Salvador Dali Experience

Recently, we were given the opportunity to visit the Dali Museum for Homeschool Day. It was the perfect time to learn about one of the artists that my husband loves - Salvador Dali. He was a surrealist with some interesting ideas and paintings. This was definitely out of my comfort zone as I love the Impressionists. But it was a great experience for us:)

We started by our Dali experience by reading all about him. Then I allowed the kids to choose the art projects that they wanted to try. Kaleb decided to do the animal sculpture with the long legs. It was supposed to made from air-hardening clay but I found our clay had hardened:(  So I improvised - we used play dough.

I gave them each half a container of green and half of blue play dough to work with. We found some chopsticks and dowels for the legs as well as wood shapes for scutes and tails. They also used googly eyes for fun.

Kaleb was very pleased with his creation. I love his toothless grin at the moment.

J wanted to work on the collage of pictures from magazines. This was fun to watch. I kept reminding them that they were to choose items that didn't go together.

J's picture had some interesting concepts - Kaleb thought the toilet dog was just great! J loved her eye/nose shoe.

Kaleb made two pictures - this was his second. He wanted a toilet dog as well and he put mustaches on each of the people to remind him of the true Dali.

The next project was one that I choose - Dali's Mustaches. I had them draw a face and add a pipe cleaner mustache in any silly design that they wanted.

You can't tell from the picture but Kaleb's mustache (on right) is in the shape of a heart. Love these!

The museum had a bunch of activities for us when we arrived. One of the activities was create your own Dali mustache. I had a hard time getting this picture because we were laughing so hard. We spent all morning at the museum and had a great time. They had listening devices for each of the kids and a great "Mustache Tour" for them to listen to.

I was a little disappointed because some of the gardens were closed off due to Hurricane Irma. Maybe next time:( But we did get a cute picture in front of the Dali mustache! Not too bad for our adventure. See you soon.


Links

The Pinterested Parent - has a cute and easy project for a melting paper clock.

Artsy Crafty Mom - has list of ten projects for Dali.

Little Yeti - has a cute project of a long legged elephant.

Elementary Art Fun - has another long legged elephant art project.

Use Your Colored Pencils - has a great project that uses Dali's mustache. These are so cute!

American Artists - Maria Martinez

We are currently studying American History and we have added Great American Artists for Kids as our art program for the school year. It has been a great addition, I truly love Kohl's art books. This week's artist was Maria Martinez.

J worked on a notebook page about Martinez's life and works of art. This will be added to her art notebook that we have been keeping for the past two years.

Martinez was a pottery maker so the art project was to make a pinch pot bowl. J worked the clay into snakes and then into spirals and added them to her bowl.

She pushed them together to connect them. This was not a fun project for her, she felt like it was difficult.

And the project turnout was not as expected. This is what happens when you pick up your bowl, thinking it was dry and it wasn't. The bowl came apart. She was so disappointed. But a lesson was learned here:) We may try this one again so she can get better results. We will see.

American Artists - Horace Pippin

It has been awhile since our last American Artist post but we finally got back to our art studies. We are currently using Great American Artists for Kids as our spine to complement our American History studies. This week's artist was Horace Pippin. It was great timing since Horace Pippin was an artist during the first World War. He drew and wrote about his everyday life as a soldier in a journal. We are currently reading and learning about the World Wars so it was nice to add this artist to our studies.

After reading about the artist and looking at his work, J fills out an artist notebook page for her art notebook. She adds the dates he was alive and a photo, if possible.

She then writes an artist card for our artist wall that we currently have displayed. It had artists and composers that we have studied, although the artists currently outnumber the composers. I hope to resume our composer studies next year.

Because Pippin was an artist who kept a journal during the World War, J wanted to create a journal page as well. She chose to make a page for the attack on Pearl Harbor. She composed it on the dry-erase board and I helped her fix the mistakes. Then she wrote it on a notebook page and added her drawing of the bombing.

This art project will be added to her art notebook. I love when our subjects crossover - art and history. Love it! Have an awesome day.

A Flock of Birds

Recently, we took some time and worked on a few art projects that have been on my list for some time. I found a few things I wanted to accomplish and thought it would be a great mid week break - to do some art:)

We worked on some marble painting. I kept a box lid after our move and it helped to keep the marbles in the box. Kaleb liked making roads with his marbles.

Riley painted with the dabbers - he loved this and wore purple paint all day. Now, all he wants to do is paint!

My DH made this at Christmas to hang our stockings on and my Mom suggested we keep it out all year long. It was plain for awhile until I finally figured what I wanted to do to it. The kids made flamingoes several different ways - marble painting, paint dabbing, tissue paper and feathers and I added them to this tree of sorts.

It turned out cute. It reads "Stand Tall" and sits in my living room. I truly wanted to add a pink strand of lights (making it a mini night light) but they are proving harder to find since it isn't Christmas. What do you think, Ma? Did we do it justice? I thought she would appreciate the irony....flamingoes and our home state - haha.

Then, J and Kaleb worked on making simple birds for my front window. This window is so big and bare that I thought I would try something different.

We made birds-on-a-wire for the window. I like it. No more feeling like I have to decorate it for each season or month, now I am just going to leave the birds (for now, until I find something else I want to try). So we made a flock of birds to decorate the house. Not too bad for a mid-week art project.

American Artist - Joseph Cornell

We are working through our second year of Great American Artists for Kids as our art program to compliment our American History study. This week, our artist was Joseph Cornell. He was an artist who liked to make boxes with interesting items. 

We read about his life and J worked on a note booking page for her art book.

She also wrote out a timeline card for our art timeline. Every time she adds an artist she mentions that our composer timeline is very sparse. I think we will have to bring back our composer studies:)

I wasn't sure that J would take to the art project for Cornell - it required making a box like he used to make. But J began collecting items from her desk and random items around the house.

Her finished project - her box entitled "J's Desk" contains all of the items on her desk. She had quite a collection! When Kaleb saw this, he had to make one for himself. Now, to just keep this from my tot Riley. He would have a ball with all of these little items! Have a great day.

American Artists - George Bellows

We are still working through the Great American Artists for Kids this year and this week's artist was George Bellows. He was an athlete who wanted to paint.

First, J wrote her notebook page about the artist. We read about his life and looked at several of his art works.

Her art project was to create an art work based on a sports theme. She chose soccer. She became frustrated when her people didn't turn out correctly. She finally figured it though.

She used watercolors to paint her picture.

J is checking out her picture - she seems happy with it.

Here is her final project - two girls playing soccer. We added it to her artist notebook along with the artist notebook page. See you soon.

American Artists - Charles Demuth

We are currently working through our second year of Great American Artists for Kids for our American study. Our artist of the week was Charles Demuth.

We read about the artist and looked at his artwork on the internet. J wrote a notebook page for her art book as well as a notecard for her art timeline.

She decided that she wanted to paint the number nine since it was her age.

She painted her nine silver and added a ton of hearts to her painting.

Her Charles Demuth project - super cute, a study of nine:) See you soon.


Links

Create Art with Me - has an idea for Demuth using a computer.

Art Projects for Kids - has a simple crayon project for kids.

Shine Brite Zamorano - another project using numbers for kids.

Do Art! - has another idea for a Demuth art project

American Artists - Hans Hofmann

We started our art curriculum for our new school year. We are continuing Great American Artists and our artist this week was Hans Hofmann. We loved viewing his colorful art work.

We always start by learning about the artist and writing a notebook page for her art notebook. I try to include a photo of the artist when possible.

She also writes an artist notecard to add to our art timeline.

J decided that she wanted to paint her project instead of the suggested project - tissue paper and paint. So, she made lots of squares on her paper and painted with watercolors.

Here is her final project.

She was able to get some bold color with her watercolors and she practiced some texturing as well. Another American artist down....See you soon.


Links

So Says Sarah - has a simple project overlapping tissue paper for Hofmann.

WES Kindergarten - this teacher discussed cool and warm colors and created a large project with her kindergarteners.

American Artists - Grandma Moses

We are loving our walk through American Artists while we study American History. To do this, we are using Great American Artists for Kids as the backbone of our art education. Our artist of the week was Grandma Moses. We have studied her before but we still enjoyed learning about her art.

We always start our lesson by reading any books that I can fins from the library or in my own collection about the artist. J then completes an artist page for her notebook.

I showed J a few ideas of projects for Grandma Moses and she chose the winter landscape (or should I call it a lambscape - as Grandma called them when she was a little girl). She decided to use card stock as her paper and oil pastels.

She first drew the sledding scene with pencils and colored it with her oil pastels. After, she colored it, she used white paint and a q-tip to paint snowflakes on her art work.

Her final folk art picture. I love how she drew a hibernating rabbit who was keeping out of the cold underground along with his carrot lunch! Love this! Have an awesome day.

Links

Harrington Harmonies - has a cute 4 seasons project for Grandma Moses using the same scene.

Making Art Fun - has a printable history of Grandma Moses to read to your children.

Art Education Blog - has a great art landscape art project using ice skaters.