Beautiful Day Out

Our recent artsy week -- talking about famous artists, watching a few movies about their lives, getting our hands messy -- reminded me to check in on current exhibits at local and local-enough museums.  When Sela saw the we could see a painting by Raphael, she was dazzled.  Inspiration had struck at just the right time...

One of the joys of homeschooling is the freedom to pack up snacks and escape for the day without a lot of planning.  So, we popped over to San Francisco to catch "Portrait of a Lady With a Unicorn" by Raphael in its final week at the Legion of Honor Museum of Fine Arts.

What a view outside the museum!

The "bonus" exhibit, in this case, was a collection done by Pierre Bonnard.

And in the permanent collection, (wow) we saw works by these guys:
Monet
Pissaro
Degas
Renoir
Cezanne
Manet
Seurat
Van ault
Rembrandt
Rodin

Puzzle souvenirs from museums are my FAVORITE.
We saw this work by Pierre Bonnard.

best of all-
this was my tour group <3

Art with the Masters -- And Some Famous Ones, Too

Last week we hit the pause button on our regularly scheduled activities and made room for something different.

We warmed up with this Paul Klee-inspired project.  Because: books and paints.

Dale Chihuly sparked our creative fires for this Bakit & Makit project we were gifted (those little plastic pellets you melt in the oven).  We may buy more -- it turned out to be a dazzlingly-fun project!

I have never made a more fun sculpture than this Giacometti project.  The materials are so fun and easy to work with, and I think the aged metal effect is stunning.

Henri Matisse -- we had to go with his cut-outs this time.  Mixing up our artist exploration with scissors and Mod Podge was a must.  They make lovely tealight globes (battery-operated).

Good.
Better.
And a well-deserved rest under A Starry Night.

We read that although many believe that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel on his back, he actually painted while standing.  Linus didn't care one bit.  Laying down and drawing under the table was definitely the way to go.  That's cool; why not?

We painted, sprinkled, melted, shaped, snipped, taped, bent, sculpted, cut, blew up, glued, drew, and worked from a new angle.  And -- found two museums with some pretty famous works that we're heading out to see.

time + materials = inspiration

Puzzling

This summer the library set out a cart with a hand-written sign taped to it that read, "Take a puzzle, leave a puzzle."  Except that someone made a correction, adding a caret and inserting "or" after the comma.  In other words, a very informal puzzle "exchange."  As if we didn't love the library enough already!  

"Can we take one?!  Can we take one?!"  
Sure - we'll bring one back in tomorrow as our exchange.  Not that we needed to, of course.

After (very) thoughtful consideration, we picked the international birdhouses.  That was a very sweet way to spend the afternoon.  "Can we get another?!"  What, are they kidding me?!  I LOVE puzzles.  I've had just lukewarm success in convincing my family to make a sustained effort with me.  Now Linus wants to do all the puzzles in the playroom.  Which is great, because there are many, and I can scarcely justify their occupation of precious real estate when nobody does them!

(I guess I might as well be honest and admit that I used our new interest as an excuse to finally buy one of these puzzle tins from a favorite little store downtown.)

On one of our return puzzle cart trips, probably against my better judgement, I agreed to a much bigger, much more difficult puzzle.  It's okay, I reasoned with myself, I have a good idea for a puzzle-saver.

Made from supplies we had on hand, the puzzle-saver has worked well!  I cut a piece of felt the size of my table.  (The remaining piece will be transformed into Robin Hood's hat and shoes on Sunday!  And this is why I always say every house should never be without felt and pipe cleaners.)  I cut a pool noodle the length of the table (the short side).  And when we need to put the puzzle away for meals, we just roll it up and tie it with ribbons!

P.S. And if you take a mama to a museum that fall and her children say this is their favorite painting from the day, and it comes as a puzzle in a tin...

Art Together giveaway!

Amy at Amy Hood Arts is always doing something creative and artsy at her place.  She believes in the value of experimenting and creating, and she's a strong advocate for making art together with our children.  Which is exactly what she calls her art-focused e-zine: Art Together.

She's put together a brand new issue, and we were eager to check it out!  So that's what we did this week.  It is packed with goodies.  There is so much to read and do.  And do and do and do.  We've only scratched the surface this week.

Making even one of the projects, just made us want to make more and more of that project.  I've never made a collage like Amy's before.  She included prompts and a playful format that even a beginner like me could use to grow some new creative vision.  I'm hooked, for sure.  What a clever approach!

My girl who can't keep her nose out of a book for too long, chose Amy's book-making project.  I think this will be the Summer of Books in a whole new way this year.  I am brimming with ideas for how we'll use all the books I sense we'll be making.  They're beautiful, full of heART, and wide open for more exploration.

Amy has kindly offered to give a lucky Home With Heart reader a free copy of Art Together Summer 2014: Mixed Media/Collage!  This giveaway is open to anyone worldwide.
To enter simply leave a comment on this post by Saturday, June 21st.  The winner will be selected randomly and announced here on Sunday, June 22nd.
(Be sure to leave your email address so that you can receive your prize!)

You can purchase Art Together Summer 2014: Mixed Media/Collage, as well as previous issues, by visiting her website.
Use the code ARTPLAY to receive 20% off any Art Together purchase.  Offer expires July 31.

I know that Amy will leave you feeling inspired in a whole new way!  Grab your glue & scissors...


A winner has been chosen using a random number generator.
The winner is Karen!
Congratulations, Karen, and thank you to everyone for commenting!

Say it with Bones

Need a spooky art activity?

Community Art - WOW

Because I mentioned earlier that we participated in a great community art project, I want to share the results with you!  The original image (top picture) was divided into over a hundred sections. Participants were each given a sheet of paper that had mysterious blobs of color on it (with no idea of what the "big picture" looked like), and we were to reproduce is -- using anything at all.  And although we went traditional with ours -- oil pastels and watercolors -- the variety of materials used was fascinating: wool, magazines, embroidery floss, yarn (all below), glitter, fabric, found objects, shells, freeze-dried green beans (!).  The result was beautiful!

 

 

This is our contribution -- we matched up pretty well! 
I'm happy I stretched myself to try it -- that felt good.

home with heART

"Gold Day" at the museum

We're changing gears here, switching over from "summer" to "fall."  Because we take our time with most everything, it's a gradual process.  In the transition, I'm thinking about how we spent the summer.  And, you know, it was really, really lovely.  I think I always have a vision of what I want from summer.  I don't know that a lot of the pieces of that vision generally come to pass.  And -- that's really okay.  Each summer has a different flavor with different highlights.  But this year, I guess the stars were just aligned.  It was slow-paced (which I craved), but we did some things that were, well, just what our souls needed.  Book-ended by special trips, with camping in the middle, and all that glorious summer-themed reading I mentioned -- we also got art-y!

Our local museum threw open it's doors to families -- with a fascinating variety of entertainment, art & play activities, and featured art to make exploring the galleries just the right size for us.  It became our cherished weekly ritual.  And though I hadn't intended it, it gave our summer routine its' shape.

And, it made me more mindful to pull out (& keep out) art supplies again.  When Sela was small, there was a permanent art & writing area set up.  But as she grew, she outgrew this specific arrangement and things got put away -- because she would just get things out when she wanted them & we'd put them back into baskets, drawers, counters and cupboards when she was done.  And, for the materials that stayed out, it got to be that the legs of her tables and desks grew taller and taller (like the little table in Alice in Wonderland!).  Suddenly I realized that everything was up too high for Little Linus.

So, I'm trying to notice where I can shrink the legs on things again. And create these same fruitful areas for exploration for him -- so they're ready and waiting whenever it strikes him to draw or write or paint or cut or glue or squish or sticker or ...

Q-tips ("tiptoes," he calls them -- I love that he doesn't pause when he can't remember a word exactly, he just lets the closest thing he's heard come out and moves on) are very fun for little ones to paint with.  What else do I have lying around that we can use?  Marbles, toy car wheels, vegetables, packing bubbles, foam trays, the ends of cardboard tubes...

One project led to another -- all summer long.  We were inspired by Art & Max (if you haven't read, you really must), and we made string art one morning, using embroidery floss and a plate of glue.  Splatter painting was the follow-up request...

Sela and I participated in a local art center's community project.  We did our painting together, which was so much fun for me to share with her.  Our panel went up with over one hundred others to complete one large installation.

The kids picked up free canvases from our art store and the returned art was displayed in the store window.  We went by to check out our resident artist's "show" -- what a thrill!  (Linus decided to "only hang [his] at home.")

Do you have a local art scene?  I loved connecting with ours this summer!

This was our art haul from any given Friday,
from car to kitchen.

 

 

baby bok choy, 2 ways

We had baby bok choy for dinner.

Slice off the bottoms

We had baby bok choy for art.

Use paint for stamping on cards
Use pastels for leaves & notes

Lovely

Stir-fried bok choy with roasted peanuts
3 Tbsp peanuts
2 tsp roasted peanut oil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (too hot for Linus - probably reduce if serving to kids)
salt
1 1/2 lbs bok choy
2 Tbsp peanut oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 3 Tbsp water or stock
1 tsp roasted peanut oil

Fry the peanuts in 2 tsp roasted peanut oil until they're golden brown.  Chop with the pepper flakes and a few pinches of salt (if peanuts are unsalted) & set aside.

Slice off the bok choy stems and cut them into 1-inch pieces.  Leave the leaves whole.  Coat pan with up to 2 Tbsp peanut oil.  When hot, add the garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute.  Add the bok choy and a few pinches of salt and stir-fry until wilted and glossy.  Add the soy sauce and cornstarch and stir-fry for 1 or 2 minutes more or until the leaves are shiny and glazed.  Add the crush peanuts, toss and serve with rice or noodles.


adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

Rainbow Day

Have you checked out your local museum lately?

Here Comes Science Sampler: ROY G BIV

Today's Song:  ROY G BIV

First of all, Dress the Part (naturally).

Then... find something to do!

Read about it.

The Rainbow and You by E.C. Krupp
The Magic Schoolbus Makes a Rainbow by Cole
What Makes a Rainbow: A Magic Ribbon Book by Schwartz
A Rainbow of My Own by Freeman

Take your experiments outside. 
We used:
Exploratopia: More than 400 Kid-Friendly Experiments and Explorations for Curious Minds by Murphy

Barron's Science Wizardry for Kids
Experiments with Colors by Tocci

You can use whatever you have on your shelf, go to the library, or just use your favorite search engine for ideas.

Explore.

Discover.

Be amazed.

Play some games.

Start with Rainbow Sudoku

Make a rainbow maze.
(Try using drinking straws and 1-inch graph paper.)

Read some more.
A World of Colors: Seeing Colors in a New Way by National Geographic has us all WOW'd by its' simple and stunning exercises.

Be on the lookout for more related activites!

Have you ever noticed the rainbows on bubbles?

What else do you know about light and colors?

Ever been on a rainbow hunt?
How many creative ways can you play with color mixing?
Where would you hang a prism to make wondrous rainbows every day?

How about rainbow art?

How delicious can a rainbow be?

Just like the rainbow, there is *no end* to the possibilies.  There is, however,

...plenty of gold.

Falling Leaves

My creative energy has felt blocked, or somehow stuck, lately. Not the ideas or inspirations -- I would describe these as "overflowing." This isn't a good combination. Does this ever happen to you?

Needing a project for our handmade calendar, I found an activity that looked fun on the Art Projects for Kids blog, and I quickly gathered the supplies for the three of us before I could get distracted.

Good news: the movement in these pictures has restored my creative energy flow -- can you feel it, too? And just in time for Christmas crafting!

                                                                       

Happiness is

...a warm puppy.  Sharing his "polka-dot cookie."



"Stained Glass"

 The Charles Schultz Museum generously offered a Homeschool Day last week.  We've been wanting to go for years, and this year we finally did!  It was a great day trip.  They had art projects, a photo scavenger hunt, artists to talk with, an interesting visiting exhibit, so many interesting pieces about Charles Schultz and the Peanuts.  One artist was there painting a mural.  Signs said, "Do Not Disturb Artist," and they posted what he was drawing and painting.  It was incredible to watch.  There was ice skating and my kids loved the large Peanuts statues.

Peanuts cartoons were everywhere, and Sela couldn't get enough.  And what's not to love?  It combines three of her favorite things: reading, drawing, and silliness.  She picked as her souvenir from Snoopy's Gallery & Gift Shop her first book of comic strips.  The first of many, I think.  It's so exciting to watch kids discover something new and drink it up!

See you next year, Charlie Brown!