Happy Belated Birthday Alma Thomas!

I believe I actually discovered Alma Thomas thanks to Pinterest. See?! All those hours I've spent losing myself in a Pinterest vortex were worth it! Ha. No probably not, but I do really love Alma Thomas. And I have to admit that I missed the chance to post this on her actual birthday, so here is a Happy Belated Birthday to Alma Thomas (9/22)! I just couldn't stand to miss it (although technically I suppose I did miss it) because this is one of my favorite lessons of all-time. So let's begin with a little background on our famous, but little-known artist.

Alma Woodsey Thomas is another inspiring artist, who like Grandma Moses, didn't get her start until later in life. She taught art for 38 years in Washington D.C., and occasionally showed her work in shows featuring African American artists, but didn't begin to paint seriously until she was 69 (she was born in 1891 so what year would that have been?). However, by then she had painful arthritis, which made painting difficult. Most people would've given up at this point but when a museum wanted to display her art, she went about creating a new, more abstract style with bright pure color in shapes or lines that still hinted at natural forms.  Instead of telling you what her art does or how it makes you feel, why don't you take a look at the following images (and find lots more online) and pretend to be an art critic writing an article about her for the paper? Have fun and be descriptive!

The Eclipse

Moving Heaven and Earth

Starry Night and the Astronauts

Untitled from Music Series

So when I was preparing the art project, I knew the younger kids in particular would have a super hard time resisting the urge to paint large strokes with their paintbrushes instead of making small dashes close together. No chance most kids would have the self-control to be so deliberate as to leave the nice white lines in between colors. And that's what makes it really pop! So I put away the paintbrushes and got out building blocks:

We looked at examples of her work, talked about what made it unique, and what they should strive for if they wanted their painting to look like hers. I really emphasized her use of repetition and variety. I then demonstrated how to use the blocks to print the shapes on the paper and let them go to town. It worked so well, that I did it the same way for my older group of students, except I gave them Legos so they could make smaller dashes. A few of them resisted, so I let the older students use brushes if they promised to leave white :) Look at how awesome my 8 year-old daughter's turned out:

Later, we tried it again but with gluing pre-cut scraps shapes on. This worked really well too and was good for the pre-K/kindergarten crowd in particular. Here's my son's finished project (it used to have nice, bright colors but has been hanging in a window and the sun sadly bleached them out):  

So much fun! One last cool fact - her painting Resurrection is the first painting by an African American woman to hang in the White House's permanent collection. So Happy Belated Birthday Miss Thomas!

Check out the article here for a more in-depth history.

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci (project 3)

"Thus if one is to be five times as distant, make it five times bluer." That's what Leonardo wrote about his conclusions or observations about aerial perspective, which we more often call atmospheric perspective in art classes today. It's such a science/mathy way to give art instruction! I'd expect nothing less from our true Renaissance Man. Today's project is a quick and easy one, or it can be used as a warm-up practice for a fabulous painting.

As a good reference point, here is a late medieval Italian painting that didn't use atmospheric perspective:

Look at how flat it looks! And confusing because there are shadows on those mountains that make us want to believe they're 3-D, but... And the people on them are clearly much smaller than those on horses, but... There is no background because the mountains jump forward along with everything else (now it clearly wasn't meant to be completely realistic because the sky is gold, which is seen a lot in Medieval art, so we could be really generous and assume they flattened the scenes on purpose for some reason? Or possibly that they didn't know how to make the background recede so they embraced it and painted the sky gold to look like it was on purpose. Which do you think was the case? Or did they even think of it or care? And if the latter is the case, kudos to them for working with what they had but it's an example of how learning the rules can improve your own art or at least give you more options to work with)!

If you want to follow-up, you're welcome to use my photos as reference:

Or go out and take some of your own! You'll probably notice this marvelous effect more now and wonder why it's "purple mountains majesty" instead of blue. Ah well.

For further study...

Really cool site that shows the "gradual change of color and tone with distance."
An in-depth discussion about atmospheric perspective from The Helpful Art Teacher.
Want to look more into the science of atmospheric or aerial perspective? Go here.
Can you find other artists that really nailed it when it comes to atmospheric perspective? How about any that ignored it/broke the rules? Here is a start. Have fun!

Happy Birthday Grandma Moses!

Grandma Moses is an amazing inspiration to those of us who aren't getting the chance to paint as much as we'd like to or to pursue other interests at this stage of our lives. She didn't even start painting seriously until she was in her late 70s! And was still painting at age 100! So it's never too late to teach an old dog new tricks :) And never too late to make a dream come true.

Anna Mary Robertson was born on Sept 7th in 1860 and lived to be 101. She was born to a family with 10 kids and then had 10 kids of her own! Bless her heart. She turned to painting because somehow she still had energy left after raising her brood and the needlework she had enjoyed became too hard on her aging hands. Despite the late start, she has now become probably the most beloved American folk artist. Amazing.

Here are a couple of my favorites of her paintings:

County Fair

Sugaring Off

Here's a link to a YouTube video that is a slideshow of tons of her paintings. With some good ol' American music to go along with it.

When I taught her at an art camp a couple years ago, we folded a sheet of cardstock in half (hamburger style) to make a greeting card. I had the kids pick their favorite holiday, talked a little about family traditions and had them draw a picture with colored pencils of what their family would be doing on that holiday. They loved it! I think Grandma Moses is great for kids because she's not intimidating. They look at her paintings and feel confident they can do it too. And everybody loves holidays! One of my daughters kept doing extra cards she loved her so much. I did instruct the kids to fill the entire space. We looked at some of her paintings and showed how she did it, and how she had so many different fun things going on. We talked briefly about helping things look like they're in the background by overlapping and then I told them not to worry about it all being perfect but to just let it tell a story. And to have fun as always!

Here's another great Grandma Moses project idea about the four seasons at Harrington Harmonies. I might give it a try this year!

Creativity Exercise: Scribble Exchange

So this is a fun, quick, and easy little creativity activity. As long as you have paper and pencil or pen, you can do it anywhere! It's a great way to keep kids busy when waiting at the doctor's or when trying to keep kids quiet at church. Not that I've ever used it for the latter...we always just sit there and listen perfectly of course. Uh hum. And it's a great way to get that creativity flowing! Which is, perhaps, why the kids are often better at it than I am!

You need a partner and to each have a piece of paper. Both of you draw a quick scribble and then pass your paper to the other person (the scribble really works best if it's simple and quick, not filling in he whole page with lead). Take a few seconds to stare at the scribble you've been handed, trying to see a picture inside of it or what it could be part of, and then make it happen! Here my 9-year old and I exchanged scribbles and turned them into a snouted snail and a plant-eating dinosaur:

Here my 5-year old son and I switched scribbles and turned them into a cool sunglasses guy with a wicked scar, and a "steigacric" otherwise known as a stegosaurus. We'll be working on spelling this school year 😜

And then my 9 year-old and 5 year-old exchanged scribbles and turned them into a werewolf and a horseback rider:

The possibilities are endless! And prone to create giggles. So get your creativity on and have fun!

Inspired by... Leonardo Da Vinci!

Continuing with our first artist, Leonardo da Vinci, I have finished our first project video! It can be a fun, short project for young kids that I can almost promise will get them giggling. For older, more serious students it can be that as well as a longer study that could really improve their observation and drawing skills. I'd recommend getting them a sketchbook if they're really getting into it. But for starters, you'll just need paper, pencil and a partner (or a mirror or camera). It will take anywhere from a few minutes to a whole week to complete! Hope you enjoy!

Inspired by ... Leonardo da Vinci (Project 1):

If you need to use my photos for reference, here they are thanks to my willing volunteer model (although I really recommend drawing from life if you can because it's just a whole different experience to change something 3D into a 2D drawing)!

Also, here's a link to a really fun Mona Lisa parody project that I've done with my kids and students before. They LOVED it. I recommend explaining what a parody is and doing a quick Google search of Mona Lisa parodies. Lots of giggles. My personal favorite is still my daughter's Hulk-A-Lisa. Hahahaha.

Have fun and keep being creative!

Best of the Best: Leonardo da Vinci

Here's my second, longer video on Leonardo da Vinci that goes into more depth on what I believe to be his 5 best artworks. Watch and then let me know if you agree! What would you choose instead? 

For notebooking pages that accompany the "Best of the Best: Leonardo da Vinci" video, click HERE.

But that doesn't have to be the end!

"Art is never finished, only abandoned"

If your learning about Leonardo da Vinci isn't finished yet either, I've compiled lists of places you and your kids can go to read or watch more.

More biographical info:
-For elementary age kids try here
-For focus on his scientific interests try here
-53 interesting facts here

For a whole unit worth of at-home study and activities, "Leonardo da Vinci for kids: His Life and Ideas" is awesome. Buy it here.

For reading about Leonardo in the news:
-Scientists Reveal Cause of Red Spots Ruining Leonardo Da Vinci's Self-Portrait
-Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Found in the Swiss Bank Vault
-An Art World Mystery Worth of Leonardo

Videos to watch:
-Animation about Leonardo and his flying machine
-10 Worst things to happen to the Mona Lisa
-Interested in how science helps solve art mysteries? Watch here
-If you read "The Da Vinci Code" and have some time, watch this documentary to learn the truth

Guess Who in Two: 1

Here is my very first "Guess Who in Two" video! It's my new series where I try to stuff as much information into 2ish minutes while hopefully making it into a fun guessing game. Because art history doesn't have to be boring (despite my personal experiences in college in a dark sleepy room with a slideshow and a monotone voice droning over the microphone)! And there's so many great gems we can learn from these artistic geniuses. I'm having fun making the videos, and hope they're just the beginning of my many ideas coming to fruition. Enjoy and let me know if you have any feedback! Thanks!

And click HERE for a downloadable notebooking page to go along with it!