M's Mother

This post is from 2/7/08

This month in art 6yo is studying tints and shades. We've been using the art of James Whistler and Claude Monet to discuss how artists use tints and shades in paintings. Today, after looking for a while at Whistler's Arrangement in Black and Gray No. 1 (better known as Whistler's Mother), he had to create his own drawing also using calm and subtle shades and using a model. He was also to use various arrangements of rectangles like Whistler did. So, he sat me down as his model. He asked me change clothes into black and white and sit at the piano bench. Since it was a long process, I settled down there with a book on Indo-European Language and Culture while he carefully drew me, including coming up to compare shades of colored pencils against my hair, skin and the piano. Here is the result.

Arrangement in Brown, Black and White (also known as M's Mother), by AM, February 7, 2008

Oregon Trail

This post is from September 21, 2007

During art class this week, 6 yo fell in love with this 1869 landscape painting by Albert Bierstadt. It's called The Oregon Trail. We only have a pretty small print of it in a book of landscapes that we are using as part of our art curriculum. You should have seen 6yo studying the details with his magnifying glass. And it was worth it. There are some amazing details in it. Anyway, he's decided he wants a framed print of it in his room. I started looking online and the cheapest I can find an unframed print is $60.00. Hmmm. I wonder how much he really wants it. But then again, how can you resist a child who wants to hang fine art in his room? I'm sort of hoping he would be willing to put it in the place of the huge Transformers poster by his desk.

He also choose this one to hang in the room for little brother.

The Lackawanna Valley, by George Innes (1856)

It was actually commissioned as an advertisement for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. I do think 2yo would like it with the boy in the field and the train a'comin'.

Oh, and 6yo also just loves Van Gogh's Starry Night.

If you haven't figured it out by now, 6yo and I both just love his art class this year. I'm learning at least as much as he is and I love it. I'm starting to wish I had studied Art History in college. But don't worry, I really am winding down my academic schooling experience. Only 1 1/2 semesters of coursework left forever! I mean it. From now on, I'll just learn alongside my kids. (Well, I mean other than writing a dissertation and translating, and . . . ) Yeah, I'm weird and nerdy. I know it and I enjoy it, so that's that.

Jacob Lawrence

I'm starting out this blog with some posts from another private blog. They are random schooling memories from the past year.

This is a post from September 20, 2007

Today in art class, 6yo and I learned about Jacob Lawrence, a Harlem painter who lived from 1917-2000. His paintings were the first works by an African-American artist to hang in New York's Museum of Modern Art. I didn't know anything about this artist, and 6yo and I had fun learning about him together. I really like his paintings - makes me want to go to visit the museum in New York. Anyway, we looked at a few for class and then did a search to find more. Here are some of our favorites. The one above is Schomburg Library (1986)

Home Chores (1945)
This one is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, so we'll have to go this year!

In the Garden (1950)

Summer Street Scene in Harlem

And last, but certainly not least, here is 6yo's marker drawing, in the style of Jacob Lawrence. In keeping with most of Lawrence's paintings, it is of a busy, noisy place and uses bright colors!

Interstate, by AM, 6 years old, September 2007