Sick day–art in bed

A sore throat, a sore head. A bed piled high with armfuls of favorite books and art supplies. An entire afternoon with no phone, no distractions, just books, imaginations, and snuggles. We read book after book and created our own illustrations for them. We spent the entire afternoon right there, book after book, picture after picture. I was tired and achy and this was a better way than I could ever have imagined to spend the afternoon, having fun together and still getting the requisite rest.

Time Flies

Great Lakes Great Ships

We spent a good hour with the D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants (now their Book of Norse Myths)

And because we're going to see African Sky on stage tomorrow, Bringng the Rain to Kapiti Plain.

And of course we couldn't forget our newest Oz, The Scarecrow of Oz.

I'm linking to Saturday's Artist at Ordinary Life Magic. I love the virtual parade of art there.

Week-long painting project

We spent all of this past week eating either at our kitchen counter or on the coffee table in the sitting room. Our dining table, far from missing us, has been strewn with painting supplies and projects. We started the week-long process after Calvin expressed interest in the layered look of the art in his book Train Song, by Diane Siebert. All we had on hand to work with was the washable poster paint we've been playing with for years, so no oil paints for this one, but we got out our supplies and covered the table with the wipe-able heat-resistant cover I usually put under the table cloth when we have company. I was worried that our usual art paper wouldn't hold up to so many layers so I cut two sides off a cardboard shipping box, one for each of us, and we sat down to start.

Calvin loved being able to sit down and add something to his art whenever it suited him, and I loved that he spent a week in planning and creating towards one goal.

 We visited our paintings at least once each day the whole week long, even if sometimes just for a few minutes to fix little things. I expected them to be done by Saturday but we had a few finishing touches that we added just this morning, and now we are done. Calvin put more into his than I put into mine, and there were a couple of times that I probably should have let the dishes or the laundry go in order to join him in painting.

It's fun now to look and see bits of the whole week in our paintings, which started as night scenes when we were reading Susan Jeffers's illustrated version of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, were continued with foot prints after we hiked in the field with Crinkleroot, and gained some clouds, and even a little rain in Calvin's case, after yesterday's inclement weather. I enjoy the similarities between our images (both of us included owls like the ones in Jeffers's book) but love even more the differences (Calvin's is flying toward the viewer and is much closer, and he's got such a great house).

This morning, after adding some clouds, we both initialled our work to make it final. Tonight we will eat at our dining table again, but we'll do this again some time, probably sooner rather than later. I kind of liked eating picnic style in the sitting room with a fire lit anyhow.

I am linking this to Saturday's Artist at Ordinary Life Magic. It's a couple of days late, but art just can't be rushed.

Poetry and painting

We've spent a lot of this week hanging out with Robert Frost. We like Robert Frost, especially Calvin, and being winter it seemed appropriate to spend some time with Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening as illustrated by Susan Jeffers. It has us writing our own poems, and illustrating some New England-esque winter scenes.

Calvin's own

A joint effort (alternating lines)

It's a week long painting project. We're trying our hands at long term planning—painting the background first, letting it dry, adding some scenery details, letting that dry. Dinners at the dining room table are on hold for a while.

Illustrating Oz (spoilers included)

We are now reading the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. If you are anything like me you will read that title and think "what? seriously? at age 4?" because I know that's what went through my head when I found it on a list of read aloud books for grades k-3. The real problem is that I had only ever seen the movie, which is definitely not for grade k, maybe not even for grade 3, but the book is a completely different animal. Sure there have been deaths I had to explain (most notably that of the wicked witch of the east) and some other bizarre conversations that have taken place (evil is a difficult thing to define) but on a whole the book is really kid friendly and is much longer and more involved than the two youth books we'd read previously, which is a really good thing.

It is going to take us nearly two weeks to get through the wonderful Oz, and in order to enhance comprehension and immersion in the book Calvin has been illustrating the events as they happen. I'm looking forward to the picture book we'll have when we are done.

Aunt Em's house (complete with portriats of Dorothy, Uncle Henry, Aunt Em, and Toto), and the house being carried away by the cyclone (as it is called in the book).

The house in Munchkinland, and the three munchkins who come to thank Dorothy for freeing them from the Wicked Witch of the East.

The scarecrow does have a body, but it's yellow so it's hard to see here.

If you haven't read the book the Kalidahs will be as unknown to you as they were to me, but Calvin (and Mr. Baum) would describe them as having bear bodies and tiger heads and they are a momentary terror to our five familiar travelers. Where Calvin and Mr. Baum would disagree is the smiles, but Calvin gives all creatures smiles in his illustrations—his world, after all, is a completely happy place.

We'll get back to you when we finish the book later this week.

Stick figures

For Christmas last year we got Calvin an easel, a present that has seen plenty of use and love the whole year through (as attested to by the multitude of paint splatters and occasionally misplaced stickers).  Calvin's favorite medium has been paint, which he uses in an abstract style that brings a vibrant touch of color to the play room, where I have several of his pieces hanging for daily enjoyment. I like the abstract feel.

Lately, though, Calvin has branched out into the wide world of crayons. After spending some time at the easel by himself one evening last week he was upstairs reading books with Jon before bed while I straightened up a bit downstairs. That's when I stumbled across the stick figures. I was so excited to find something, that even remotely resembled something other than tumble weed, that I ran upstairs, new art in hand, to ask Calvin what he's drawn. He told me all about the eyes, ears. mouths, and bodies he had drawn.

"They're garbage men" he told me.