Unplugged Project: Water
I would recommend this book, A Drop of Water by Walter Wick ~ awesome. We explored water a bit today. . .
floating and sinking
making water worms on wax paper (connecting the water drops)
painting with water
the absence of water under this bridge
painting with frozen water/paint (acrylic mixed with water)
her "ocean".
Blue and Yellow make Green Pond
My friends, these are amphibians ~ frogs and tadpoles. She is quite sure about it and taped this important work on the refrigerator.
creating art with nature
Our nature walk this morning brought home lots of seed pods! We gathered up a sampling for our nature table and created this design with them. We marveled at the different textures of the seeds ~ ridged, fuzzy, flat and smooth, prickly, fluffy, curly.
Mommy: "What do you see?"
Rose Red: "Girl . . . so, so sad . . ."
Rose Red's self portrait. That's her name she wrote at the top. I particularly like how disconnected her ears are from the rest of her face ~ she is very into drawing the ears on (or should I say 'off') things lately.
And the rest of the family . . .
Dad, Mom, Oldest Brother (Thor the Mighty), Rose Red, Middle Brother (River - formerly Wide Receiver but no longer playing football so now he is River). River, I guess, only has one eye and looks suspiciously like an amoeba . . . but Dad looks right on! I'm a little concerned about the whiskers I apparently have growing out of my chin . . .
So there you have it ~ our new family portrait.
We spent our Catholic feast day of 'All Souls' fingerpainting with our friend 'Romeo'.
I'm rather into Fra Angelico lately.
Our current artistic appreciation.
So very lovely!
Fra Angelico Annunciation. The Visitation
Fra Angelico ~ Annunciation ~ Fresco ~ Cell 3, Convent of San Marco, Florence
Pompeo Batoni
Madonna and Child
c. 1742
Oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome
For all those who are keeping nature journals ~ be sure to check out this wonderful artist and botanical illustrator from Charlottesville, Virginia ~ Lara Call Gastinger
"The subjects of her art come from the natural world and her art reveals detailed evidence of change, decay, and processes that occur in nature. She finds great inspiration in a carrot that has gone to flower, a broken seed pod, twisted roots or insect damage to a leaf. She strives to make a plant portrait in such a way that it reveals its character and uniqueness. Her focus is on the small details in nature, down to the small venations in leaves which hopefully inspires others to look a bit deeper and pause a bit longer. "
~ hat tip to Daniel Mitsui (and my mother who forwarded this to me)
Summer is drawing to a close and Rose Red's summer art profolio is filled to the brim ! Rose Red has enjoyed her Lyra colored pencils and square beeswax crayons throughly ~ and this fall we will be incorporating paints into her mediums. I thought I'd share a few pictures from her portfolio with you . . .
Are you chuckling to yourself because I just showed you seven pages of scribbling ~ or do you see a budding Jackson Pollock ?!
These beeswax crayon blocks have beautiful color and don't break like the traditional sticks ~ good for Rose Red's age.
I finally broke down and picked up a small craft table for Rose Red. I had been putting it off because we are so short on space here in our apartment but she really needed one for 'messy' work otherwise known as Art.
We met Rose Red's godmother at our local children's fine art museum this morning. I love this museum ~ lots of hands on for the kids and always interesting and educational for me as well! They had several things going on today but we went specifically for their photography exhibit ~ "Discovering Nature's Alphabet" which featured photographs of the letters of the alphabet formed entirely by nature, untouched by human hands ! Doesn't that sound fascinating?! Even Rose Red's godmother was impressed. They had several photos displayed for each letter of the alphabet. The photo's were really something! Don't you think this would be a great nature walk activity to do with new readers and veteran readers ? Rose Red was fascinated from A-L but then decided she had had enough and ran off to explore their Underwater FantaSEA exhibit. I, however, was fascinated A-Z and even snapped a few photos to share with you all !
Can you guess which letters these are? (they had the source written below ~ but I didn't get a chance to copy them down. The nature source was pretty obvious when you saw it live but I'm not sure it photographed very clearly)
Today's snack: White potatoes, Red beets, Orange sweet potatoes.
This is one of our new books that we enjoy. It is a search and discovery book using great works of art and even throws in some counting skills.
I'd also like to check out these . . .
I've finally decided on our course for our Art Appreciation Series. Rose Red is so young that I didn't feel an artist 'study' was in order ~ but really wanted to begin exposing her to lovely works of fine art. These are my selections for this spring. I shall simply place these beautiful artworks in her environment for her to begin to appreciate. I'm thinking that perhaps I'll purchase a simple easel and place it on the table for easy viewing during 'tea time' as well ~ which is basically her afternoon snack time.
I had a difficult time deciding where and how to begin with an art study for Rose Red ~ and then I remembered ~ I must follow the child. Rose Red currently has a strong interest in the mother child relationship ~ and in particular the nursing relationship. I've chosen to begin with these paintings for their subject matter ~ and also I think they are beautiful!
Through the gentle guidance of the Blessed Mother and simple attachment parenting practices Rose Red has developed a desire to nurse for comfort and closeness. We have read how healing and wonderful it can be for an adopted child to have this experience and feel quite blessed. So it is possible for an adopted child, no longer a newborn, to have a nursing relationship with their adoptive mother. Isn't that wonderful?!
My Favorite Bird here in the Sonoran Desert.
Thor the Mighty made this picture for me ~ a family of Gambel's Quail ~ which we have lots of where we live!
Aert de Gelder. Simeon's Song of Praise. c. 1700. Oil on canvas. Mauritshuis, the Hague, Netherlands.
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel."
Luke 2:29-32
Be sure to hop over to Blessed Among Men to read more on this beautiful feast we are celebrating 'The Presentation of our Lord' otherwise known as 'Candlemas'.
