Here comes the . . .

Well look at that, the sun is out! I am going to drop everything and finish that bridge. As you can see I've started a new painting in anticipation of the completion of the bridge painting. The orange is my new favorite, right next to my new favorite wardrobe color - jewel tone purple. Also, you'll note that the alley god's distant cousin and my new best friends, the loading-dock gods, have left me a gigantic new canvas just waiting for the next big idea. Thank you universe for making my day. 

Sketch books

A couple of weeks ago I went on a school tour with my second graders (and their sketchbooks) looking for different types of lines. We visited the music teacher and she had the most fun homemade curtains!

One of the students took a sketch of the lines she observed while looking at the curtains. 

I usually get bent out of shape over sun rays, don't ask why, but not these sun rays, they are inspired by the curtains! how can you not love this interpretation?

Versatile Bogger

Many thanks to Christie at Fine Lines for nominating me for "The Versatile Blogger" award! 

Take a look at her site, she's amazing!

5 Minute Museum: Abstract Sculpture

I'm glad you decided to join me for five minutes in the virtual museum. Let's take a look at two sculptors, or artists who create sculptures, named Fletcher Benton and Richard Hunt. I am partial to both of these artists because Richard Hunt is a Chicago native and Fletcher Benton is currently exhibiting in my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

First, take a look at the following images for a few quiet minutes and then we'll discuss:

Finished Rousseau

Here is a small sampling of the finished Landscape paintings in the style of Henri Rousseau.

When we talked about how to fit all of the animals (and one bug) into the painting we discussed depth and composition. 

Share + Create + Rousseau

To continue the Rousseau projects, I had the children work in groups. Each student had drawn one animal and they now needed a landscape in which the four animals could reside.

Rousseau

A few weeks ago my students and I began studying Henri Rousseau, specifically his jungle paintings, and paintings by other artists bearing similarity. We tackled this complex landscape painting by breaking it into two parts: figures and background. First though we sat and talked about what we were looking at and why we were seeing what we saw.