Geronimo!

Will unveiled his latest painting on Saturday, in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who.  Fantastic!

Return Of The Sculpture Park

With a forecast of  97 and humid as heck, we set out for the Franconia Sculpture Park with friends earlier this week.  We almost called off the get-together because of the weather and lack of shade cover at the park, but thankfully we just decided to go for it, water bottles at the ready. Always fun, always something new to look at, and there was ice cream at the end. Here are my favorite shots from the day.

A Familiar Landscape

Will's most recent unit in his science curriculum, Elemental Science- Biology for the Logic Stage, focuses on habitats.  The hands-on element for this topic is the creation of a diorama of one of the habitats in the study.  Rather than doing the ol' shoebox and construction paper project we're all so familiar with, Will expressed a desire to make a more elaborate landscape box, depicting an area of our favorite local state park. He remembered his brother doing a similar project years back, and wanted his chance to do it, too. 

 The area he chose is a view of the St. Croix River gorge.  

 More than 10,000 years ago, great glaciers covered much of the northern United States, including most of Wisconsin. As the glaciers melted, forming glacial Lake Duluth and overflowing its banks, torrents of water tore through the river valley carving out the gorge we see here today. 

 Dalles of the St. Croix River, formed by the meltwaters of the Wisconsin glacial period.

To make the landscape, Will started with a 12x16 disposable roaster pan which we purchased at our local grocery.  Other ideas we considered were building a wooden frame/box or using a low-sided cardboard box.  The roaster seemed like our best bet  because it was easily movable and moisture-proof.

After deciding on the container, Will went out to the yard and took up a portion of sod/top soil and sub soil to fit his container. First he put in the sub soil to support his landscape.  He cut his river gorge down the middle of his land, and lined it with large basalt rocks. Basalt is the dominant rock in our area, and it lines the Dalles of the St. Croix.

To make the river water, Will melted some paraffin wax in a coffee can set into a pan of water.  He wanted his water to be have a blue tint, so he laid a piece of blue cloth down before he poured the wax in between the rock walls.  He also added a few "boulders" to the wax before it cooled to add interest to the water.  

Then he added the top soil and sod to the sub soil, and trimmed down the grasses and weeds.

 

He then collected cuttings from pine trees to line the river.  

As part of his project he also reviewed facts about animals found in our area, and sculpted a few for his landscape from modeling clay. 

Adult Deer

Fawn

Fox

Squirrel

The Animals in their "Kitchen Table Habitat"

 I love the creativity that came with this project, and the fact that Will chose it himself makes it that much more enjoyable. 

Art Of Hearing

The boys invited their cousins to come for a visit recently, and we decided to take them to our local sculpture park.  The kids all had a great time exploring together, and there were plenty of new sculptures for artsy photo snapping opportunities. This, however, is my very favorite photo from that day...or perhaps of all time!

Illumination

Still studying the Middle Ages for history, we took a break from our regular reading and spent the morning on an illuminated manuscripts lesson.  I didn't have anything in particular in mind at the start, but a quick run through the Google and Voila! instant lesson.  

I basically followed the lesson plan at The J. Paul Getty Museum site which looks in depth at an illuminated image entitled Initial A: Two Men before a King and a Man Speaking to a Family

After enjoying the lesson we spent a relaxing time doing some coloring of these beautiful alphabet letters which were a free download.  The letter outline is filled with nicely drawn images of plants, flowers, vegetables and animals whose names begin with that letter. Beautiful art for anyone who enjoys detailed coloring!  We also colored some more traditional caligraphy-style illuminated letters from this free printables site as well.

Here are the results...

by Ben

My effort.  I really enjoyed just sitting around and coloring these pictures.  Quite relaxing.  Must do this more often!

William chose letter "Q"

Will's illuminated initial

Charlie's illuminated initial

An Afternoon Of Sculpture

One of those things that had been on my "To Do" list for forever was to visit a nearby sculpture garden with the boys. Franconia Sculpture Park is on a road that I travel infrequently, and when I do, I am usually under a time constraint because I am on my way to "somewhere" else.  "We'll have to remember to go there someday" I say as we whizz by.  Well, since we didn't star school officially until October 1st this year, we had a lot of late-fall lazy days to enjoy outdoors together; I was finally able to make good on my word.   We packed a lunch and spent a few hours marveling at the different definitions that "sculpture" can have.

Just a few of our favorites...

Polished Stone Chairs

Become The Art

Gar

Belly of the Beast

The Harris Project

Working With Time

Charlie's Rocks-Madeline Island 2011

We had the DVD Rivers and Tides recommended to us by Charlie's Artsy Smartsy instructor after our most recent class. It is a documentary about the artist Andy Goldsworthy who works only with natural objects in a natural setting. All three boys and I watched it from beginning to end and were completely enchanted by it. This film is tranquil and beautiful, and Goldsworthy is a boldly gentle and inspiring presence. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in art or nature. Gorgeous and mesmerizing!

Here is a trailer, but seriously, check your library for this DVD and get comfortable on your couch. It is so worth it!

Artsy Smartsy Leaf Owl

Although I'm not ready for summer to end, it seems that others have moved on and the extra-curriculars of fall have begun.  Charlie is signed up for a couple fun activities this year, but his favorite is the Artsy Smartsy class put on by our local library.   Headed by a wonderfully talented local artist, this class happens just once a month which makes it easy for us to fit into our schedule, and gives us plenty of time between classes to extend the ideas from class, or simply do our own thing.

The focus this year is storybook art, and the first class looked at the work of Lois Ehlert, a perennial favorite around our house.  The kids listened to and looked at  Leaf Man for inspiration and then got to choose some natural materials to make their own creations.

Charlie also looked at our copy of Look What I Did With a Leaf which he had brought to class and when spotting the leaf owl, made up his mind to make his own.  Yep, he's still very much into owls.

Charlie's finished product.  Acorn tops, feathers, corn husk, and cloth leaves made up his creation of "Owl in a Nest in a Tree"  It tuned out really cute!

Fall colors are already starting here, and leaves are beginning to drop.  Time to plan for some more good olde-fashioned leaf projects soon.  Maybe create more Leaf Creatures?  Or Leaf Imprint Coasters, or Deep Space Sparkle's Fall Leaves  painting project?   So many leaves, so little time...

Elf Ornaments

With all the Christmas hubub around here this past weekend, Charlie has been asking, nay, begging to do some holiday crafts.  I spent some time on the internets looking at my favorite kids craft sites and have come up with some good ones to make in the days to come, but we got started today with Pine Cone Elves from Pink and Green mama's blog.   Will joined in on this one, too.

It's always a good day when I find that I have all the needed materials on hand for a spontaneous project.  Today was just such a day, although I wish I had some of the cheerier colors of felt like Pink and Green used.  Oh well, traditional Christmas redwhitegreen it is!  I am just darn impressed that I was able to pull the doll bead heads out of my lowly craft bin! 

I have to admit that I did much of the work on these guys because of the hot glue and fine motor cutting skillz that Charlie just hasn't mastered yet.  He was really into doing what he could with me though.  I applied the glue and he put the pipe cleaners, felt and head in place.  Each step of the way they became cuter and cuter and kept Charlie interested in continuing.  

Here is how they came out.  I think we were "supposed" to put the head on the other (flat) end of the pine cone, but hey, I'm a craft rebel.  And they came out so very cute I don't think it really matters!  

So cheery!

I have yet to add a little embroidery thread hanger to the hat, but for now they will sit snugly inside the branches of our tree.

Happy Hand Turkey Day!

I "carved out" a little time at the beginning of my busy week to make a little Thanksgiving decoration and keepsake with Charlie.  

I love the Hand Turkey and have made several over the years with the older kiddos and just love  Katherine Marie Photography's take on it; clothespin legs! Katherine Marie has a bunch of other super-sweet ideas, too.  File them away for next year!   Just so cute!

Have A Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Gobble Gobble!

Finally! Fine Art Friday!

September and October were so buuuuuuusy!  Busy with surgery and recovery for me, busy getting a handle on our new school routines, and busy with outside interests and obligations.  November, however, promises to be a little slower.  Initial proof is that we finally, finally, had time for our Friday afternoon hang-out-and-do-art-together time (AKA Fine Art Friday).  

Can I just say today was such a good day?!  No outside obligations, nowhere to go, no people to see.  The mood was very relaxed for formal studies this morning, which paved the way for creativity this afternoon.  It helped that I put my foot down and canceled three optional activities on the calendar for today.  Let me tell you, that felt very good.  

Anywho...today's art project came from my most recent favorite art site Deep Space Sparkle.  Charlie enjoyed a project from here a while back.  To tie in with our study of Ancient Egypt right now we did some Egyptian faces.  I ordered her teacher plans for this project for a couple dollars.

Will enjoying his work.

 

So, we use basic art supplies for this one.  At the end of the summer I went to Lakeshore Learning and stocked up on  sulphite construction paper.  It is nice quality with vibrant colors and large sized (12x18).  I had regular oil pastels on hand, but I did purchase some metallic type specifically for this project.  It was a splurge to go for the higher-quality/extra supplies this year for sure, but since I wanted to focus on art projects each Friday afternoon, I felt it was worth it to have good materials.  

Ben really liked this project.  So glad we had the time to do it!

Not much prep for this project other than bring out supplies and giving a quick overview on profile drawing. 

Charlie, Master of the Oil Pastel.

So, here are the final pieces.  After drawing, coloring and adding detail, we cut out the faces and put them on bright colored construction paper.  It really made them Pop!

William chose to make his drawing smaller and more natural and realistic in color. 

Ben went a little more "Funky Pharaoh" with his drawing.  I love all his detail and color.

All right.  This is mine.  I do not have an artistic bone in my body and it looks as though I have endeavored to complete a paint-by-number here.  Poor bastard has no soul and might as well have "Example" emblazoned across his face.  

For my next trick I will "Draw Tippy".

Last but not least is Charlie's effort.  This drawing simultaneously thrills and bewilders me.  Other than some guidance in getting the facial shape, Charlie was left to his own devices to create this Voodoo Egyptian Pharaoh.  My favorite part is the inclusion of what Charlie describes as  "The eye-glasses of Horus" just below the lips/chinny protrusion.  The Eye of Horus was a potent amulet for the ancient Egyptians in protection from evil and often adorned the outside of coffins.  I guess someone has been listening in on history readings, sorta.  

Oh, and I must mention the snails on the headdress.  Can you pick them out?  Look for the antenna.  Love the snails.  And no cobra on the front of the Pharaoh's crown.  Nope.  That is most decidedly a worm.  Cuuuuute.

So that's all for Fine Art Friday today.  It was sooooo nice to hang out and create with the kids.  Hope you enjoyed.  See you next time.

Day Three

After a bit of reading today about continental drift and early megalithic structures, we sat down with some rocks we collected on a fossil hunt a few weeks back.  There was a lot to look at, and we did our best to identify what we saw.

It looks like we have some ...

Crinoids

brachiopods

and bryozoans.

Today was also the first installment of Fine Art Friday (the art day formerly known as Tea Time Tuesday).  Charlie worked on an art lesson using chalk pastels courtesy of Deep Space Sparkle.  How cute is that?

Meanwhile, the bigger kids went on a search for materials to make their own natural paints and then used them to make cave paintings.  They really enjoyed this project from  Art Through The Ages.

Hunter with Spear by William

Hunter, Cow and Bird by Ben