Art History: Henri Mattise

Hi guys! This Thursdays art history lesson was all about Henri Matisse. We watched a video all about his life, read a few books, and recreated one of his famous creations.

What We Learned:

1. He was born in France in 1869
2. He studied to become a lawyer but fell ill shortly after that
3. His mother purchased him some paint and he was hooked ever since
4. He became to ill to stand up and paint on the easel
5. He began creating scenes out of shapes
6. He called his work "scissor painting"

 Resources:

 We read from The Usborne Art Treasure

 We listened to a reading of Henri's Scissors on YouTube.

We also enjoyed this animation video on Henri Matisse's life

Art Work

The boys worked on a collage pieces using instructions from the Usborne Art Treasure book. 

The boys cut up all their shapes. We talked about the best way to layer the shapes (large pieces first, medium size pieces next, and the small pieces last)

That's it for our artist study! The boys have already chosen the next artist they want to study about, Damien Hirst. They were fascinated with the his spin painting technique.

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Preschool and Kindergarten Community

Art History: Kandinsky

Hi guys! As part of our morning basket on Thursday we work on a little art history. We read a book about an artist, watch a video, and recreate a piece by the artist. We recently learned all about Kandinsky and recreated one of his famous pieces.

What we learned:

1. His art work is called abstract
2. He listened to music while painting
3. He painted what the music made him feel
4. He was born in Moscow Russia
5. His paintings are made of lots of shapes
6. He was a teacher and started art when he was 30
7. He died at the age of 78

 Resources:

We read out of The Usborne Art Treasury

We also read this picture book. I borrowed it from the library as an e-book. 

We watched a brief biography on youtube. 

Art Work:

We recreated his circles painting using oil pastels and water colors. 

I gave the boys card stock paper that I folded making 6 squares and they drew circles in each square leaving space between each circle. 

Once they drew all their circles they painted each square a different color using water colors. 

That was an easy, fun artist study!

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Preschool and Kindergarten Community 
Practical Mondays

Artist Study: Van Gogh (Starry Night)

Today we worked on another one of Vincent Van Gogh's famous paintings "Starry Night." After reviewing all our facts we read a picture book called Katie and the Starry Night. The colors and illustrations in the book were beautiful. It also introduces a lot of his other work.

I went with a tutorial from Deep Space Sparkle, but I modified it a bit because the lesson is meant for a 3rd grade class. Her art lessons are always very detailed and she gives you lots of tips and suggestions.

The boys loosely traced around their hand for the cypress tree. 

we talked about Van Gogh's style of painting. They observed that he didn't paint in one continues line, and that his painting had swirls and circles. It was interesting to see how they interpreted that into their painting.

I couldn't resist I also painted along with the kids. 

After the paint dried the boys went over the hill and cypress tree with a dark blue oil paste. This painting is my 5 year olds.

An up close of my 5 year olds painting. 

7 year old.

This one is mine. I loved being able to paint with them, and it worked out perfect the baby was sleeping and the toddler was busy playing. 

The boys learned a lot about Van Gogh and his famous paintings. I can't wait to get started on our next artist. 

Related posts:

Sunflower painting. 

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deceptivelyeducational 

Artist Study: Van Gogh (Sunflower)

We started our artist study with Vincent Van Gogh. For each artist we will draw, paint, study two of their most famous pieces.

Some of the things we learned about Van Gogh:

• Van Gogh was a Dutch painter
• Only one of his paintings sold during his lifetime
• He was really close to his brother Theo
• His paintings use vibrant colors and sometimes seem joyful
• He painted several sunflowers in anticipation of his guest Gaugin
• No one ever painted the way Van Gogh did
• Since his death, his paintings have become some of the most famous in the world

I found a wonderful picture book to read to the boys that goes along with this sunflower painting.

 After I read the book we worked on a notebooking page. I had the boys fill in his birth, death, nationality, and one fact they learned.

I set out the material and had the boys lightly sketch out a flower pot and sunflowers.

After the paint dried the boys went over it with a black marker just to give it more detail.

The boys added white and black using the tip of their paint brush to the center of the flower. 

We added the notebooking page, and painting to our artist portfolio

For this lesson I used a tutorial from deep space sparkle and added some of my own things. Her site is great make sure you go and visit.

You can go to my Pinterest board for more art study ideas and free resources.

Follow Ayan's board art study on Pinterest.

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homeschoolcreations

DIY Art Portfolio (Artist Study Unit)

The boys and I will be starting an artist study unit soon. I wanted some where to keep all our art projects, and notebooking pages. So I decided to put together an art portfolio.

If you would like to recreate this all you need is;

• Poster board ( I used one for each of my boys, folded in half)
• Paint (or any other material to decorate the front of your board)
• Duct tape
• Brass fasteners 

This was really easy to put together and it turned out really nice. You can close the side ends of the board so that its like a case, but I chose to keep it open. We will use brass fasteners to hold all our material in.

 We painted the front of our poster board with water color paint. 

I put duct tape on all four corners and the inside.

The boys each picked their own colors for the duct tape.

 I can't wait to start our unit study and put these to good use. 

I've been pinning ideas on my Pinterest board. Head on over there for more ideas and free resources. 

Follow Ayan's board art study on Pinterest.

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