Monday, May 31, 2010

Monday Memories - Impressionists

Since I've now been blogging for almost 5 years, I thought I'd start a new weekly post called "Monday Memories." I'll use these posts to highlight some of my favorite activities from earlier years. I hope you enjoy these memories, and maybe you'll find a "new" post and a new idea to use! (If you'd like to create a weekly "Monday Memories" post, too, please let me know! If we have enough interest, I'll look into creating a Mr. Linky or something.)

Three years ago, we did a co-op with a sweet family, Mrs. S and her two girls. One daugther is Alex's age and the other was a few years older. Mrs. S and I took turns teaching various subjects. We spent several months studying the Impressionists and it was one of my favorite studiest of all times. Since then, Alex and I have went to a lot of art museums - from Houston and Dallas to Chicago and NYC. And, we are always able to recognize a lot of the artists and pieces of art because of this study.
Mrs. S used to decorate cakes and she had an assortment of equipment. She came up with the wonderful idea of decorating brownies Impressionist-style. She taught the girls (and me) about decorating and how to use the bags.
Hopefully you can see that some used dots to make our artwork while others smeared the background.

Alex smeared her background and then painted a bridge and flowers. It looks like a Monet!

Mrs. S also taught us about Mary Cassatt and how she was greatly influenced by Japanese prints. She had bought a brayer and taught the girls to make prints using foam paper and a stylus.

 
Alex made a tooth print. She was about ready to loose both front teeth and was fascinated with teeth. 


This is another great idea from Mrs. S. She bought artificial water lilies and floated them in the pool. We took canvases and watercolors outside and painted.


Here is Alex with her watercolor of waterlilies.


I had never used chalk pastels before and we spent some time learning how to use them. This is my Degas-styled drawing of a ballerina.


And, Mrs. S taught us about oil painting. I did two paintings and this is my second. I was trying not to blend the colors too much and really was pleased with how this turned out.

I hope you enjoyed this first edition of "Monday Memories." Next week, I'll share with you another of my favorite homeschooling memories.

10 comments:

Donna said...

Dana, This is a wonderful post. I love how your friend incorporated art into the every day. Your chalk drawing of the ballerina was fabulous! I love the cake decorating. :o)

I posted another video today (and one Saturday. Seagulls and big band music on my old public school record player.

See you soon!

live4evermom said...

That was a wonderful post. I'll be looking forward to your Mondays.

Homeschool on the Croft said...

This is a lovely post - definitely a good idea, and I'll be looking forward to others too!
And how fantastic to be able to have learnt about these artists - how much more enjoyable art gallery visits are now. Wish I could have joined your 'class'!
Love, Anne x

palmy said...

Wonderful! Bye...

Rhonda said...

This was an awesome post! I love seeing all of the art. What a great idea for "Monday Memories." I will definitely be back, Dana.

Cindy said...

Oh my goodness! I love this!!

lahbluebonnet said...

I so enjoyed our Impressionist projects last year. We used a great book with great ideas. One activity used cookie decorating I think. We used a lot of similar ideas. I am thinking of doing some art at CW this summer. I had wanted to last summer but ran out of time. I had forgotten about this idea until I read this post!
Blessings,
Laurie

Ms Eva said...

Monday Memories! What a great idea! I love all the impressionist activities ... I'm taking notes! :)

MommyShan said...

Memories!!!! Thank you so much for the compliments! I still look back on our Impressionists studies as one of my favorite ones ever too! We've also been to a number of museums since then and people are always amazed at how much the girls know about / love the Impressionists. I sure do miss our co-op days! What fun we had together!

Thanks for including us in your favorite memories! We're glad to have you as a part of ours too!

Hope your summer is wonderful!
"Ms. S"

Robin said...

I remember when you did this and I was so jealous at the time. I'd really like to figure out a way to get Cade into this stuff.
Now that summer is here, maybe I can sneak it in somehow as a 'fun' thing to do.

Related Posts with Thumbnails