Meet the Masters - Kahlo

KM was a bit intrigued by the work of Frida Kahlo, because beyond her interest in her self-portraits, she liked to do still life pictures, which is one of KM's favorites as well.

Here is the one that she liked the best -

Here she is working diligently on her inspired pieces of art!

Meet the Masters - Degas

KM enjoyed learning about the rather unpleasant artist Degas this week. Her favorite piece of his work was the Dancing Class -

She said that she really liked the candid nature of the painting. Since she really does not like to paint or draw people she opted out of this week's project. Though she is working on a few pieces that focused on techniques that were mentioned such as asymmetrical composition and perspective. I will be sure to post anything that seems to have been inspired by Degas's work.

Great Creations -

I was reminded, by a very frequent reader, that I hadn't posted the outcome from our Day With Clay post...so sorry!...here is her masterpiece:

I love, love, love the texture choices that she made!

Glass Museum

Our homeschooling group went on a FANTASTIC field trip to an incredible glass museum today! KM had a great time and got picked to press the glass!

Scratch Art

After our Valentine post I got soooo many emails asking about the paper. Here is the best least expensive selection that I have found. I figured I would share some more of what has been done with it around here -

A Day with Clay

It doesn't get much better than a day with clay, a great teacher and friends!

The picture says it all....

Meet the Masters - Hokusai

This week we covered the life and work of Katsushika Hokusai. KM was very intrigued by the simplicity of this artists' works. Our favorite was The Great Wave -

She was also very intrigued by the stamps and created her own using the symbols for hearts and clouds - when combined would be translated to her heart is on a cloud, such an appropriate symbol for her -

We then made the Tempera Ink and tried out the methods that were outlined to make houses and bamboo trees.

KM is very excited to try some more of these methods on a larger scale this weekend - I will let you know how they turn out!

Meet the Masters - O'Keefe

We completed the unit on one of my favorite artists - Georgia O'Keefe this week. The image above is KM's favorite, which is entitled Red Canna and was painted in 1923.

We had a lot of fun trying out her techniques of shading, scaling and watercolors. Here are some examples of the works we did -

KM was a bit creeped out by the fact Georgia collected bones from the desert, but once we got past that fact, she seemed to really enjoy this unit!

African Tribal Hunting Masks

KM finished her Geography unit on Africa by creating an African Tribal Hunting Mask -

And then got silly traipsing around in it!

Meet the Masters - Homer

Homer did not inspire KM very much at all. She did complete the worksheets, but just really was not feeling the shading project that was assigned for this artist - she says she NEEDS color!

I don't blame her! So she will be passing on this one, though we may try our hand at block printing - another technique that they described in the unit. Hopefully the next unit will go over a bit better!

Homemade Holiday Gifts

KM worked very hard this year making lots of holiday gifts. I couldn't post pictures before hand because it would have ruined some suprises, but now that we have visited our last family stop I had to show off her craftiness.

At our co-op holiday party the kids made these great ornaments with plain glass ornaments and acrylic paint. KM immediately wanted to make them for all her grandparents and aunts. We all had fun doing this one.

KM has tried her hand at cross stitch before, but never really had the stamina to finish it.

She worked on this for quite some time and was very happy with the results:

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Modge Podge! KM does now too! We got some plain glass bowls from the dollar store, added some Modge Podge and tissue paper and here are the results -

I had to play with the lighting and such and these pics really don't do them justice, but I think you get the idea. It gives them almost a stain glass like look. They can be used for centerpieces, fruit bowls, candle holders or whatever. You can also do this on other glass surfaces or to cover up something else. KM has now been stockpiling things that she wants to decoupage for gifts!