Whole Lotta Art-ing Goin' On

Mikro's birthday is approaching, and I am horrible about making him wait to open gifts. Especially when the gift pertains to something that he is passionately interested in. Right now, making art qualifies. So I couldn't resist gifting him with some acrylics, brushes, a pallete and canvas boards, even though his birthday isn't for a couple weeks yet. He decided he wanted to use the new colors to paint a dragon he made from a coffee cup and some paper mache, and I suggested we both recycle some cashew containers to make a handy little beach treasure box. He loved that idea, and went with the dragon theme again. I called his the Dragon Treasure Hoard Box. Mine has a river scene painted on it and is currently stuffed with sea glass and shells.

Glue Resist Paintings

We finally got a chance to finish our glue resist fossil paintings today. We used liquid watercolors.

This is Mikro's:



And here's mine:



I wonder if this would work better with the clear glue than with regular old white school glue. The examples we saw worked out much better, with a clear white resist line. Ours seemed to work in places, and in others not so much. I'll have to revisit the directions (this is what I get for reading them several days before starting the project, when I know I have short term memory issues...) and give this another go sometime soon...

Illustration Friday: Swarm

Mikro's inspiration for this week's Illustration Friday topic was his recently acquired Hex Bug, a little robot toy that resembles an insect. He is hoping to acquire more of them, so the swarm in his case is pretty much wishful thinking...



I had a couple of different ideas that I sketched out. One of them is the so-called immortal jellyfish, which has the ability when threatened to regress itself to an earlier stage of development, essentially turning back time, and becoming a polyp, which buds and produces a swarm of gentically identical polyps, which grow into more jellyfish. What an amazing ability! My other idea is inspired by my addiction to information and stories...

Hudson River Landscapes at Beczak

Today Mikro painted Hudson River landscapes at Beczak Environmental Education Center. First the kids did an acrostic for HUDSOn, looked at Hudson River School paintings, and then went outside and sketched the Hudson. They came back in and painted the river, either from memory, or using their sketch for reference. In Mikro's versions, the yellow stuff is marsh grass, and the black stuff is the Pallisades cliffs across the river from Beczak.



Here's what it actually looks like across from Beczak:



And here's my attempt at drawing a tugboat. I took artistic liberties and set it further up river, nearer where we live.



Here are some links for Hudson River School activities:

Lesson Plans & Activities

Art, Artists and Nature: The Hudson River School: Activities

On the way down, we saw a bald eagle flying over the river. I snapped a shot, but it is pretty far in the distance... Click to enlarge...

Illustration Friday: Layers (Late)

We were hoping to be done with our artwork for Illustration Friday in time to submit it before the new topic got posted, but I wound up having to deal with some heart-stopping stupidity by one of our banks, and it delayed us past the deadline... So I'm going to post what we have here. Neither of us was able to finish up as we had hoped to, and our glue resist projects are still in the early stages, waiting for the glue to dry so we can paint them or pastel them...

Anyway, here are the progress shots.

Mikro:

Mikro was inspired by his love of paleontology and our visit to the Explorations in Time website, and wanted to do something with different strata levels and fossils in the earth. He did a pencil sketch and then added watercolors.


I found a glue painting project for Luscious Landscape Layers on Crayola's website, which used a glue resist technique. I thought it would be fun, and suggested to Mikro that we both give it a go. Unfortunately, the glue is taking forever to dry... I used a little photo-editing magic to pop out the glue lines.



Chele:
My Pitt Pen drawings were just concept sketches that I hoped I would have time to develop, but it didn't happen...



Hopefully we'll finish the glue resist this weekend, and do better next week!

Mondays are Chemistry & Art

Chemistry was about dry ice, which is cooled and compressed carbon dioxide. Dry ice goes from a solid state to a gaseous state when it warms up, a process called sublimation. The gas released can fill a balloon, make steam, and dry ice will freeze water in a spoon on contact.





It also can make a really cool cloud!



And if you drop dry ice in water, you make seltzer (which Mikro thinks tastes icky). The cup we're drinking from is thermochromic -- that is, it changes color as the temperature changes. It stared out white and turned blue when the cold seltzer was added.



In art, the kids learned about Frida Kahlo's life and artwork, and then they made self portraits, with things in the background from their homes and culture that they love. Mikro's background is the Dinosaur Halls at the AMNH.



To quote Kahlo, in the wake of her life altering accident:

"I'm still alive, and besides, I have something to live for, and that something is painting."

Painting kept me sane after my accident, and gave me a purpose in dark days when pain seemed to define my world. And then I had Mikro, and figured out how to find joy again. I'm grateful for painting, homeschooling, my supportive husband and my amazing son. Without a doubt, I have a lot to live for!

Fall Painting at Lower East Side Studio

Our homeschool group visited a local artist's studio for a day of painting fun.

A is for April... and Art

I can't believe April is nearly over already. We spent a lot of time outdoors, playing in the yard, homeschooling on the porch swing, and watching the birds. For me, there was pottery (and I still have a couple of weeks left), and playing with leftover easter egg dye. I used the white crayon from the egg dye kit to draw pictures on white paper; then Mikro and I colored them in by dabbing egg dye on them with paper towel wads. Fun! I also dipped an old T shirt in the dye, and need to research how to set it... We both played with kiddie watercolors. Mikro tried oil pastels for the first time, and seemed to like them better than crayons. We did some crafts, read lots of books, and were so busy with field trips and classes with our homeschool groups that I'm thinking we need to start calling it Never-at-home-schooling. Well, except for the days when my arthritic gimpy body just refused to let me abuse it any further, and those days the porch swing was a great place to work on reading and science...