kellicrowe

for iman

For Iman, with love:) She requested to see the hallway that we call our Art Gallery This is only 1/2 of it I do not like the fact that our house is long. I like houses that are nice rectangles. Not snakes. I have a real affection for rectangles. Not snakes. Anyway - we have this art gallery going down the hall. It also has a few real pictures in it. The rest of the hall has turns (and snakes around) I started collecting these way inexpensive frames from Micheal's a few years ago. I have collections of B&W pics through out our house in these frames too. I figure - my kids are so cute...who is gonna notice the frame cost 5 bucks? ;) kid art pics of my kids and a few Brian Andreas prints...which look like a kid drew them That is what is all over our walls I am not a nature girl But I realized - these kids - they are my nature The thing about God's creation that just stuns me So there you go Iman. A whole blog entry just for you. kellicrowe

matisse art project - homeschool

Matisse Art Project.

We did this several years in a row in pretty diff ways. I like to pick out a fun artist (ie - someone my boys can stand to look at several of their pictures in a row without asking how many more we have to see) to highlight every week or so.

We do this during homeschool on Fridays. Matisse. Like him. The boys like him. I ordered these little booklets on some of the major artists a few years back from some educational catalog. It has info about his life and kid friendly (ie - not naked) art inside. It also suggested some art projects.

Personally - I think all this could be achieved in a few clicks on the computer. I do not like the library. I know - what kind of homeschool mommy am I? One who doesn't like the library. The books feel germie to me. I know germs can not thrive on books on a shelf....but still.

Matisse project #1 Did this with a 4 and 5 year old I mixed reg. glue and water in a bowl to make the glue thin. I let the kids paint brush the glue onto a piece of poster board. Then the kid tore tissue paper and placed it on the glue. Total time - 20 minutes from start to hand washing. The kids loved tearing the paper. The glue will become the color of the tissue paper if you slide the paper around. SO - I encouraged the boys to just lay the paper down and not slide it.

Matisse was a painter. But he also painted bright pages and then cut the shapes up to use in his collages. My boys were pretty young - so I let them tear the paper. We looked at Matisse's work when he painted and when he used paper. We compared and contrasted the two.

Alex - 4 - made a colorful collage with his papers. David - 5 - made a warrior These pictures are framed and in our long hall way upstairs. In our "gallery."

Matisse Project #2 The following year we talked about Matisse again. This time the boys were 5 and 6. I selected several pictures by Matisse to show the kids. Reviewed his life. The kids were given the squares of colorful paper to fill in the back ground - like in our sample pictures. Then I gave them a bunch of Matisse like shapes of brightly colored paper. They both chose to make a picture of themselves. David's is a tiny figure of himself with shapes (that represent the music) all around him. Alex's figure of himself is much bigger. His lines coming from his head are him talking and singing.

The idea was to lead the kids in a project where we imitated the artist's style. But the kids were not re-creating a particular picture. They still got to play and be creative within the parameters I gave them.

Oh - David liked it so much - he made a dinosaur and several warriors out of his shapes.

The following year we used the bulletin board to make more pictures with these shapes. Matisse would pin his pictures up on a board and move around the shapes for weeks before gluing them down. I think this year when we talk about him - I will let the boys paint and then cut the shapes themselves and have a little more flexibility in what they produce.

 I am not a "memorize this picture" kind of art of teacher. I just want to expose the kids to different ways of being creative. I know some will totally bore them. But some may get them so excited that they can't wait to make more. I just can't ever tell which way it will work out.

cool reason # 15 to own a scanner

Reason #15 to own a scanner:Scanning kid art

 

This is Stompzilla. I creation of David's 2 years ago. I just unearthed it in a pile of kid art. I can e-mail it. (David would rather I not, seeing as how it is so 2 years ago:)

I can copy it to a cd. I can reduce it and print it out to use on a scrapbook page. (I'm gonna)

Best of all - now I just have a record of it. Gonna put it on a cd of just David's art that can scroll like a slide show.

Maybe some music. I don't know how to do this yet. But I know who to ask.

You know where this will lead? He will start doing pictures just for the computer slide show. Bet you 5 bucks right here. Right now.

Of course - I still haven't figured out about the ink cartridge thing. My Epson doesn't seem to realize there IS A NEW magenta. A NEW light magenta. Who knew my fam was so magenta?

 

Scanned kid art. It makes me happy.

kellicrowe

it makes me happy #100

kid art framed fabulously = happy me

Ogre by David on piece of scratch paper...rescued by Mommy from certain destruction.  He looks at me as I walk around the kitchen and makes me happy.  Me.  With framed Ogres in my kitchen and happy about it.  Who knew?