Charcoal still life of flowers

There is just one more week of art class left through our homeschooling group, and I am sad to see it go. I have not really met the teacher, but every week Calvin has emerged from his hour of art instruction with another wonderful creation in a new medium. And he loves it. They tried watercolors, and water color pencils, then oil pastels, and this week she introduced charcoal pencils, and every week I've been impressed with what Calvin's art says about what he's seeing. Today he sat in front of a vase of flowers and sketched not just flowers in a vase, but a picture that focuses on light and shadow as much as on the basic flowers. In fact, he barely drew the flowers, he was so focused on working with charcoal around them. He was pleased with his work, and all the way home in the car he told me about the light reflecting on the vase, the shadows around it, and the method of darkening the surrounding room to highlight the subject. He doesn't have the vocabulary for it, but he has the beginning of an understanding or appreciation, and he's thrilled with the knowledge and with himself, and that's what I love.

We're linked up to Saturday's Artist at Ordinary Life Magic.

Artistic Friday

Our day started with sunshine, orange juice, coffee for me, and a few notes on Tutankhamun for Calvin. I discovered this sight long after I'd had enough coffee to wake me up and get me started.

We are still working on our mummy cases. This is turning into a two week project, mostly due to our lack of extra time, but we're having a good time with it.

We've been talking lately about categorizing the world from a scientific standpoint, so today we went outside with our sketch pads to find the symmetry in living things, and the lack thereof in non-living natural or human-made things. It was fun from both a scientific and an artistic standpoint.

And the rest of the day was spent at HAA practicing for Calvin's next play (The Wizard of Oz!) and creating oil pastel paintings, then back at home rather carefully organizing the Legos, which are still spread all over the front room because organization takes time, and messes often get worse before they get better. That's one of the fun parts of life.

We're linked up to Saturday's Artist.

Spring was meant to be rainy

I woke up this morning and stretched lazily under warm blankets, enjoying the bright morning light streaming in through the south facing window in our bedroom. Seconds later, the morning still bright, and a heavy rain was pouring down. As much as I enjoyed 80 degree sunny days, this is the spring I know and have missed. Tulips dripping in a cold but nourishing rain, tree buds breaking out, clouds floating overhead, only lightly masking the brightness of the sky.

Lots of reading today, and meandering through ancient Egypt. A little math, a little map play. Shelving books at the library. Walking the dogs, creating the Book of the Dead.

Calvin is fascinated by this piece of history. He has made a Book of the Dead before, the last time we explored Ancient Egypt, but he wanted to do it again now that he has "more drawing experience."

So how about another blast from the past? From March 2011:

Detroit Institute of Arts

Today? How about a trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts. A number of mothers recommended it, and I've been wanting to go for a while now, but it was actually my parents who suggested it on a whim today. It's a great museum, and with a great number of surprising treasures. Calvin was especially excited about the suits of armor. They set up sketching benches so that patrons could try out their own artistic skills. We enjoyed Greek and Roman artifacts, van Gogh, Picasso, lunch, a textile craft, and artifacts from the ancient Middle East and Egypt. I suspect we'll be back.

C. Monet

As in Calvin. He just started an art class through our homeschooling group, and they tackled water colors the first day, copying Monet's The Pointe of Heve for their first project. They talked about perspective and about colors. Calvin loved it, and I love his painting, done with water color pencils.

We're linking up to Saturday's Artist at OLM.