a garden? etc.

Next, I ask them about colors, lighting, or anything unusual about the picture. For this one, the kids were fascinated that that her boots were black and her dress was blue. My fashion-conscious daughter really thought she ought to have had blue boots.

And last, I have them choose a part of the picture that is their favorite. The whole exercise probably takes us maybe ten minutes. I don’t drag it out. I just want them to get used to looking for details.

Over the next few days, we continued our picture study by coloring a picture of Renoir’s painting. I love this exercise because it really gives me a good look at the different personalities of my children. My son is Mr. Meticulous, and he scrutinizes every inch of the original to match it as closely as he can. And he does fret if he can’t find the right color to use to match the picture. My daughter, on the other hand, is a true artist and balks at the thought of anyone telling her how she ought to color her picture. She HATES to match the colors, and in this instance, showed her distaste by purposely scribbling outside the lines. And, I might add, included all the colors of the rainbow in the margins around the picture. But regardless, I know she will remember that blue dress with the black boots for a long time to come.

She finished her picture in two days (she was done with it after the first day, but I stretched it to two days). My son, however, took the whole week. And why not? It was because of his precision that it took so long. I just gave the little one some extra coloring pages to make up the difference in days.

Vivaldi

For Vivaldi, we’ve danced to the music, listened to it a number of times, and read his biography in Lives of the Musicians. Our facts to remember: He was called “The Red Priest” because of his red hair and red robes; he worked most of his life in an orphanage for girls; and he played the violin. I picked simple facts that I knew would stand out to my kids.

Next, we’re tackling a little music theory this year, too. We clapped out quarter notes and half notes and will gradually add in the rest as time allows.

Art and music time is my fun time. I’m not at all worried about sticking to a schedule; it’s just a fun subject to open our day with.